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BIOLOGICAL SIGNAL PROCESSING: MULTIACUITY VISION

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
Contract: N/A
Agency Tracking Number: 15274
Amount: $50,000.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: N/A
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: N/A
Award Year: 1991
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): N/A
Award End Date (Contract End Date): N/A
Small Business Information
30 Wilson Road
Buffalo, NY 14221
United States
DUNS: N/A
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Cesar Bandera
 Principal Investigator
 (716) 631-0181
Business Contact
Phone: () -
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

A FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM IN MACHINE VISION FOR DYNAMIC SCENARIO APPLICATIONS IS THE TRADE-OFF BETWEEN SENSOR FIELD-OF-VIEW (FOV), SENSOR ACUITY, AND THE OVERWHELMING AMOUNT OF SENSOR DATA WHICH MUST BE PROCESSED, LIMITING OVERALL SYSTEM, PERFORMANCE. TYPICALLY, FEATURES TO BE RESOLVED IN A SCENE ARE LOCALIZED WITHIN THE FOV. UNIFORM SAMPLING WITHIN THE FOV IS THUS INAPPROPRIATE; REGIONS WITH LITTLE OR NO RELEVANCE TO THE TASK ARE SAMPLED AT THE SAME RESOLUTION AS KEY FEATURES, OCCUPYING VALUABLE SIGNAL BANDWIDTH AND COMPUTATIONAL RESOURCES, AND INCREASING SYSTEM LATENCIES. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW CLASS OF MACHINE VISION SYSTEMS, CALLED FOVEAL SYSTEMS, IS PROPOSED. FOVEAL SYSTEMS FEATURE IMAGING SENSORS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING WITH GRADED ACUITY COUPLED WITH CONTEXT SENSITIVE SENSOR GAZE CONTROL, ANALOGOUS TO THAT PREVELANT THROUGHOUT VERTEBRATE VISION. FOVEAL SYSTEMS OPERATE MORE EFFICIENTLY THAN UNIFORM ACUITY SYSTEMS BECAUSE RESOLUTION IS TREATED AS A DYNAMICALLY ALLOCATABLE RESOURCE. TI-IIS PERMITS A SIMULTANEOUS WIDE FOV AND HIGH ACUITY, WHILE MINIMIZING SENSOR DATA TO ONLY THAT WHICH IS RELEVANT. THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED FOVEAL MACHINE VISION TECHNIQUES IS PROPOSED FOR PHASE I BY IMPLEMENTING PREATTENTIVE AND ATTENTIVE BIOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES, AND ADAPTING UNIFORM ACUITY MACHINE TECHNIQUES. FOVEAL TECHNIQUES INCLUDE HIERARCHICAL KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION AND DATA STRUCTURE-MULTIPROCESSOR DESIGN, ADVANCED GAZE CONTROL, AND VARIABLE ACUITY FEATURE EXTRACTION. FOVEAL SYSTEMS OFFER IMPROVED VISION PERFORMANCE, GREATER PLATFORM INTELLIGENCE AND AUTONOMOUS OPERATION, AND LOWER SYSTEM COST. FOVEAL SYSTEMS INTERROGATE TARGETS WITH HIGH RESOLUTION TO REDUCE AMBIGUITIES AND CLASSIFICATION FALSE ALARM RATES, WHILE SUPPORTING A WIDE FOV WHICH IMPROVES MULTITARGET DETECTION AND TRACK CORRELATION. FOVEAL MACHINE VISION SYSTEMS FEATURE ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE LESS COMPUTATIONAL LATENCY AND HARDWARE THAN UNIFORM ACUITY SYSTEMS WITH THE SAME MAXIMUM RESOLUTION AND FOV.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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