Real-time motion detection with a mixed analogue–digital neuromorphic vision system

We fabricated a novel vision system consisting of a neuromorphic silicon retina and FPGA circuits. The silicon retina executes two classes of fundamental image pre-processing: a Laplacian–Gaussian-like spatial filtering and a subtraction of consecutive image frames. The output images of the silicon retina are fed to FPGA circuits, with which image cues, i.e., contours, motion, direction of motion and centre of moving objects, are extracted within a single frame sampling time of the silicon retina. The system has compact hardware and low power consumption and therefore is suitable for controlling autonomous robots.