Applications
-An edge detector with differential imaging and optical feedback controlled illumination of each pixel, capable of detecting small (a few percent), variations in reflectivity in images where the reflectivity slowly varies over the image by several orders of magnitude.
-A tracking sensor that is a 1x3 pixel array that monitors a scribe line and feeds back focus, translation, and rotation signals to a servo system controller.
-A dynamic spotlight tracking system that preferentially illuminates objects of interest in the field of view and tracks them.8 Multiple targets can be tracked and highlighted with the proposed algorithm.
-A linearized receiver array with optical feedback in which the photodetector signal of each pixel is fed back through a matched emitter-photodetector link. Such a system has the potential to cancel out the non-linearities associated with an optical link.
-Neural networks, including winner-take-all circuits where the increased output of the “winner” pixel acts to highlight an object for detection by another imaging or vision system.
-Tracking of non-linear objects. Suppose an object is fluorescent rather than reflective. The response from spatially and temporally modulated illumination could be detected in a coordinated fashion to reveal movement and rotation of the object without the need for precise patterning on the object.
-Compression algorithms that utilize the fact that the emitter output with optical feedback controlled illumination is the reciprocal of the objects reflectivity.
-Page oriented memory and processing systems where the operations of tracking, array error code correction, and scanned readout could benefit from the attributes of SPSI. The differential spots would enable extremely sensitive detection where one spot illuminate a reference track and the other a data track.
-Temporally modulated illumination of the pixel to enable background subtraction on a pixel by pixel basis to eliminate the effects of high ambient noise levels and pixel to pixel crosstalk.
-Pixel by pixel ranging system where each pixel acts as an independent intensity modulated laser radar. The practicability of this application depends on the modulation rate attainable with emitter arrays.