Ventral-dorsal neural networks: object detection via selective attention

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for causing at least one computer system to detect objects within a visual medium, the instructions comprising:

• receiving the visual medium comprising one or more objects;
• identifying, using a first neural network, one or more irrelevant visual regions within the visual medium;
• generating, based on the one or more irrelevant visual regions, a visual mask to be applied to the visual medium;
• applying the visual mask to the visual medium to generate a masked visual medium, wherein applying the visual mask to the visual medium causes the one or more irrelevant visual regions to be filtered out from the visual medium;
• identifying, using a second neural network, one or more objects of interest within the masked visual medium;
• and
• outputting an identification of the one or more objects of interest.

A system for detecting objects within a visual medium, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• a memory coupled with the one or more processors, the memory configured to store instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
• receiving the visual medium comprising one or more objects;
• identifying, using a first neural network, one or more irrelevant visual regions within the visual medium;
• generating, based on the one or more irrelevant visual regions, a visual mask to be applied to the visual medium;
• applying the visual mask to the visual medium to generate a masked visual medium, wherein applying the visual mask to the visual medium causes the one or more irrelevant visual regions to be filtered out from the visual medium;
• identifying, using a second neural network, one or more objects of interest within the masked visual medium;
• and
• outputting an identification of the one or more objects of interest.