A unique multidisciplinary perspective on the problem of visual object categorization.

Handbook of Categorization in Cognitive Science, Second Edition presents the study of categories and the process of categorization as viewed through the lens of the founding disciplines of the cognitive sciences, and how the study of categorization has long been at the core of each of these disciplines. The literature on categorization reveals there is a plethora of definitions, theories, models and methods to apprehend this central object of study. The contributions in this handbook reflect this diversity. For example, the notion of category is not uniform across these contributions, and there are multiple definitions of the notion of concept. Furthermore, the study of category and categorization is approached differently within each discipline. For some authors, the categories themselves constitute the object of study, whereas for others, it is the process of categorization, and for others still, it is the technical manipulation of large chunks of information. Finally, yet another contrast has to do with the biological versus artificial nature of agents or categorizers. - Defines notions of category and categorization - Discusses the nature of categories: discrete, vague, or other - Explores the modality effects on categories - Bridges the category divide - calling attention to the bridges that have already been built, and avenues for further cross-fertilization between disciplines

Finnish architect Pekka Harni runs a design and architecture practice in Helsinki together with industrial designer Yuka Takahashi. Their collaboration results in a variety of work, of which this book on the classification of objects is just one part. Based on a morphological-functional consideration of the properties of household objects, the study proposes to organise the forms of artefacts, determine the significance of their parts and explain the relationships between objects and the environment, thus describing their most important basic properties while exploring the realm of functional form.

This article presents foundations, original research and trends in the field of object categorization by computer vision methods. The research goals in object categorization are to detect objects in images and to determine the object's categories. Categorization aims for the recognition of generic classes of objects, and thus has also been termed 'generic object recognition'. This is in contrast to the recognition of specific, individual objects. While humans are usually better in generic than in specific recognition, categorization is much harder to achieve for today's computer architectures.

This book covers a broad range of current research topics in category development. Its aim is to understand the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms that underlie category formation and how they change in developmental time. The chapters in this book are

This volume is a post-event proceedings volume and contains selected papers based on presentations given, and vivid discussions held, during two workshops held in Taormina in 2003 and 2004. The 30 thoroughly revised papers presented are organized in the following topical sections: recognition of specific objects, recognition of object categories, recognition of object categories with geometric relations, and joint recognition and segmentation.

Human beings experience a world of objects: bounded entities that occupy space and persist through time. Our actions are directed toward objects, and our language describes objects. We categorize objects into kinds that have different typical properties and behaviors. We regard some kinds of objects – each other, for example – as animate agents capable of independent experience and action, while we regard other kinds of objects as inert. We re-identify objects, immediately and without conscious deliberation, after days or even years of non-observation, and often following changes in the features, locations, or contexts of the objects being re-identified. Comparative, developmental and adult observations using a variety of approaches and methods have yielded a detailed understanding of object detection and recognition by the visual system and an advancing understanding of haptic and auditory information processing. Many fundamental questions, however, remain unanswered. What, for example, physically constitutes an “object”? How do specific, classically-characterizable object boundaries emerge from the physical dynamics described by quantum theory, and can this emergence process be described independently of any assumptions regarding the perceptual capabilities of observers? How are visual motion and feature information combined to create object information? How are the object trajectories that indicate persistence to human observers implemented, and how are these trajectory representations bound to feature representations? How, for example, are point-light walkers recognized as single objects? How are conflicts between trajectory-driven and feature-driven identifications of objects resolved, for example in multiple-object tracking situations? Are there separate “what” and “where” processing streams for haptic and auditory perception? Are there haptic and/or auditory equivalents of the visual object file? Are there equivalents of the visual object token? How are object-identification conflicts between different perceptual systems resolved? Is the common assumption that “persistent object” is a fundamental innate category justified? How does the ability to identify and categorize objects relate to the ability to name and describe them using language? How are features that an individual object had in the past but does not have currently represented? How are categorical constraints on how objects move or act represented, and how do such constraints influence categorization and the re-identification of individuals? How do human beings re-identify objects, including each other, as persistent individuals across changes in location, context and features, even after gaps in observation lasting months or years? How do human capabilities for object categorization and re-identification over time relate to those of other species, and how do human infants develop these capabilities? What can modeling approaches such as cognitive robotics tell us about the answers to these questions? Primary research reports, reviews, and hypothesis and theory papers addressing questions relevant to the understanding of perceptual object segmentation, categorization and individual identification at any scale and from any experimental or modeling perspective are solicited for this Research Topic. Papers that review particular sets of issues from multiple disciplinary perspectives or that advance integrative hypotheses or models that take data from multiple experimental approaches into account are especially encouraged.