A Silicon Retina For Polarization Contrast Vision

• doi: 10.1109/IJCNN.1999.833428
• title: A silicon retina for polarization contrast vision
• publisher: IEEE
• isbn: 0-7803-5529-6
• issn: 1098-7576
• partnum: 99CH36339
• rank: 1284
• access_type: LOCKED
• content_type: Conferences
• abstract: Polarization vision is prevalent among insects, and offers visual capabilities that contribute to object discrimination and homing tasks. We present a CMOS imager that is capable of extracting polarization contrast in a scene. A similar visual modality has been seen in Octopus. The polarimetric vector is a more general descriptor of light than intensity information alone, and it contains physical information about the imaged objects in a scene that traditional intensity based sensors ignore. Polarimeters-devices that measure polarization-are used to extract physical features from an image such as specularities, occluding contours, and material properties. Polarization information is used to perform difficult tasks such as image segmentation and surface reconstruction, object orientation, material classification, atmospheric and solar analysis. The polarization contrast retina is a CMOS sensor/imager that uses a birefringent crystal micropolarizer mounted on the focal plane to sense two orthogonal directions of linear polarization. The CMOS imager uses analog translinear circuitry to compute, in real-time on the focal-plane, polarization contrast: a measure of the orientation and degree of linear polarization in an imaged scene.
• article_number: 833428
• pdf_url: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=833428
• html_url: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/833428/
• abstract_url: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/833428/
• publication_title: IJCNN'99. International Joint Conference on Neural Networks. Proceedings (Cat. No.99CH36339)
• conference_location: Washington, DC, USA
• conference_dates: 10-16 July 1999
• publication_number: 6674
• is_number: 18002
• publication_year: 1999
• publication_date: 10-16 July 1999
• start_page: 2329
• end_page: 2332 vol.4
• citing_paper_count: 10
• citing_patent_count: 0
• download_count: 69
• insert_date: 20020806
• index_terms:
  • ieee_terms:
    • Silicon
    • Retina
    • Optical polarization
    • Layout
    • CMOS image sensors
    • Data mining
    • Atmospheric measurements
    • Insects
    • Image sensors
    • Sensor phenomena and characterization
  • dynamic_index_terms:
    • Silicon Retina
    • Polarization Contrast
    • Material Properties
    • Linearly Polarized
    • Propagation Direction
    • Image Object
    • Focal Plane
    • Back Focal Plane
    • Octopus
    • Objects In The Scene
    • Degree Of Polarization
    • Polarization Orientation
    • Polarization Information
    • Photodetector
    • Polar Components
    • Orthogonal Components
    • Orthogonal Field
• isbn_formats:
  • format: Print ISBN, value: 0-7803-5529-6, isbnType: Historical
• authors:
  • Author Name: Z.K. Kalayjian
    Affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, USA
    Author URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37323571200
    ID: 37323571200
    Order: 1
    Author Affiliations:
    • Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, USA
  • Author Name: A.G. Andreou
    Affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, USA
    Author URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37270817700
    ID: 37270817700
    Order: 2
    Author Affiliations:
    • Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, USA

Image Sensor

• sensor_type: CMOS
• resolution: 180x186
• dynamic_range: not specified
• pixel_size: not specified
• dark_current: not specified

Optical Data

• focal_length: not specified
• aperture: not specified
• field_of_view: not specified
• distortion: not specified

Performance Metrics

Applications & Benefits

• cell_imaging: The polarization contrast imager helps in understanding material properties and surface orientations of objects which can aid in imaging tasks in fields like medicine and industry.
• benefits: The sensor provides information about the material properties, surface orientations, and enhances the detection and recognition of objects when using polarization information.

Supporting Organizations

• supported_by: ONR Multi-University Center for Automated Vision and Sensing Systems N00014-95-1-0409, MOSIS

Manuscript Details

• publication_date: 10-16 July 1999

Relevancy Score

• score: 10
• missing_fields:
  • fill factor
  • quantum efficiency
  • readout speed
  • noise sources
  • analog-to-digital conversion techniques
  • use of microlenses
  • on-chip colour filters
  • global or rolling shutters
  • backside illumination

Processed JSON Filename

request_805534c4-1fa0-427f-afc0-ae5d30996753-a_silicon_retina_for_polarization_contrast_vision.json