Abstract.
We describe a neuromorphic retina that signals a luminance edge as a spike. In a fast process, the luminance profile of the receptor layer determines the membrane potential of the ganglion cells and their individual, adjustable spiking thresholds. In a slower process, a wave-propagation process, the charge of ganglion cells with high membrane potential will propagate toward neighboring cells with low membrane potential and low spiking threshold, thus signaling the edge as a spike. Following that, the signaled edge (or contour) actively propagates across the retinal map. The retinal signal can be used for a contour-integration or a contour-propagation approach.
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Acknowledgments.
The study has been carried out in Miguel Eckstein’s lab at UCSB, funded by NIH-RO1 53455, NASA NAG 9-1157, NSF 0135118. The author wishes to thank Miguel Eckstein for generous support, Giacomo Indiveri for comments on the circuit diagram, and the anonymous reviewers for helping to clarify quite a number of discussion points.
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Rasche, C. Signaling contours by neuromorphic wave propagation. Biol. Cybern. 90, 272–279 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-004-0470-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-004-0470-x