Katrin Santner

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Katrin Santner is a researcher in human-robot interaction and computer vision, with a focus on understanding and modeling human visual attention in three-dimensional environments. Her work bridges the gap between human cognition and robotic perception, enabling machines to better interpret where people look and why. In her most-cited paper, "Visual recovery of saliency maps from human attention in 3D environments" (2013, 12 citations), Santner developed methods to reconstruct saliency maps—predictive models of where humans focus their gaze—directly from observed attention in real-world, 3D settings. This contribution is critical for collaborative robots that must share attention with human partners in joint workspaces. A related study, "3D recovery of human gaze in natural environments" (2013, 3 citations), further advanced techniques for estimating gaze direction in unconstrained, everyday scenes. Santner’s work anticipates the rise of wearable devices like smart glasses, where understanding user attention is key to seamless interaction. Her research lays foundational groundwork for socially aware robots and augmented reality systems that can anticipate human intent through gaze.