RESEARCH INTERESTS
Behavioral and computational modeling of what guides human visual attention – how do we decide where to look next based on reward incentives and sensory information (visual saliency, knowledge of display statistics)? I study these questions using a combination of experimental (psychophysics, eye tracking) and theoretical/modeling techniques (signal detection theory, Bayesian theory, neurally plausible algorithms).
EDUCATION
| Postdoctoral scholar, Division of Biology | Jan 2007-current |
| Caltech, Pasadena, CA | |
| Advisors: Dr. Christof Koch, Dr. Pietro Perona | |
| Ph.D, Computer Science | Fall 2001-Fall 2006 |
| University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA | |
| Advisor: Dr. Laurent Itti | |
| B.Tech, Computer Science | Summer 2001 |
| Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India |
EXPERIENCE
| Research assistant, CS, USC | Summer 2002-Fall 2006 |
| Teaching assistant, CS, USC | Fall 2004-Spring 2006, Fall 2001-Spring 2001 |
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
V. Navalpakkam, C. Koch, P. Perona, Homo economicus in visual search, In press: Journal of Vision.
V. Navalpakkam, L. Itti, Search goal tunes visual features optimally, In: Neuron, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 605-617, Feb 2007. See preview entitled Paying Attention to Neurons with Discriminating Taste by A. Pouget and D. Bavelier, In: Neuron, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 473-475, Feb 2007. See Faculty of 1000 Biology evaluation
V. Navalpakkam, L. Itti, Top-down Attention Selection is Fine-grained, In: Journal of Vision, Vol. 6, No. 11, pp. 1180-1193, Oct 2006.
V. Navalpakkam, L. Itti, An Integrated Model of Top-down and Bottom-up Attention for Optimal Object Detection, In: IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2006.
V. Navalpakkam, L. Itti, Optimal cue selection strategy, In: Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2005.
V. Navalpakkam, M. A. Arbib, L. Itti, Attention and Scene Understanding, In: Neurobiology of Attention, (L. Itti, G. Rees, J. K. Tsotsos Ed.), pp. 197-203, San Diego, CA:Elsevier, 2005.
V. Navalpakkam, L. Itti, Modeling the influence of task on attention, Vision Research, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 205-231, 2005.
SELECTED TALKS
Homo Economicus in Visual Search: Vision Science Society, May 2008; Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, Apr 2008.
Search goal tunes visual features optimally: Harvard Medical School, Feb 2008; Salk Institute, La Jolla, Dec 2007; Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, Jul 2007.
Optimality of visual search behavior, In: Joint Symposium of Neural Computation (JSNC), May 2007.
A theory of optimal feature gain modulation during visual search, In: Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne), March 2006.
Modeling the influence of target and distractor knowledge on visual search, In: Proc. Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting (SFN), Oct 2004.
Towards a Unified Model of Attention and Recognition, In: Proc. Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting (SFN), Nov 2003.
A Goal Oriented Attention Guidance Model, Biologically Motivated Computer Vision (BMCV), Nov 2002.
HONORS/SERVICE
| Co-wrote NSF grant (funded) titled, How do reward and salience combine to influence attention and sensory-economic decision making? A behavioral and computational study. | Sep 2008-2011 |
| Co-organizer, workshop on Mechanisms of visual attention: a critical appraisal at NIPS, Whistler, Canada | Fall 2007 |
| Program Committee member, WAPCV (Workshop on Attention Performance and Computer Vision) | 2007, 2008 |
| Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) Merit Fellowship, University of Southern California | Fall 2006 |
| Organizer, symposium on Integrating Top-down and Bottom-Up Visual Attention at the annual Vision Science Society (VSS 2006) conference at Sarasota, Florida | Summer 2006 |
| Student travel fellowship for VSS 2006 | Spring 2006 |
| Reviewer: Journal of Computational Neuroscience, Journal of Vision, Perception & Psychophysics, Vision Research | 2007, 2008 |
REFERENCE
Prof. Christof Koch, koch AT klab.caltech.edu
Prof. Pietro Perona, perona AT caltech.edu
Prof. Laurent Itti, itti AT usc.edu
Prof. Michael Arbib, arbib AT usc.edu