Combining multiple cues for texture edge localization

A visual feature such as an edge may be signalled by one of any number of visual cues such as modulation of brightness, color, stereo disparity, motion, texture and so on. Here, a theory is reviewed which suggests that when more than one cue is available, separate location estimates are made using each cue, and the resulting estimates are averaged. Cues which are more reliable are given a correspondingly larger weight in the average. A psychophysical paradigm (perturbation analysis) is described for testing whether the theory applies and estimating its parameters. Preliminary results are described for localization of texture edges signalled by changes in contrast, local texture orientation and local texture scale. The data are consistent with the theory: In the data, individual cues appear to be averaged and more reliable cues are given more weight.