Retinotopy and selective visual attention in humans and computers

Selective visual attention is a fascinating mechanism of the human brain that is essential to solve the difficult visual search problem. In this paper we first review the recent neurological findings that establish the presence and functional properties of detailed spatial representations beyond early visual cortex and investigate the role of attention on these retinotopic representations. Then we survey the computer vision literature to show how visual selective attention is incorporated into algorithms and models of visual search.