Patent US 8,396,249

A method and apparatus for controlling robots based on prioritized targets extracted from fused visual and auditory saliency maps. The fused visual and auditory saliency map may extend beyond the immediate visual range of the robot yet the methods herein allow the robot to maintain an awareness of targets outside the immediate visual range. The fused saliency map may be derived in a bottom-up or top-down approach and may be feature based or object based.