Low-Power, Fast Machine Vision System on a Single IC Chip

A versatile, ultrafast, low-power machine vision system in the form of a single integrated-circuit chip has been proposed for use in military targeting, industrial robotics, and other applications in which there are requirements for utilizing visual information in real time. The conceptual design of the system takes advantage of recent advances in the design of integrated image-sensor/processor circuits, electronic neural networks, microprocessors, submicron very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, and massively parallel computation. The system could be characterized as an eye/brain machine (EBM) because the conceptual design is intended to mimic basic functions of biological vision systems. The system would be programmable to perform vision processing at all levels analogous to those of vision processing in the human eye and brain. The system would be capable of computation at the rate of 1012 operations per second — about 100 times the rate achievable with state-of-the-art microcomputers and digital signal-processing chips.