Demystifying Event-Based Camera Latency: Sensor Speed Dependence on Pixel Biasing, Light, and Spatial Activity

Abstract

This report explores how various mechanisms affect the response time of event-based cameras (EBCs). EBCs are based on unconventional electro-optical IR vision sensors, which are only sensitive to changing light. Because their operation is essentially frameless, their response time is not dependent to a frame rate or readout time, but rather the number of activated pixels, the magnitude of background light, local fabrication defects, and analog configuration of the pixel. A test apparatus was devised using a commercial off the-shelf EBC to extract the sensor latencys dependence on each parameter. Under various illumination levels, results show a mean latency and temporal jitter can increase by a factor of 10 via configuring bias parameters. Furthermore, worst-case latency can exceed12 ms even when 0.005 of the array is activated simultaneously. These and many other findings in the report hope to inform use of event-based sensing technology when latency is a critical component of successful application.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 25, 2023
Accession Number
AD1211287

Entities

People

  • Jonah P. Sengupta

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.