THE PIPE-GROUP ARCHITECTURE REAL-TIME ACTIVE VISION

This paper describes a vision processing architecture which, together with a robotic camera platform and control subsystem, comprise a multi -processor real-time system for research into active vision. Experimen tation in time-critical aspects of the active vision paradigm over sev eral years has demonstrated the flexibility of 'pipe-groups' used as t he building block in the system. The design of the entire system is ov erviewed, and the design of pipe-groups and their software is describe d in more detail, An active method of determining the exact processing latency, required for stable control, is explained. The paper illustr ates the use of the pipe-group processing architecture and its real-ti me processing capabilities, with an example of active stereo tracking and structure recovery using the method of affine tranfer. (C) 1997 Ac ademic Press Limited.