Plenary Lecture

Live/Virtual Cognitive Systems Simulation

Professor Wolfgang Baer
Department of Information Science Code IS
Naval Postgraduate School
1 University Circle
Monterey, CA 93943
USA
E-mail: Baer@nps.edu

Abstract: Evidence from neuroscience, physics, and cognitive sciences suggest that conscious experience involves a feedback loop between the sensor plane and the memories that hold the explanation of those sensory experiences. If modeled as a loop in time the resulting event provides a basis for a Whitheadean interpretation of Quantum Theory that eliminates the vonNeuman division between the classic and quantum worlds.
I will discuss this interpretation and show how live cognitive systems, taking the role of observer, can treated on the same footing as the quantum systems they observe. This implies our personal every day cognitive experiences must be recognized as quantum phenomena in a new integrated world view that provides a theoretical basis for quantum computation in biological systems at room temperature.
I will then discuss the applications for the simulation of the sensor-memory feedback loop in conventional computer machinery. Though such an implementations only mimics cognitive operations they can provide a new class of image recognition and real world knowledge generation algorithms that are useful in cases where simple real world models are adequate. One such applications is encountered on top down earth models describing the explanation for sensor measurements from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Experiments conducted in support of the development of UAV vision systems will then be reviewed and the future for cognitive vision systems discussed.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Dr. Baer received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. He worked at Ford Aerospace as a mission analyst for meteorological and communication satellites before starting a company to develop computer graphics and simulation software. He now holds a research professor position at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey California, where he builds high-resolution real world databases into cognitive vision systems for unmanned aerial vehicles and teaches special classes in quantum information theory.