Connectionists: Bio-inspired model of vergence eye movements

[Agostino Gibaldi]

Dear Colleagues,

it is our pleasure to announce the release of a software that implements 
a bio-inspired model for the control of vergence eye movements.

http://www.pspc.unige.it/Code/index.html

The software can be used in for different purposes:
- as test-bed for the study of vergence eye movements,
- as a teaching tool to show vergence behaviour and its implications,
- for the binocular coordination of a robotic stereo head.

The the robustness ad adaptivity of the bio-inspired approach allows a 
control that is easily portable on stereo head with different kinematic 
characteristics, and that is robust to mechanical imprecision, as well 
as to changeable and unpredictable lighting condition of real environments.

Features of the algorithm:
- Effective alignment of the eyes/cameras in the 3D space (error < 0.2 deg)
- Control of both horizontal and vertical alignment of the eyes/cameras
- Easy portability on binocular robotic platforms with different geometries
- Real-time performance
- Software developed in C/C++ with OpenCV 3.3.1
- Compiled in Visual Studio 2012, Windows 10
- Portable to other IDEs (e.g., MinGW) and operative systems (e.g., Linux)


The source code is provided with an application example that loads a 
stereo pair from the Genoa Pesto Database 
(http://www.pspc.unige.it/genuapesto/index.html).
In the demo, the stereo pair is shown in anaglyph mode, and the robot 
fixation is simulated by the user clicking with the mouse cursor on the 
desired fixation point.
The vergence control is then computed at fixation and vergence eye 
movements are simulated shifting the images proportionally to the control.
If the control is working properly, the anaglyph at fixation. image 
turns to gray scale

For a video of the demo click here: https://youtu.be/k6yDMyht184
For a video of the algorithm working on a iCub stereo head click here: 
https://youtu.be/viO-SMzpHxo

Future work will be:
- Embed the control in a script to work in the iCub Simulator
- Port the code in Python

For questions, comments or suggestions you can reach the authors.


Best regards,

     Agostino Gibaldi
         Mauricio Vanegas
             Andrea Canessa
                 Silvio P. Sabatini





Reference publications:
Gibaldi, A., Vanegas, M., Canessa, A., & Sabatini, S. P. (2017).
A portable bio-inspired architecture for efficient robotic vergence 
control.
International Journal of Computer Vision, 121(2), 281-302.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11263-016-0936-z

Gibaldi, A., Canessa, A., Chessa, M., Sabatini, S. P., & Solari, F. 
(2011, October).
A neuromorphic control module for real-time vergence eye movements on 
the iCub robot head.
In Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2011 11th IEEE-RAS International 
Conference on (pp. 543-550).
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6100861/

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 

%%%%         A Portable Bio-Inspired Architecture for
%%%%           Efficient Robotic Vergence Control
%%%%
%%%%
%%%%     Copyright (c) Sep. 2017
%%%%     All rights reserved.
%%%%
%%%%     Authors: Agostino Gibaldi, Andrea Canessa, Silvio P. Sabatini
%%%%
%%%%     PSPC-lab - Department of Informatics, Bioengineering,
%%%%     Robotics and Systems Engineering - University of Genoa
%%%%
%%%%     The code is released for free use for SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ONLY.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 

%
%    Permission to use, copy, or modify this software and its documentation
%    for educational and research purposes only and without fee is hereby
%    granted, provided that this copyright notice and the original authors'
%    names appear on all copies and supporting documentation. This program
%    shall not be used, rewritten, or adapted as the basis of a commercial
%    software or hardware product without first obtaining permission of the
%    authors. The authors make no representations about the suitability of
%    this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express
%    or implied warranty.
%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 

%
%    This software serves for the control of binocular coordination of
%       eye movements on a robotic stereo head
%
%    CREDITS:
%    Gibaldi, A., Vanegas, M., Canessa, A., & Sabatini, S. P. (2017).
%    A portable bio-inspired architecture for efficient robotic vergence
%    control. International Journal of Computer Vision, 121(2), 281-302.
%
%    Gibaldi, A., Canessa, A., Chessa, M., Sabatini, S. P., & Solari, F.
%     (2011, October). A neuromorphic control module for real-time vergence
%    eye movements on the iCub robot head. In Humanoid Robots (Humanoids),
%    2011 11th IEEE-RAS International Conference on (pp. 543-550). IEEE.
%
%     Kindly report any suggestions or corrections to
% agostino.gibaldi at gmail.com
% 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 



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