PERFORMANCE OF ARTIFICIAL RETINA CAMERA AND ITS APPLICATION 
Yoichi KUNII, Hirofumi CHDCATSU 
Department of Civil Engineering 
Tokyo Denki University 
JAPAN 
kunii@g.dendai.ac.jp 
Commission V, Working Group IC V/DI 
KEY WORDS: Artificial Retina Camera, Performance, Application, CCD Camera, Calibration, Virtual archeology 
ABSTRACT 
The change in photogrammetry from analog to digital means a change from film to CCD or CMOS sensor, and real-time 
imaging became possible. There are many kinds of digital still cameras on the market and a digital camera is generally 
utilizing in digital photogrammetric fields as a convenient equipment of data acquisition. In these circumstances, digital camera is 
expected to become a useful tool in various real-time imaging fields. 
However, an intelligent camera has recently received more attention from the point of view of real-time image processing. The artificial 
retina camera (X-7300C) which have possibilities of real-time image processing appeared on the market in April 1998, Japan. Thus, this 
paper investigates the performance of the artificial retina camera and its application. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
There are many kinds of digital still cameras on the market. 
However, real-time image processing is still issue which need to 
be resolved before real-time photogrammetry may become 
operational. To resolve this issue, an intelligent camera has 
recently received more attention from the point of view of real 
time image processing. The artificial retina camera (X-7300C) 
which have possibilities of real-time image processing appeared 
on the market in April 1998, Japan. 
In order to estimate accuracy of the artificial retina camera, 
experiments using the artificial retina camera and the CCD 
Camera (XC-75) were performed and accuracy were estimated in 
this paper. 
On the other hand, virtual archeology has also received more 
attention from a possibility that people can appreciate or 
experience the archeological objects or historical space and art 
through the computer at any time and without going to the 
museum. With this objective, virtual archeological system using 
the artificial retina camera was investigated in this paper. 
2 ARTIFICIAL RETINA CAMERA 
An artificial retina camera is a camera with an artificial retina 
chip (128 x 128 pixel) and a microcomputer (16 bit), and there 
are some image processing functions such as binarization, 
extraction of edge, indication of optical flow and so on. 
Furthermore, due to these images are sent out to PC by a digital 
interface (RS-485) it became possible to obtain these images in 
real-time. 
An artificial retina chip is structured using CMOS sensor and 
there are following same abilities as a CMOS camera [Yamada. 
N, Chikatsu. H and Anai. T, 1998]. 
+ An artificial retina chip can be easily mass-produced by 
existing semiconductor factory and manufacturing process. 
+ An artificial retina chip can be cheaply produced than a CCD 
sensor. 
+ Making a single-chip can be performed by integrating 
peripheral circuits because a CMOS sensor and peripheral circuit 
is semiconductor which is produced with the same technology. 
+ Miniaturization can be achieved by making a single-chip. 
Artificial retina camera 
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Figure 1 Artificial retina camera (X-7300C) 
Figure 2 System illustration of the artificial retina camera 
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