Electronic front-end processor for active vision

We suggest that a `vision front end' processor, or VFE, will be a key element of practical vision systems that perform complex tasks in real time, such as autonomous vehicle driving. The VFE is a specialized image processing device located between the cameras and the main vision computer. Its functions are to isolate critical image data for subsequent attention-based analysis, and to compute attributes of these data that are required by the system in order to respond quickly to objects or events of interest in the scene. We propose a generic architecture for the VFE, and describe a prototype system that has been built in custom hardware. We show that a compact device can serve multiple vision modalities, including pattern, motion, and stereo vision.