A CMOS foveated retina chip for edge detection

The human retina is a fundamental element in the nervous system and processes huge amount of image information in real time. A foveated (log-polar) structure retina chip with 8×8 pixels for edge detection has been designed and fabricated using CMOS technology. The pixel distribution follows the log-polar transform having more resolving power in the center than in the surroundings. The foveated structure has already been employed in simple image sensors for normal cameras, but never in an edge detection retina chip. The chip his been fabricated using standard 1.5 μm single-poly double-metal CMOS technology. Characteristics of the chip have been measured and its operation has been verified