Embedded vision system for real-time object tracking using an asynchronous transient vision sensor

This paper presents an embedded vision system for object tracking applications based on a 128x128 pixel CMOS temporal contrast vision sensor. This imager asynchronously responds to relative illumination intensity changes in the visual scene, exhibiting a usable dynamic range of 120dB and a latency of under 100 mu s. The information is encoded in the form of Address-Event Representation (AER) data. An algorithm for object tracking with 1 millisecond timestamp resolution of the AER data stream is presented. As a real-world application example, vehicle tracking for a traffic-monitoring is demonstrated in real time. The potential of the proposed algorithm for people tracking is also shown. Due to the efficient data pre-processing in the imager chip focal plane, the embedded vision system can be implemented using a low-cost, low-power digital signal processor.