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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Linton, Paul
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.14193
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author Linton, Paul
author_facet Linton, Paul
contents Human 3D vision involves two distinct stages: an Experience Module, where stereo depth is extracted relative to fixation, and an Inference Module, where this experience is interpreted to estimate 3D scene properties. Paradoxically, although our experience of stereo vision does not provide us with distance information, it does affect our inferences about visual scale. We propose the Inference Module exploits a natural scene statistic: near scenes produce vivid disparity gradients, while far scenes appear comparatively flat. QualiaNet implements this two-stage architecture computationally: disparity maps simulating human stereo experience are passed to a CNN trained to estimate distance. The network can recover distance from disparity gradients alone, validating this approach.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_14193
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle QualiaNet: An Experience-Before-Inference Network
Linton, Paul
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Image and Video Processing
Neurons and Cognition
Human 3D vision involves two distinct stages: an Experience Module, where stereo depth is extracted relative to fixation, and an Inference Module, where this experience is interpreted to estimate 3D scene properties. Paradoxically, although our experience of stereo vision does not provide us with distance information, it does affect our inferences about visual scale. We propose the Inference Module exploits a natural scene statistic: near scenes produce vivid disparity gradients, while far scenes appear comparatively flat. QualiaNet implements this two-stage architecture computationally: disparity maps simulating human stereo experience are passed to a CNN trained to estimate distance. The network can recover distance from disparity gradients alone, validating this approach.
title QualiaNet: An Experience-Before-Inference Network
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Image and Video Processing
Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.14193