"Swiss researchers have developed a robot that can balance a pencil. New Scientist informs us that pole-balancing is, apparently, a "well-known exercise in robotics research." But roboticists weren't able to make a robot that balanced a "pole" as small as a pencil--until the Swiss researchers struck upon a novel visual processing idea.
The pencil-balancing acrobat doesn't rely on a video feed for its visual input. Rather, the researchers developed "silicon retinas" that only focus on sudden changes in illumination. This mimics how our eyes actually work, and it reduces the processing load for the robot, allowing it to react more quickly.
As the researchers explain on their site, 'our processing algorithm extracts the pencil position and angle without ever using a 'full scene' visual representation, but simply by processing only the spikes relevant to the pencil's motion.' "
This is VERY cool stuff. The silicone retina acutally responds in a way that is very similar to the way our own visual system does, to images and orientation of edges. Neat!
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