A robust motion detection estimation algorithm targeted for VLSI technology

The design of a motion detector as a robust velocity estimator for real-world applications is massively challenging. Apart from accuracy and reliability it is difficult to achieve operation in real-time. The design should also be small, low cost, low powered and easily integratible. The Reichardt Correlator is often chosen for velocity estimation due to its accuracy. Unfortunately, the Reichardt Correlator is not a robust estimator of velocity as its output depends on specific aspects of stimuli such as the brightness and spatial frequency. In the literature, robustness is usually achieved through a highly elaborated Reichardt Correlator. Many of these elaborations are difficult to implement in VLSI and they impact significantly on the ability of the motion detector to operate in real-time. Our simple hardware approach is an analog/digital hybrid in VLSI that utilizes a simple front-end design for the pre-processing of input and does not require a specialised VLSI process. The minimized analog parts improve the reliability and low power consumption of the system. The proposed digital part is simple, compact and technology independent. Simulations verify that this design is capable of significantly reducing the dependency of the motion detection model on image brightness.