Application-specific instruction processor for extracting local binary patterns

Local Binary Pattern (LBP) is texture operator used in preprocessing for object detection, tracking, face recognition and fingerprint matching. Many of these applications are performed on embedded devices, which poses limitations on the implementation complexity and power consumption. As LBP features are computed pixelwise, high performance is required for real time extraction of LBP features from high resolution video. This paper presents an application-specific instruction processor for LBP extraction. The compact, yet powerful processor is capable of extracting LBP features from 1280 × 720p (30 fps) video with a reasonable 304 MHz clock rate. With a low power consumption and an area of less than 16k gates the processor is suitable for embedded devices. Experiments present resource and power consumption measured on an FPGA board, along with processor synthesis results. In terms of latency, our processor requires 17.5 × less clock cycles per LBP feature than a workstation implementation and only 2.0 × more than a hardwired ASIC.