Vision through the power supply of the NCP retina

Berthet, Thierry; Nguyen, Philippe

doi:10.1117/12.206510

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…It is certainly most important to quickly get that type of information for a large class of image processing algorithms, but simple solutions already exist 17 . Propagation is really useful only if it can be conditioned by local binary data.…”

Section: Geodesic Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multipurpose semistatic shift registers for digital programmable retinas

Berthet

2000

SPIE Proceedings

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A digital programmable retina is a functional extension of a CMOS imager, in which every pixel is fitted with a tiny digital programmable processor. We actually call it a PAR, standing for Programmable Artificial Retina. From an architectural viewpoint, a PAR is an SIMD array processor with local optical input. A PAR is aimed at processing images on-site (where they are sensed) until they can be output from the array under concentrated form. The overall goal is to get compact, fast and inexpensive vision systems, e.g. for robotics applications. PAR design is subject to harsh constraints resulting from small pixel area and sensing/processing cohabitation. Meeting these constraints leads to using peculiar architectural and circuit technique solutions. In the last three generations of PARs we have designed, semi-static shift registers have played a crucial role in the maximisation of computational power versus silicon area. In particular, the latter have been used to store, shift and -through some slight modifications -to perform local computations on images. Here, we show their abilities to support asynchronous propagation in order to implement "geodesic reconstruction", an extremely useful computational operator, in particular for image segmentation and then for object selection and manipulation purposes. OUTLINESection 2 introduces programmable artificial retinas (PARs) in the context of CMOS imaging. Section 3 focuses on semistatic shift registers and particularly on their atomic component, the semi-static register, as most valuable building blocks in PAR design. Their progressive emergence over the last 20 years in several architectural aspects of PARs is shortly reviewed. Section 4 presents a novel semi-static-shift-register-like structure which features controllable propagation phenomena when appropriately operated. This property is to be exploited for the implementation of the so-called geodesic reconstruction operator and, more generally, to be able to address middle level vision with PARs FROM CMOS IMAGERS TO PROGRAMMABLE ARTIFICIAL RETINASWhile pixel dimensions in focal plane arrays (FPAs) remain lowerbounded to a few microns because of hard optical limitations, CMOS transistor size keeps on decreasing in the so-called deep submicron range. Thus the continuing advances in VLSI technology will allow to lodge more and more transistors in the pixel -a few today, a few tens tomorrowwithout significantly affecting sensing performances (array size, fill factor, noise...). Concurrent progress in thin film deposition, micro-optics and 3-D integration can only accelerate this evolution.CMOS imagers are presently taking advantage of the new deal on the consumer market. A few transistors in each pixel are indeed enough to amplify the phototransduced signal in order to transfer it off the array through analog buses shared by rows of pixels. Image quality of CMOS imagers now matches that of low-end CCDs.However, there is more to do with MOS transistors in the focal plane: they may be used to format or to proc...

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Section: Geodesic Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multipurpose semistatic shift registers for digital programmable retinas

Berthet

2000

SPIE Proceedings

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“…On the output side, many retinas are fitted with a global adder (analog as [1] or digital as [10]), able to quickly provide the sum of pixel data over the whole image. The global adder has been used to measure image moments, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Vision Leveraging Digital Retinas: Extracting Meaningful Segments

Burrus¹,

Berthet²

2006

Advanced Concepts for Intelligent Vision Systems

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Abstract. In general, the less probable an event, the more attention we pay to it. Likewise, considering visual perception, it is interesting to regard important image features as those that most depart from randomness. This statistical approach has recently led to the development of adaptive and parameterless algorithms for image analysis. However, they require computer-intensive statistical measurements. Digital retinas, with their massively parallel and collective computing capababilities, seem adapted to such computational tasks. These principles and opportunities are investigated here through a case study: extracting meaningful segments from an image.

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Visual Sensors with Embedded Processing Abilities

Berthet

1997

Human and Machine Perception

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Vision through the power supply of the NCP retina

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Multipurpose semistatic shift registers for digital programmable retinas

Multipurpose semistatic shift registers for digital programmable retinas

Adaptive Vision Leveraging Digital Retinas: Extracting Meaningful Segments

Visual Sensors with Embedded Processing Abilities

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