A Method for Measuring the Center Position and the Total Intensity of an Output Distribution of Matrix Positioned Sensors

Abstract

A new method for measuring the center position and the total intensity of a two-dimensional distribution is proposed and the basic experimental results for its verification are shown.The two-dimensional distribution of a physical values such as the optical image and the pressure are usually detected with an array of matrix positioned sensors. The proposed method deals with the outputs of these sensors not by scanning operations but by a parallel processing circuit without a computer. The circuit has an unique stable equilibrium state. In the state, using a discrete version of Green's theorem, the center position and the total intensity are obtained by the simple operation of the edge data in the circuit.As the circuit has a repeating simple structure, it can make into LSI and smart sensors. By level slice or filtering operations, this method can be used to measuring various characteristic scalar values about the distribution, and applied to automated visual inspection and tactile or visual sensors of robots.