The Active Perception Laboratory is equipped with extensive computational
and experimental facilities. Some of the tools present in the laboratory are listed below.
J5 is a binocular pan/tilt system specifically designed to replicate human eye movements.
Two mobile cameras, each with two degrees of freedom, are controlled by microprocessors with high spatial and temporal resolutions. The spatial precision of movement is higher than 1 arcmin.
Cameras provide input to a high-performance frame grabber with real-time image processing capabilities.
Two mobile cameras, each with two degrees of freedom, are controlled by microprocessors with high spatial and temporal resolutions. The spatial precision of movement is higher than 1 arcmin.
Cameras provide input to a high-performance frame grabber with real-time image processing capabilities.
Mr. T Mr. T is the latest version of a humanoid platform, built as part of our ongoing effort of coupling computational models of the brain with behaving automata.
Like J5, the head/eye system of this robot was designed to replicate the visual input signals to the retina. This system is the result of trade-off considerations between velocity and precision, in order to accurately replicate retinal image motion during fast macroscopic saccades and during fixational eye movements.
Mr. T is equipped with two anthropomorphic arms, each with 5 degrees of freedom.
Click here for Mr. T's birth photo gallery.
The Active Perception Laboratory possesses extensive psychophysical facilities, which include the following:
- A Generation 6 Dual Purkinje Image (DPI) eyetracker (by Fourward Technologies), a device that allows measurement of eye movement with high spatial and temporal resolution.
- Dedicated video hardware for the generation and real-time manipulation of visual stimuli, including a (VSG2/5 board by Cambridge Research Systems).
- Dedicated computers and high-quality monitors for stimulus display.
- EyeRIS (Eye movement Real-time Integrated System), a in-house developed system for gaze-contingent display control. This hardware and software system allows flexible real-time modification of the stimulus according to subject's eye movements with refresh rates up to 200Hz.
- A stimulus deflector, an optico-electronic device for retinal stabilization. This system uses a set of mirrors to translate the image according to the subject's eye movements and maintain the stimulus at a fixed location on the retina.
The computational facilities of the Active Perception Laboratory are designed to enable the execution
of large-scale simulations of neuronal models.
Computational facilities are organized in a multi-node cluster in Beowulf configuration
with fast local networking, data sharing, and local system backup. In addition to numerous
personal computers, the Active Perception Laboratory features a cluster
(by Rocketcalc Inc.)
with the following key features:
- Four node, each with dual Intel Xeon 1.8Ghz processors
- Up to 4GB Registered ECC DDR 266MHz SDRAM per node
- Dual Intel PRO/1000 gigabit ethernet per node
- Internal ATA 120GB storage
