Integrated semiconductor motion sensor
First Claim
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1. An electronic circuit for sensing a stimulus moving relative to said circuit, comprising:
- at least three sensing elements each having a photosensor responsive to the stimulus, said photosensors of said three sensing elements spatially separated with respect to one another and each configured to produce at least one electrical signal in response to the stimulus; and
at least one motion sensor electrically connected to said three sensing elements such that said three sensing elements respectively produce a facilitation signal, a triggering signal, and an inhibition signal for said motion sensor in response to the stimulus at different times,wherein said motion sensor is operable to produce an output signal indicative of at least one of a direction and a speed of the stimulus based on a relationship of said facilitation signal, said triggering signal, and said inhibition signal.
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Abstract
An algorithm and circuits for sensing a moving optical stimulus. Three sequentially produced electrical signals at different locations in response to a moving stimulus are used to generate a monotonic function of velocity which is substantially insensitive to the global illumination level and stimulus contrast. Temporal aliasing is minimized by using an adaptive inhibition scheme. Dense arrays of such motion sensors can be monolithically integrated for the acquisition of entire velocity maps which can be used to obtain imaging information suitable for navigation of mobile systems in complex environments.
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Citations
54 Claims
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1. An electronic circuit for sensing a stimulus moving relative to said circuit, comprising:
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at least three sensing elements each having a photosensor responsive to the stimulus, said photosensors of said three sensing elements spatially separated with respect to one another and each configured to produce at least one electrical signal in response to the stimulus; and at least one motion sensor electrically connected to said three sensing elements such that said three sensing elements respectively produce a facilitation signal, a triggering signal, and an inhibition signal for said motion sensor in response to the stimulus at different times, wherein said motion sensor is operable to produce an output signal indicative of at least one of a direction and a speed of the stimulus based on a relationship of said facilitation signal, said triggering signal, and said inhibition signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. An electronic circuit for sensing a stimulus moving relative to said circuit, comprising:
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a plurality of sensing elements disposed relative to one another lo form an array, each sensing element having at least one photosensor responsive to the stimulus to produce at least one electrical signal; and a plurality of motion sensors disposed relative to said sensing elements, each connected to at least three sensing elements that are spatially displaced relative to one another to detect motion in a predetermined direction, said three sensing elements configured to respectively produce a facilitation signal, a triggering signal, and an inhibition signal in response to the stimulus, wherein each motion sensor is configured to be activated upon receiving said facilitation signal, to initiate an output signal upon receiving said triggering signal, and to terminate said output signal upon receiving said inhibition signal when the stimulus moves in said predetermined direction and said motion sensor is inhibited when the stimulus moves opposite to said predetermined direction. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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53. A method for constructing and operating a motion sensing circuit, comprising:
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placing at least three photosensors relative to one another where each is responsive to radiation indicative of an image to produce at least one electrical signal; and
connecting a motion sensor to said three photosensors which respectively produce a facilitation signal, a triggering signal, and an inhibition signal for said motion sensor in response to the stimulus at different times;configuring said motion sensor to be activated upon receiving said facilitation signal, to initiate an output signal upon receiving said triggering signal only if said triggering signal follows said facilitation signal, and to be inhibited or to terminate said output signal upon receiving said inhibition signal; and determining at least one of a direction and a speed of the image based on said output signal from said motion sensor. - View Dependent Claims (54)
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Specification