Image analysis for advertisement purposes - A computational model of visual perception

The present contribution describes a new procedure to evaluate the optical conspicuousness of advertisement boards in a natural environment. The object of this procedure is the computer-aided positioning of advertisements as well as optimizing the layout of individual boards or posters. For this purpose the scenario to be examined within a modelling process is first geometrically described. The geometric models thus created contain additional attributes such as color and luminance at calibrated illumination. A ray casting process then creates an image of the board to be evaluated and of its environment from an observer position to be analyzed. To evaluate the optical conspicuousness a two-pass-model of the human visual systems is presented, modelling the retina by way of isotropic Laplace-filters and simple cells of the visual cortex by anisotropic edge extractors and Fourier transform. The image analysis giving a quantitative measure for optical conspicuousness is carried out on the i mage presentations appearing in the individual model phases. The method of the procedure here described is documented with first examples and can be compared with classical methods of eye-tracking in psychology of advertising.