Towards a bio-inspired mixed-signal retinal processor

Published versio

TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2008

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

CMOS Vision Sensors: Embedding Computer Vision at Imaging Front-Ends

CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) are key for imaging technol-ogies. These chips are conceived for capturing opticalscenes focused on their surface, and for delivering elec-trical images, commonly in digital format. CISs may incor-porate intelligence; however, their smartness basicallyconcerns calibration, error correction and other similartasks. The term CVISs (CMOS VIsion Sensors) definesother class of sensor front-ends which are aimed at per-forming vision tasks right at the focal plane. They havebeen running under names such as computational imagesensors, vision sensors and silicon retinas, among others. CVIS and CISs are similar regarding physical imple-mentation. However, while inputs of both CIS and CVISare images captured by photo-sensors placed at thefocal-plane, CVISs primary outputs may not be imagesbut either image features or even decisions based on thespatial-temporal analysis of the scenes. We may hencestate that CVISs are more “intelligent” than CISs as theyfocus on information instead of on raw data. Actually,CVIS architectures capable of extracting and interpretingthe information contained in images, and prompting reac-tion commands thereof, have been explored for years inacademia, and industrial applications are recently ramp-ing up.One of the challenges of CVISs architects is incorporat-ing computer vision concepts into the design flow. Theendeavor is ambitious because imaging and computervision communities are rather disjoint groups talking dif-ferent languages. The Cellular Nonlinear Network Univer-sal Machine (CNNUM) paradigm, proposed by Profs.Chua and Roska, defined an adequate framework forsuch conciliation as it is particularly well suited for hard-ware-software co-design [1]-[4]. This paper overviewsCVISs chips that were conceived and prototyped at IMSEVision Lab over the past twenty years. Some of them fitthe CNNUM paradigm while others are tangential to it. Allthem employ per-pixel mixed-signal processing circuitryto achieve sensor-processing concurrency in the quest offast operation with reduced energy budget.Junta de Andalucía TIC 2012-2338Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC 2015-66878-C3-1-R y TEC 2015-66878-C3-3-

CAMAC bulletin: A publication of the ESONE Committee Issue #14 December 1975 [last pub. of series]

CAMAC is a means of interconnecting many peripheral devices through a digital data highway to a data processing device such as a computer

Microprocessors: the engines of the digital age

The microprocessor—a computer central processing unit integrated onto a single microchip—has come to dominate computing across all of its scales from the tiniest consumer appliance to the largest supercomputer. This dominance has taken decades to achieve, but an irresistible logic made the ultimate outcome inevitable. The objectives of this Perspective paper are to offer a brief history of the development of the microprocessor and to answer questions such as: where did the microprocessor come from, where is it now, and where might it go in the future

Smart Chips for Smart Surroundings -- 4S

The overall mission of the 4S project (Smart Chips for Smart Surroundings) was to define and develop efficient flexible, reconfigurable core building blocks, including the supporting tools, for future Ambient System Devices. Reconfigurability offers the needed flexibility and adaptability, it provides the efficiency needed for these systems, it enables systems that can adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions, it enables communication over heterogeneous wireless networks, and it reduces risks: reconfigurable systems can adapt to standards that may vary from place to place or standards that have changed during and after product development. In 4S we focused on heterogeneous building blocks such as analogue, hardwired functions, fine and coarse grain reconfigurable tiles and microprocessors. Such a platform can adapt to a wide application space without the need for specialized ASICs. A novel power aware design flow and runtime system was developed. The runtime system decides dynamically about the near-optimal application mapping to the given hardware platform. The overall concept was verified on hardware platforms based on an existing SoC and in a second step with novel silicon. DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) and MPEG4 Video applications have been implemented on the platforms demonstrating the adaptability of the 4S concept

Digital System Design - Use of Microcontroller

Embedded systems are today, widely deployed in just about every piece of machinery from toasters to spacecraft. Embedded system designers face many challenges. They are asked to produce increasingly complex systems using the latest technologies, but these technologies are changing faster than ever. They are asked to produce better quality designs with a shorter time-to-market. They are asked to implement increasingly complex functionality but more importantly to satisfy numerous other constraints. To achieve the current goals of design, the designer must be aware with such design constraints and more importantly, the factors that have a direct effect on them.One of the challenges facing embedded system designers is the selection of the optimum processor for the application in hand; single-purpose, general-purpose or application specific. Microcontrollers are one member of the family of the application specific processors.The book concentrates on the use of microcontroller as the embedded system?s processor, and how to use it in many embedded system applications. The book covers both the hardware and software aspects needed to design using microcontroller.The book is ideal for undergraduate students and also the engineers that are working in the field of digital system design.Contents• Preface;• Process design metrics;• A systems approach to digital system design;• Introduction to microcontrollers and microprocessors;• Instructions and Instruction sets;• Machine language and assembly language;• System memory; Timers, counters and watchdog timer;• Interfacing to local devices / peripherals;• Analogue data and the analogue I/O subsystem;• Multiprocessor communications;• Serial Communications and Network-based interfaces

Experiences and issues for environmental engineering sensor network deployments

Sensor network research is a large and growing area of academic effort, examining technological and deployment issues in the area of environmental monitoring. These technologies are used by environmental engineers and scientists to monitor a multiplicity of environments and services, and, specific to this paper, energy and water supplied to the built environment. Although the technology is developed by Computer Science specialists, the use and deployment is traditionally performed by environmental engineers. This paper examines deployment from the perspectives of environmental engineers and scientists and asks what computer scientists can do to improve the process. The paper uses a case study to demonstrate the agile operation of WSNs within the Cloud Computing infrastructure, and thus the demand-driven, collaboration-intense paradigm of Digital Ecosystems in Complex Environments