Augmented Reality - The Next Frontier of Image Sensors and Compute Systems
Chiao Liu, Song Chen, Tsung-Hsun Tsai, B. De Salvo, Jorge Marx Gómez
Abstract
Augmented Reality (AR) will be the next great wave of human-oriented computing, dominating our relationship with the digital world for the next 50 years, much as personal computing has dominated the last 50 [1]. AR glasses require multiple cameras to enable all the computer vision (CV) and AI functions while operating under stringent weight, power, and socially acceptable form-factor constraints. The AR sensors need to be small, ultra-low power, with wide dynamic range (DR) and excellent low-light sensitivity to support day/night, indoor/outdoor, all-day wearable use cases. The combination of lowest power, best performance, and minimal form factor makes AR sensors the new frontier in the image sensors field. In this paper, we explore new sensor architectures and a distributed on-sensor compute system to solve these challenges.