The role of human visual models in image processing

The mechanisms are discussed by which the human eye forms a neural image of the outside world for transmission along the optic nerve. Mathematical models of these mechanisms which can be exploited for engineering purposes are presented and their usefulness and limitatious are discussed. Three areas in which human vision models have been successfully applied are image bandwidth compression, image quality assessment, and image enhancement; results from these areas are summarized and some example results are given. Some future directions are suggested.