Low-power always-on face detection, tracking, recognition and/or analysis using events-based vision sensor
First Claim
1. A smart sensor for sensing dynamic scene-based occurrences, the smart sensor comprising:
- dedicated computer vision (CV) computation hardware configured to receive sensor data from a sensor array comprising more than one sensor pixel and capable of computing one or more CV features using readings from neighboring sensor pixels of the sensor array;
a classifier configured to receive an output of the dedicated CV computation hardware and perform operations based on the one or more computed CV features; and
a first processing unit configured to process an output of the classifier resulting from performing the operations based on the one or more computed CV features;
wherein the smart sensor is configured to generate an event to be received by a second processing unit in response to the processing of the output of the classifier by the first processing unit, the event configured to trigger an operation to be performed by the second processing unit and indicating a reference occurrence for the second processing unit.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques disclosed herein utilize a vision sensor that integrates a special-purpose camera with dedicated computer vision (CV) computation hardware and a dedicated low-power microprocessor for the purposes of detecting, tracking, recognizing, and/or analyzing subjects, objects, and scenes in the view of the camera. The vision sensor processes the information retrieved from the camera using the included low-power microprocessor and sends “events” (or indications that one or more reference occurrences have occurred, and, possibly, associated data) for the main processor only when needed or as defined and configured by the application. This allows the general-purpose microprocessor (which is typically relatively high-speed and high-power to support a variety of applications) to stay in a low-power (e.g., sleep mode) most of the time as conventional, while becoming active only when events are received from the vision sensor.
65 Citations
30 Claims
-
1. A smart sensor for sensing dynamic scene-based occurrences, the smart sensor comprising:
-
dedicated computer vision (CV) computation hardware configured to receive sensor data from a sensor array comprising more than one sensor pixel and capable of computing one or more CV features using readings from neighboring sensor pixels of the sensor array; a classifier configured to receive an output of the dedicated CV computation hardware and perform operations based on the one or more computed CV features; and a first processing unit configured to process an output of the classifier resulting from performing the operations based on the one or more computed CV features; wherein the smart sensor is configured to generate an event to be received by a second processing unit in response to the processing of the output of the classifier by the first processing unit, the event configured to trigger an operation to be performed by the second processing unit and indicating a reference occurrence for the second processing unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. An apparatus for determining object detection events, the apparatus comprising:
-
a sensor array comprising more than one sensor pixel; dedicated computer vision (CV) computation hardware capable of receiving sensor data from the sensor array and computing CV features using readings from neighboring sensor pixels of the sensor array; a classifier configured to receive an output of the dedicated CV computation hardware and perform operations based on the one or more computed CV features; and a first processing unit configured to; determine, from an output of the classifier resulting from performing the operations based on the one or more computed CV features that an object has been detected, and in response to the determination, generate an object-detected event to be received by a second processing unit and configured to trigger an operation to be performed by the second processing unit. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
-
-
19. A method for sensing dynamic scene-based occurrences with an apparatus, the method comprising:
-
receiving, with dedicated computer vision (CV) computation hardware, sensor data from a sensor array comprising more than one sensor pixel; computing, with the dedicated CV computation hardware, one or more CV features using readings from neighboring sensor pixels of the sensor array; performing, with a classifier, operations based on the one or more computed CV features; processing, with a first processing unit, an output of the classifier resulting from performing the operations based on the one or more computed CV features; and generating an event to be received by a second processing unit in response to the processing of the output of the classifier by the first processing unit, the event configured to trigger an operation to be performed by the second processing unit and indicating a reference occurrence for the second processing unit. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
-
28. A method for determining object detection events, the method comprising:
-
receiving, with dedicated computer vision (CV) computation hardware, sensor data from a sensor array; computing one or more CV features using readings from neighboring sensor pixels of the sensor array; performing, with a classifier, operations based on the one or more computed CV features; and using a first processing unit to; determine, from an output of the classifier resulting from performing the operations based on the one or more computed CV features that an object has been detected, and in response to the determination, generate an object-detected event to be received by a second processing unit and configured to trigger an operation to be performed by the second processing unit. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30)
-
Specification