Design and implementation of a retina-like imaging system based on non-uniform lens array

Retina-like imaging system is an imaging system with space-variant resolution similar to the photoreceptor distribution of primate retina. In this paper, the design and implementation of the retina-like imaging system based on non-uniform lens array has been introduced. Firstly, the mathematical model of the non-uniform lens array is deduced. Secondly, the hardware design of the proposed system is discussed in detail, which includes the photodetectors array, current-voltage conversion circuit, ratio normalization circuit and A/D converter circuit, etc. Furthermore, the design of the corresponding software is also discussed. Finally, the corresponding experiments have been carried out. Our results show that the developed system has the characteristic of rotation and scaling invariance property, which will help to result in a new retina-like image sensor with the characteristics of high speed, high resolution, high sensitivity and big planar array, etc.