Multiple stages of motion processing

光流运动处理是日常生活的基础。为了获得重要的环境信息的观众，将允许她/他适当地作出反应，视觉系统需要提取和区分不同的模式的光流运动信号的环境。例如，移动对象的系统变换是用于重建对象的三维表面的最强大的来源之一。在国家科学基金会的支持下，Takeo Watanabe博士的研究旨在从运动处理的全球框架中了解不同类型的运动信号如何在大脑中相互关联。这项研究将使用心理物理学和功能磁共振成像技术进行，渡边博士将系统地测量不同类型运动的大脑活动，并了解它们之间的关系。该项目的更广泛影响包括教育和医疗进步，驾驶员和飞行员导航技能的提高，以及人工智能/机器人技术的增强。教育效益将包括培训研究生和本科生使用方法和技术。该研究也有可能直接应用于神经外科的临床研究，为科学知识做出贡献，从而开发出用于改善脑部疾病或病变诊断和治疗的医疗工具。这项研究还可以提供重要的知识，以提高驾驶员和飞行员的导航技能。最后，构建具有人工智能能力的机器人，以有效地检测和利用运动信息，将有利于民用/医疗和军事领域。

Optical flow motion processing is fundamental to everyday life. In order to obtain important environmental information to the viewer that will allow her/him to react appropriately, the visual system needs to extract and differentiate different patterns of optical flow motion signals from the environment. For example, systematic transformation of moving objects is one of the most powerful sources for reconstructing the 3-dimensional surfaces of the objects. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Takeo Watanabe's research aims at understanding how different types of motion signals are related to each other in the brain from a global framework of motion processing. The research will be conducted using psychophysics and fMRI in which Dr. Watanabe will systematically measure brain activity with different types of motion and can learn how they are related to each other. Broader impacts of the project include educational and medical advances, improved navigational skills of drivers and pilots, and enhanced artificial intelligence/robotics. Educational benefits will include the training of graduate and undergraduate students in use of the methodology and technology. The research also has the potential to be directly applied to clinical research in neurosurgery by contributing to scientific knowledge leading to development of medical tools for improved diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders or lesions. The research can also provide important knowledge to enhance the navigation skills of drivers and pilots. Finally, construction of robots with the artificial intellectual power to effectively detect and utilize motion information would be of benefit to both the civilian/medical and military fields.