fly_lgmd_eta — FLYVISION looming op

Data kinds: signalsignal

Call: import fullseye as fs; fs.ledger.fly_lgmd_eta(theta_signal, dt_s, alpha=4.7, delay_s=0.0) (to call the implementation directly, import flyvision; flyvision.fly_lgmd_eta(theta_signal, dt_s, alpha=4.7, delay_s=0.0); from the registry, opsflyvision.get("fly_lgmd_eta"))

Usage

LGMD/eta looming response from an expanding subtended angle.

The multiplicative looming model::

eta(t) = theta'(t - delay) * exp(-alpha * theta(t - delay))

where *theta_signal* is the object's full subtended angle over time, in

radians. The product of the angular expansion rate and an exponentially

decaying gain gives a response that peaks a fixed time before collision.

theta_signal: the full subtended angle per sample, radians.

dt_s: the sample interval, seconds.

alpha: the gain-decay constant.

delay_s: a fixed neural delay, seconds.

Returns a 1-D float64 array `eta(t)` of the same length.

Ground truth: for an object of half-size `l approaching at speed |v|`,

`eta peaks at a time-to-contact of alpha*l/|v| - delay_s` (Gabbiani et

al. Eq. 5), where the subtended angle is exactly `2*atan(1/alpha)` (Eq. 6;

24.0 degrees for `alpha = 4.7`) — both pinned in the tests.

Raises `ValueError`: a non-1-D / empty / too-short (< 3) / non-finite

*theta_signal*, a signal over :data:MAX_SIGNAL_POINTS, a non-positive *dt_s*

/ *alpha*, and a negative *delay_s*.

References (sample data, literature)

• Sample-data catalog (download URLs / licences) — 2-D uses skimage.data (BSD/public domain) plus synthetic images; 3-D lists download URLs for real data sources (Stanford, PDS, …).

• Operator provenance and references — the sources of the research/methods this op family came from.

• The canonical algorithm (author, year) and its uses are named in the family usage guide above.

Runnable examples (verified samples that actually call this op)

poc_fly_visionpy -3.11 examples/poc_fly_vision.py

Ops the type connects to (they accept signal as input)

fly_emd_response · fly_tau_from_expansion · fly_dsi

Same category (looming)

fly_tau_from_expansion


*Provenance: flyvision.py — FLYVISION operator registry. This per-op note is generated by tools/opdocs.py md (do not hand-edit).*

© 2026 Kazufumi Furuse — Fullseye operator documentation. Licensed under Apache-2.0.