Implementation details of mid-level vision on the Embedded Vision Engine (EVE)

In this paper we introduce the Embedded Vision Engine (EVE), a novel vision accelerator designed to complement digital signal processors on low- and mid-level vision algorithms. We illustrate EVE´s performance on three important mid-level vision functions, the Hough transform for circles, integral image and calculating the Rotation invariant Binary Robust Independent Elementary Feature (RBRIEF) descriptor. EVE can execute these functions 4 times faster than the state-of-the-art digital signal processor. With other vision functions accelerated 3-12X, the acceleration of these popular vision functions contribute to the application level speed up of 5x on common automotive vision applications. This demonstrates that EVE, while working at powers comparable to the power of a DSP core, can deliver significant boost in performance.