Ultra Low Latency Burst-Mode Digital Imaging System

A burst-mode optical sensor to display architecture that allows for dynamic control over the system latency is proposed. The overall system latency of current digital imaging systems are determined and limited by the utilized video interconnection standards and the frame rates of optical sensor, image processor, and displays. In order to reduce the global system latency, an overhaul of image extraction, image processing, and display drive system needs to be considered. Here we propose to investigate what would be required to implement innovative imaging system architecture options that would match the sensor data extraction method with display drive method so that the two components can constitute a directly pipelined imaging sensor-display system with variable control over the latency as required by the amount of image processing needed. The proposed architecture promises sub-millisecond global latency at high-definition resolution when no image processing is needed to a few milliseconds even when full frame image processing is needed. Phase I effort will identify and verify the commercial imaging sensor, image processing architecture, and display components that are conducive to the implementation of the proposed architectural options for the construction of demonstration prototype in Phase II.