FORBIAS

RESEARCH ASSOCIATION FOR BIOANALOGICAL ASSISTANT SYSTEMS

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The association

In millions of years biological systems have developed effective principles for perception and control. Providing robustness against various kinds of noise and disturbances they are superior to technical systems so far. The sensor "eye" for example achieves great success by working close together with other sensors, in particular the sense of balance and actors like the ocular motor function. Sensors and actors are coupled by the information processing in the brain. By analysing biological systems in detail FORBIAS derives new principles for designing technical applications. Scientists of FORBIAS develop for instance a mobile measurement device for human eye movements (video-oculography) with the objective to control and stabilize a head mounted camera system: Human egomotion is already compensated in the measured gaze direction. Hence a video camera, controlled like that, achieves the same image stability as the human eye. A high performance gaze control system for the camera is herefor required. A camera, which records exactly what the human eye looks at, enables reporting in a spontaneous manner. It could serve as documentation for educational purpose, e.g. during surgeries. Psychological research can also benefit from accurate measurements of voluntary and involuntary human eye movements, e.g. for the evaluation of ergonomic design or advertising. Another major issue in FORBIAS is the construction of a vehicle camera system taking nature as model. In order to stabilize gaze, a technical sensor is developed to record the vehicular movements, equivalent to the human sense of balance. Such a vehicle camera will enhance robustness of driver assistance systems, e.g. automatic distance control. New fields of application could be gained with the vehicle camera and further functionalities could be implemented, thus providing additional safety and comfort in future automobiles.

Information

Launching date

01.2004

End

07.2007