A 3.6 $\mu$s Latency Asynchronous Frame-Free Event-Driven Dynamic-Vision-Sensor

TLDR

Each pixel detects temporal changes in the local illumination, and a frame‑based sensor would need at least 100 K fps to achieve similar performance. The paper presents a 128 × 128 dynamic vision sensor. It incorporates a compact preamplification stage that improves minimum detectable contrast and shrinks pixel area by one‑third. The sensor detects a 10 % illumination contrast, responds in under 3.6 µs, and can capture objects rotating at 10 k rev/s, outperforming previous designs.

Abstract

This paper presents a 128 × 128 dynamic vision sensor. Each pixel detects temporal changes in the local illumination. A minimum illumination temporal contrast of 10% can be detected. A compact preamplification stage has been introduced that allows to improve the minimum detectable contrast over previous designs, while at the same time reducing the pixel area by 1/3. The pixel responds to illumination changes in less than 3.6 μs. The ability of the sensor to capture very fast moving objects, rotating at 10 K revolutions per second, has been verified experimentally. A frame-based sensor capable to achieve this, would require at least 100 K frames per second.