Visual shape computation

Perceptual processes responsible for computing shape from several cues, including shading, texture, contour, and stereo, are examined. It is noted that these computational problems, as well as that of computing shaping from motion, are ill-posed in the sense of Hadamard. It is suggested that regularization theory can be used along with a priori knowledge to restrict the space of possible solutions, and thus restore the problem´s well-prosedness. Some alternative methods are outlined, and the idea of active vision is explored briefly in connection with the problem