The authors present a novel vector ridge detector which automatically finds the right scale of a ridge even in the presence of noise, multiple steps and narrow valleys. One of the key features of the ridge detector is that it has a zero response at discontinuities. The ridge detector can be applied both to scalar and vector quantities such as color. A parallel perceptual organization scheme that works without edges and is based on the ridge detector is also presented. In addition to perceptual groups, the scheme computes potential focus of attention points at which to direct future processing. The relation to human perception and several theoretical findings supporting the scheme are presented. Results of a Connection Machine implementation of the scheme are presented for perceptual organization using color.
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