NSF awards $10 million to develop vision system equaling the visual cortex

Sept. 19, 2013

University Park, PA--An academic team led by Penn State has received a $10-million Expeditions in Computing award from the National Science Foundation for the Visual Cortex on Silicon project, with Vijaykrishnan Narayanan as the lead principal investigator.

Conard Holton

University Park, PA--An academic team led by Penn State has received a $10-million Expeditions in Computing award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. The five-year award is for the Visual Cortex on Silicon project, with Vijaykrishnan Narayanan, professor of computer science and engineering and electrical engineering at Penn State as the lead principal investigator.

The project envisions the holistic design of a machine vision system that will approach or exceed the capabilities and efficiencies of human vision, enabling computers to not only record images, but also understand visual content at up to a thousand times the efficiency of current technologies.

The institutions collaborating on the effort include the University of Southern California, Stanford University, York College of Pennsylvania, the University of California San Diego, the University of California Los Angeles, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Narayanan said, "We have already been collaborating with colleagues at USC and MIT in developing smart camera systems for the past five years and demonstrated vision systems that operate with two to three orders of better energy efficiency than existing approaches. With this Expeditions award, we are aiming to leapfrog the intelligence of these vision systems to approach human cognitive capabilities, while being extremely energy efficient and user friendly."

Smart machine vision systems that understand and interact with their environments could have a profound impact on society, including aids for visually impaired persons, driver assistance capabilities, and augmented reality systems for enhanced shopping, travel, and safety.

"This project is well aligned with the new brain initiative launched by President Obama. Expedition is considered one of the most prestigious large-scale research grants from the NSF," said Raj Acharya, head of computer science and engineering at Penn State.

For more information on the project, go to http://www.cse.psu.edu/research/visualcortexonsilicon.expedition/

About the Author

Conard Holton | Editor at Large

Conard Holton has 25 years of science and technology editing and writing experience. He was formerly a staff member and consultant for government agencies such as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and engineering companies such as Bechtel. He joined Laser Focus World in 1997 as senior editor, becoming editor in chief of WDM Solutions, which he founded in 1999. In 2003 he joined Vision Systems Design as editor in chief, while continuing as contributing editor at Laser Focus World. Conard became editor in chief of Laser Focus World in August 2011, a role in which he served through August 2018. He then served as Editor at Large for Laser Focus World and Co-Chair of the Lasers & Photonics Marketplace Seminar from August 2018 through January 2022. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, with additional studies at the Colorado School of Mines and Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.