Hardware architecture for hierarchical segmentation in foveal images

Foveal sensors can substantially increase the performance of active vision systems because of their ability to handle wide field of view and simultaneously reduce the data/bandwidth with space variant sensing. To process the multiresolution images and associated data structures, a new hierarchical processing has been applied to minimize data communications and retrieval. In this article, we present a hardware platform that implements a level sequential segmentation algorithm in one of these hierarchical structures based on a Cartesian lattice topology. The platform operates in real time, at speeds in the range of 25 to 85 frames/s, using a digital uniform‐resolution camera as the source to generate and process the multiresolution images. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol 14, 153–166, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ima.20019