<title>Purposive recognition: an active and qualitative approach</title>

Abstract

We propose an alternative way to study the problem of visual recognition which is closer to the spirit emerging from Brooks' work on building robots than to Marr's reconstructive approach. Our theory is purposive in the sense that recognition is considered in the context of an agent performing it in an environment, along with the agent's intentions that translate into a set of behaviors; it is qualitative in the sense that only partial recovery is needed; it is active in the sense that various partial recovery tasks need for recognition are achieved through active vision; and it is opportunistic in the sense that every available cue is used.