A SUPER RETINA ANALOG PARALLEL PROCESSOR

THE FRONT END PREPROCESSOR FOR HUMAN VISION IS THE RETINA. BY PARALLEL EDGE PROCESSING, IT TRANSFERS TO THE BRAIN, IN REAL-TIME, THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SCENE BEING VIEWED. THE BRAIN THEN INTERPRETS THE IMAGE OUTLINE AND INITIATES BEHAVIORS. RESEARCHERS ARE DEVELOPING A VERY HIGH-PERFORMANCE RETINA-LIKE MICROELECTRONIC PROCESSOR CALLED THE SUPER RETINA ANALOG PARALLEL PROCESSOR (SRAP). THE SRAP IS A HIGH-SPEED ANALOG PARALLEL PROCESSOR THAT OUTPUTS RETINA-LIKE COMPRESSED-IMAGE INFORMATION. IT IS FASTER THAN THE HUMAN RETINA AND COULD BE USED IN THE INFRARED AS WELL AS THE VISIBLE SPECTRUM. IT IS EQUIVALENT TO HUNDREDS OF CONVENTIONAL DIGITAL PROCESSORS WORKING IN PARALLEL AND IS ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE SMALLER IN SIZE, WEIGHT, AND COST. RESEARCHERS ARE DEFINIGN THE IMAGING REQUIREMENTS FOR SRAP-RELEVANT MACHINE AND ROBOTIC VISION SCENARIOS, ISOLATING AND EMPHASIZING NEAR-TERM COMMERCIAL APPLICAITONS; TRANSLATING THESE REQUIREMENTS INTO MODIFICATIONS OF THE BASE-LINE SRAP CHIP DESIGNS WITH AS MUCH GENERAL APPLICABILITY AS POSSIBLE; AND VERIFYING THE FUNCTION AND FABRICATION OF THE CHIP DESIGNS BY SPICE SIMULATIONS.