Abstract: An active semiotic system creates implicit symbols and their alphabets from features, structural combination of features, objects and patters, creates models with explicit structures that are labeled with the implicit symbols, and derive other models in the same format via diagrammatic- and graph transformations. The active semiotic system treats vision as a part of a larger system that converts visual information into special knowledge structures that drive a vision process, resolve ambiguity and uncertainty via feedback projections, and provide image understanding that is an interpretation of visual information in terms of corresponding knowledge models. Mechanisms of image understanding, including mid- and high-level vision, are presented as methods and algorithms of the active semiotic system, where they are special kinds of diagrammatic and graph transformations.

Abstract: An active semiotic system that is able to create implicit symbols and their alphabets from features, structural combination of features, objects and, in general sense, patterns; create models with explicit structures that are labeled with said implicit symbols, and derive other models in the same format by means of diagrammatic- and graph transformations. The invention treats vision as a part of larger system that converts visual information into special knowledge structures that drive vision process, resolve ambiguity and uncertainty via feedback projections, and provide image understanding that is an interpretation of visual information in terms of such knowledge models. Mechanisms of image understanding, including mid- and high- level vision are presented as methods and algorithms of said active semiotic system, where they are special kinds of diagrammatic and graph transformations. In the invention, the derived structure and not the primary view is a subject for recognition.