When is scene identification just texture recognition?

Subjects were asked to identify scenes after very brief exposures (<70 ms). Their performance was always above chance and improved with exposure duration, confirming that subjects can get the gist of a scene with one fixation. We propose that a simple texture analysis of the image can provide a useful cue towards rapid scene identification. Our model learns texture features across scene categories and then uses this knowledge to identify new scenes. The texture analysis leads to similar identifications and confusions as subjects with limited processing time. We conclude that early scene identification can be explained with a simple texture recognition model. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.