MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 21,
2001
BRAIN-INSPIRED COMPUTING
A new NASA-developed computing device allows machines to work much like
the brain.
This technology may allow fast-thinking machines to make decisions
based on what they
see. A planetary rover might use this technology to avoid obstacles, select
scientifically
interesting spots to explore just by what it sees and navigate through
terrain on its own without
review from ground controllers. A spacecraft might use the technology to
avoid hazards and
identify a pre-selected landing site with very high precision.
"This may well be recognized as a quantum leap in the pursuit of
intelligent vision,
allowing machines to be significantly more autonomous," said Dr. Anil
Thakoor, supervisor of
the Bio-Inspired Technology and Systems Group at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif.
The device works much like the brain, whose power comes from the
complex networks
of interconnections called synapses between brain cells. Networks of these
brain cells, called
neurons, allow humans to make instant decisions based on an observed image
or scene. The new
processor captures the same capability to process images in real time as a
scene unfolds.
The Three-Dimensional Artificial Neural Network processor is capable of
recognizing
objects in real time and in highly cluttered background scenes. It can
process an image and is
capable of a certain degree of judgment about the objects, much the same way
as a person looks
at a variety of objects and makes judgments about the nature of those
objects.
Two technologies give the compact processor an unprecedented ability to
process a
stream of images in a way similar to that used by the human eye-brain
combination. One is the
JPL-pioneered, highly interconnected networks of ultra-low-power electronic
synapses on very-
large-scale-integrated (VLSI) chips that mimic the core of a brain. The
other is the three-
dimensional stacking of those chips in a sugar-cube sized package developed
by Irvine Sensors
Corporation, Costa Mesa, Calif.
The device achieves a computing speed of more than a trillion
operations per second
using only 8 watts of power. That is more than a thousand times faster than
a typical
commercially available desktop computer that consumes more than 100 watts of
power.
Engineers believe potential commercial benefits for the new technology may
be found in
public safety and in creating a personal computer that can respond to users'
emotional states by
simply recognizing the users' facial expressions. The development may also
be useful to the
video game industry in improving interactive technologies.
JPL's Center for Space Microelectronics Technology, under sponsorship
from the
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, developed the processor. The
processor allows real time
onboard target recognition by an interceptor for missile defense. Managed
for NASA by the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, JPL is the lead U.S. center
for robotic
exploration of the solar system.
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8/21/01 CM
#2001-177
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