A programmable artificial retina

Author

Bernard, Thieny M. ; Zavidovique, Bertrand Y. ; Devos, Francis J.

Author_Institution

DRET/ETCA, Arcueil, France

Volume

28

Issue

7

fYear

1993

fDate

7/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

789

Lastpage

798

Abstract

An artificial retina is a device that intimately associates an imager with processing facilities on a monolithic circuit. Yet, except for simple environments and applications, analog hardware will not suffice to process and compact the raw image flow from the photosensitive array. To solve this output problem, an on-chip array of bare Boolean processors with halftoning facilities is proposed, with versatility provided by programmability. For a pixel memory size of 3 b, the authors demonstrate both the technological practicality and the computational efficiency of this programmable Boolean retina concept. Using semistatic shifting structures together with some interaction circuitry, a minimal retina Boolean processor can be built with less than 30 transistors and controlled by as few as six global clock signals. The successful design, integration, and test of a 65×76 Boolean retina on a 50-mm² CMOS 2-μm circuit are described

Keywords

Boolean functions; CMOS integrated circuits; image sensors; photodiodes; 2 micron; Boolean processors; CMOS; halftoning facilities; imager; monolithic circuit; on-chip array; photodiode array; photosensitive array; pixel memory; processing facilities; programmable artificial retina; robust vision; semistatic shifting structures; Biological systems; Circuit testing; Clocks; Computational efficiency; Hardware; Image sequences; Image storage; Laboratories; Machine vision; Retina;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4.222178

Filename

222178