A Programmable VLSI Retina for Rough Vision

@article{bndz_mva93,
    author  = "Bernard, T.M. and Nguyen, P.E. and Devos, F.J. and Zavidovique, B.Y.",
    title   = "A Programmable {VLSI} Retina for Rough Vision",
    journal = "Machine Vision and Applications",
    volume  = "7",
    number  = "1",
    pages   = "4-11",
    year    = 1993
}

Abstract
A VLSI retina is a device which intimately associates an optoelectronic layer with processing facilities on a monolithic circuit. Combining acquisition and processing provides a better balance between data flows and bandwidths. It is also expected to reveal fruitful shortcuts between microelectronics phenomena and vision-oriented information processing. Yet, except for simplistic 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 can be used to provide versatility from programmability. Since the monolithic constraint implies a memory shortage, the ability of such a retina will be limited to a rough type of vision, but specific algorithmic techniques can cope with it. We have used shift registers with some tricky circuitry to build a minimal retina boolean processor with less than 30 transistors. The successful integration, test and experimentation of such a 65x76 retina are presented.

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