Science Daily July 1, 2024
Neuromorphic vision sensors or event cameras have made the visual perception of extremely low reaction time possible, opening new avenues for high-dynamic robotics applications. Human vision deals with perceptual fading using the active mechanism of small involuntary eye movements, the most prominent ones called microsaccades. By moving the eyes constantly and slightly during fixation, microsaccades can substantially maintain texture stability and persistence. An international team of researchers (USA – University of Maryland, China, Hong Kong) designed an event-based perception system capable of simultaneously maintaining low reaction time and stable texture. In their design, a rotating wedge prism was mounted in front of the aperture of an event camera to redirect light and trigger events. The geometrical optics of the rotating wedge prism allows for algorithmic compensation of the additional rotational motion, resulting in a stable texture appearance and high informational output independent of external motion. The integrated system, called artificial microsaccade, enhanced event camera (AMI-EV). Various real-world experiments demonstrated the potential of the system to facilitate robotics perception both for low-level and high-level vision tasks… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE