A software-programmable vision system-on-chip for high-speed image acquisition and processing

The IAP VSoC2M is a novel member of the Fraunhofer Vision System-on-Chip (VSoC) family for high-speed image acquisition and processing applications. It combines a multitude of innovative approaches such as analog convolution of image data during the readout process, fast column-parallel image analysis and feature extraction, column-specific storage of intermediate processing results in an analog cache with 32 entries each, column-parallel software-defined A/D-converters with 1...10 Bit resolution, an asynchronous readout path for compression of sparse data and an ASIP processor concept (application-specific instruction set) for software-defined control of all processes on the VSoC. The combination of all these features opens up a variety of new possibilities in embedded image processing that could not be implemented up to now. Possible applications range from a content-based automatic multi region of interest (ROI) image acquisition via optical measuring methods such as sheet of light (SoL) or optical coherence tomography (OCT) to the possibility of process control based on extracted image characteristics. On the basis of the VSoC, an OEM sensor module for integration into customer cameras and a complete industrial camera were developed with which specific image processing tasks can be realized.