# Perception Module

The **Perception** module is a fundamental component of the AI system, responsible for acquiring, processing, and interpreting sensory data from various modalities. It enables the AI to perceive and understand its environment by handling inputs such as audio, images, video, touch, text, multimodal data, and proprioception. The module is designed to be modular, scalable, and maintainable, ensuring seamless integration with other system components.

## Submodules Overview

### 1. Perception System

**Location:** `perception/perception_system.py`

**Role:**  
The **Perception System** serves as the central orchestrator within the Perception module. It aggregates sensory inputs from various modalities using a unified `Stimulus` representation, manages the flow of data through preprocessing and feature extraction, and ensures that processed information is available for downstream cognitive processes.

**Key Responsibilities:**

- **Signal Collection:** Collects raw signals from each sensory modality.
- **Stimulus Aggregation:** Uses the `Stimulus` class to represent and aggregate different sensory inputs uniformly.
- **Data Management:** Coordinates preprocessing and feature extraction performed by each modality.

### 2. Audio

**Location:** `perception/audio/`

**Role:**  
Handles the acquisition and processing of audio signals. This submodule captures sound data, preprocesses it (e.g., noise reduction), and extracts relevant audio features for further analysis.

**Key Responsibilities:**

- **Signal Acquisition:** Captures raw audio data from microphones or audio files.
- **Preprocessing:** Cleans and normalizes audio signals.
- **Feature Extraction:** Extracts features like MFCCs (Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients) for analysis.

### 3. Image

**Location:** `perception/image/`

**Role:**  
Manages the capture and processing of visual data. This submodule handles image acquisition, preprocessing tasks such as resizing and normalization, and feature extraction using techniques like convolutional neural networks (CNNs).

**Key Responsibilities:**

- **Signal Acquisition:** Captures images from cameras or image files.
- **Preprocessing:** Resizes, crops, and normalizes images.
- **Feature Extraction:** Extracts visual features for recognition and analysis.

### 4. Video

**Location:** `perception/video/`

**Role:**  
Processes video streams by handling frame extraction, temporal preprocessing, and feature extraction. This submodule enables the AI to interpret dynamic visual information over time.

**Key Responsibilities:**

- **Signal Acquisition:** Captures video streams from cameras or video files.
- **Preprocessing:** Extracts frames and performs temporal smoothing.
- **Feature Extraction:** Analyzes motion and changes across frames.

### 5. Touch

**Location:** `perception/touch/`

**Role:**  
Handles tactile data acquisition and processing. This submodule processes input from touch sensors, enabling the AI to perceive physical interactions and textures.

**Key Responsibilities:**

- **Signal Acquisition:** Captures data from touch sensors or haptic devices.
- **Preprocessing:** Filters and calibrates tactile signals.
- **Feature Extraction:** Identifies patterns related to pressure, texture, and force.

### 6. Text

**Location:** `perception/text/`

**Role:**  
Manages the processing of textual data. This submodule handles text acquisition, preprocessing tasks like tokenization and normalization, and feature extraction using natural language processing (NLP) techniques.

**Key Responsibilities:**

- **Signal Acquisition:** Receives text inputs from keyboards, speech-to-text systems, or text files.
- **Preprocessing:** Cleans and tokenizes text data.
- **Feature Extraction:** Extracts linguistic features for understanding and analysis.

### 7. Multimodal

**Location:** `perception/multimodal/`

**Role:**  
Integrates data from multiple sensory modalities to provide a comprehensive understanding of the environment. This submodule handles sensor fusion and coordinated feature extraction across different data types.

**Key Responsibilities:**

- **Sensor Fusion:** Combines data from various modalities for enhanced perception.
- **Coordinated Processing:** Ensures synchronized preprocessing and feature extraction across modalities.
- **Unified Representation:** Maintains a cohesive view of the environment by integrating multimodal data.

### 8. Proprioception

**Location:** `perception/proprioception/`

**Role:**  
Handles internal sensing related to the AI's own state, such as position, orientation, and movement. This submodule enables the AI to be aware of its own actions and physical state.

**Key Responsibilities:**

- **State Acquisition:** Captures data related to the AI's internal state (e.g., joint angles, velocity).
- **Preprocessing:** Calibrates and normalizes proprioceptive data.
- **Feature Extraction:** Extracts features relevant to the AI's movement and orientation.

### 9. Stimuli

**Location:** `perception/stimuli.py`

**Role:**  
Defines a unified `Stimulus` class to represent and aggregate sensory inputs from different modalities. This central representation facilitates consistent data handling and communication within the perception system.

**Key Responsibilities:**

- **Unified Representation:** Provides a standardized format for all sensory inputs.
- **Data Aggregation:** Combines inputs from various modalities into cohesive stimuli objects.
- **Metadata Management:** Stores contextual information alongside sensory data.

## Integration and Workflow

The **Perception System** orchestrates the flow of sensory data through the following steps:

1. **Signal Acquisition:** Each modality (e.g., Audio, Image) captures raw sensory data.
2. **Stimulus Representation:** Raw signals are encapsulated into `Stimulus` objects, providing a unified representation.
3. **Preprocessing and Feature Extraction:** Each modality preprocesses its raw data and extracts relevant features independently.
4. **Data Aggregation:** Processed stimuli are aggregated within the perception system for use by other system components (e.g., Cognition module).
5. **Continuous Processing:** The system operates in a loop, continuously acquiring and processing new sensory data.

## Conclusion

The **Perception** module's modular design ensures that the AI system can effectively acquire and interpret diverse sensory inputs. By utilizing a unified `Stimulus` representation and delegating preprocessing and feature extraction to individual modalities, the system achieves scalability, maintainability, and flexibility. This robust perception framework lays the foundation for advanced cognitive functions and intelligent interactions within the AI system.

---
*© 2024 Bang Liu - All Rights Reserved. This source code is licensed under the license found in the LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.*