Opto-Silicon-Integrated System for High-Resolution Real-Time Image Quality Analysis

This proposal is for the design, fabrication, testing, delivery, and support at ARL of a high-speed high-resolution, real-time, adaptive-optics image-quality analysis system called the High Speed Vision System (HSVS). The proposed innovative smart-sensor technology allows the data on a 512 x 512 visible-light detector array to be processed, in real time, at frame rate of 1 kHz, using only a single chip as the Readout Integrated Circuit (ROIC). Data is sequentially pipelined to contiguous portions of the chip, having separate processing functions, until finally it is output from the data processing algorithm section of the chip. The processing algorithms can be quite general but they are directly related to the Sobel Operator for this proposal. The output is 16 x 16 numbers corresponding to the Sobel Operation on the different 32 x 32 pixel arrays in the larger array. An additional output is the corrected and digitized 512 x 512 data at the 1 kHz frame rate. The high HSVS data rate and processing speed is related to its unique circuitry and chip architecture. The HSVS chip can also be used inside an image tube for light amplification. This is useful were the light intensity is restricted either because of target distance, low ambient light or because high intensity light could damage a target such as the human eye.