A compact integrated visual motion sensor for ITS applications

We describe a technology to realize a compact integrated visual sensor which robustly detects direction and velocity of motion on a focal plane in a wide brightness range in real time with a newly devised motion detection method. We develop a prototype of the visual motion sensor whose spatial resolution is 10/spl times/2. The sensor is composed of a lens and a single-chip VLSI whose die size is 2 mm/spl times/2 mm which was fabricated using a 1.5 microns standard CMOS process. As a result of performance evaluation of the prototype sensor, it is confirmed that the sensor can detect notion direction and velocity up to an on-chip image velocity of 100 mm/s in a response time of 10 /spl mu/s under an illuminance range between 100 lux and 100,000 lux. In addition, the sensor was experimentally applied to running vehicle detection on a road and the effectiveness of the visual motion sensor was confirmed.