Future directions for motion detection based on the parallel computational intelligence of insects

The visual system of insects consists of distributed neural processing, inherent parallelism and fuzzy collision avoidance algorithms. This forms the basis for artificial vision systems that exploit these computational intelligence schemes for anti-collision tasks. Insects tend to detect motion rather than images and this together with the parallelism in their visual architecture, leads to an efficient and compact means of collision avoidance. A family of VLSI smart microsensors that mimic the early visual processing stage in insects has been developed. The system employs the `smart sensor' paradigm in that the detectors and processing circuitry are integrated on one chip. The IC is ideal for motion detection, particularly collision avoidance tasks, as it essentially detects the speed, bearing and time-to-impact of a moving object. Fuzzy algorithms may then be employed for decision making. The Horridge model for insect vision has been directly mapped into VLSI and therefore the IC truly exploits the beauty of nature in that the insect eye is so compact with parallel processing, enabling compact motion detection without the computational overhead of intensive imaging, full image extraction and interpretation. This world-first has exciting applications in areas such as anti-collision for automobiles and autonomous robots. The status and future directions of this work are outlined.