Smart cameras on a chip: using complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors to create smart vision chips

In this chapter, we introduce the fundamental concept of smart cameras on a chip or smart vision chips that simultaneously integrate the same die image capture capability and highly complex image processing. Successive technology scaling has made possible the integration of specific processing elements designed at chip level, at column level or at pixel level. To illustrate this continuous evolution, we survey three different categories of vision chips, exploring first the pioneering works on artificial retinas, then describing the most significant computational chips, and finally presenting the most recent image processing chips able to perform complex algorithms at a high frame rate.