University Of Southern California Research Advances Computer Vision One Pixel At A Time

This is just one example of computer vision – a field of AI that enables computers to acquire, process, and analyze digital images, and make recommendations or decisions based on that analysis. The computer vision market is growing rapidly, and includes everything from DoD drone surveillance, to commercially available smart glasses, to rabbit-avoiding autonomous vehicle systems. Researchers at USC Viterbi’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI) and the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) have recently completed Phases 1 and 2 of a DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) project looking to make advances in computer vision. This is possible thanks to advances in computer microchips, specifically CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductors), which are used for image processing. “A lot of work went into figuring out the right trade-off between compression and computing on the pixel sensor,” said Joe Mathai, senior research engineer at ISI.