The Lab Story

The Laboratory for Active and Attentive Vision (LAAV) has its roots in the original Computer Vision Laboratory at the University of Toronto founded by John Tsotsos in 1980. In those years it was part of the Artificial Intelligence Group in the Department of Computer Science. There, Tsotsos also founded the Technical Report Series: Research in Biological and Computational Vision (1984 – 1996). In January 2000, Tsotsos moved to York University to take up the Directorship of the Centre for Vision Research and a portion of that lab followed him. The history of the current lab thus goes back to 1980 and includes a significant number of students, post-docs and publications from the pre-York era.

At York, the Laboratory for Active and Attentive Vision is situated within the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the Lassonde Scholl of Engineering. It is also one of the many labs in the much larger Centre for Vision Research (cvr.yorku.ca) and in the new Centre for Innovation in Compuoting at Lassonde (http://ical.lassonde.yorku.ca/). With a rich set of international collaborators, and a well-equipped infrastructure the lab is an exciting research focus for interdisciplinary research on a variety of vision topics within seven themes: Computational Neuroscience, Vision, Visually Guided Robotics, Computer Vision, Visual Attention, Cognitive Architectures and Human Vision and Visual Behaviour. The Venn diagram below shows the breadth of projects within these themes.


Research Areas

Click on subtopics to view current active projects.

Active Recognition Autonomous Vehicles Binocular Heads Complexity Spatial Cognition Visual Search Attention Control Cognitive Programs Development Eye Movements Learning by Composition and Exploration Selective Tuning Shape Vision Architecture Visual Working Memory Biomedical Applications Saliency Navigation Motion Colour

Recent News

  • Publications – 2001

    J. K. Tsotsos, Complexity, Vision and Attention, Vision and Attention, ed. by L. Harris and M. Jenkin, Springer-Verlag New York, p105 – 128, 2001.​ J. K. Tsotsos, S. Culhane, F. Cutzu, From Theoretical Foundations to a Hierarchical Circuit for Selective Attention, Visual Attention and Cortical Circuits, p. 285 – 306, ed. by J. Braun, C. […]

    By tech | March 6, 2023

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  • Publications – 2002

    A. L. Rothenstein, A Mission Plan Specification Language For Behaviour-Based Robots, MSc Thesis, University of Toronto, 2002. A. L. Rothenstein, J. C. Martinez-Trujillo, S. Treue, J. K. Tsotsos and H. R. Wilson, Modeling Attentional Effects in Cortical Areas MT and MST of the Macaque Monkey through Feedback Loops, SFN 2002. E. Simine, J. C. Martinez-Trujillo, […]

    By tech | March 6, 2023

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  • Publications – 2003

    A. J. Rodriguez-Sanchez, D. O. Cheyne, J. K. Tsotsos and J. C. Martinez-Trujillo, Speed Gradient Information Influences Optical Flow Processing in Human Observers ​A. J. Rodriguez-Sanchez, J. K. Tsotsos and J. C. Martinez-Trujillo, Velocity Gradient Information Influences Optical Flow Processing In Human Observers A. M. Rotenstein, A. L. Rothenstein and J. K. Tsotsos, “Mission-Directed Behaviour-Based […]

    By tech | March 6, 2023

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  • Publications – 2004

    A. J. Rodriguez-Sanchez, J. K. Tsotsos and J. C. Martinez-Trujillo, Velocity Gradient Information Influences Optical Flow Processing in Human Observers, VSS, 2004 A. L. Rothenstein, A. Zaharescu and J. K. Tsotsos, A General Purpose Neural Network Simulator for Visual Attention Modeling, WAPCV 2004 A. L. Rothenstein, A. Zaharescu and J. K. Tsotsos, TarzaNN: A General […]

    By tech | March 6, 2023

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