A Parallel and Asynchronous Blob Shape Descriptor Implemented in CMOS Technology

The paper presents a family of novel light blob shape descriptors for use in selected active safety algorithms used in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). One of the motivations was to obtain a descriptor that would ensure low computational complexity. This makes it easy to implement both in software and hardware. One assumption is that the location of the center of a given light spot is approximately known. The principle of its operation is then to count white pixels in selected directions, starting from this central point. A key issue here is an efficient way of determining indexes of particular pixels belonging to the image patch, as well as the location of points representing places where the white area turns into black. In the case of a hardware implementation, this can be done using a parallel circuit operating in asynchronous mode, without the need for a control clock.