Kimihiro NISHIO^*, Hiroo YONEZU, Masahiro OHTANI^†, Hitoshi YAMADA^‡ and Yuzo FURUKAWA

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, 1-1, Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, 441-8580, Japan

(Received September 1, 2003; Accepted November 26, 2003)

A network for detection of an approaching object was proposed and fabricated based on the transient response of a descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD) existing in the brain of locusts. The proposed network was constructed with simple analog circuits. The experimental results of a test chip fabricated with a 1.2 μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process and the results with a simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) showed that the proposed network is able to detect the approach by generating a peak current just before collision; the peak current allows detection of the approaching velocity and direction without collision. The proposed network could be applied to two-dimensional arrays for three-dimensional motion detection.

Key words: analog integrated circuits, edge detection, motion detection, approach detection, descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD)

^*E-mail address: nishio@dev.eee.tut.ac.jp
^†Present affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, Nara National College of Technology, 22, Yata-cho, Yamatokoriyama, Nara 639-1080, Japan.
^‡Present affiliation: Research1, Research Laboratories, DENSO CORPORATION, 500-1, Minamiyama, Komenoki-cho, Nissin, Aichi 470-0111, Japan.