paper: ANN Based Task-Specific Focus of Attention

[Shumeet Baluja]

Title:
Using the Representation in a Neural Network's Hidden Layer for
Task-Specific Focus of Attention


By:
Shumeet Baluja and Dean Pomerleau



Abstract:
In many real-world tasks, the ability to focus attention on the
important features of the input is crucial for good performance. In
this paper a mechanism for achieving task-specific focus of attention
is presented. A saliency map, which is based upon a computed
expectation of the contents of the inputs at the next time step,
indicates which regions of the input retina are important for
performing the task. The saliency map can be used to accentuate the
features which are important, and de-emphasize those which are not.
The performance of this method is demonstrated on a real-world
robotics task: autonomous road following. The applicability of this
method is also demonstrated in a non-visual domain. Architectural and
algorithmic details are provided, as well as empirical results.


This paper will appear in IJCAI 95. 



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