The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to create tiny sensors that can be reconfigured to whatever form of detection the user desires.
DARPA's announcement of the Reconfigurable Imaging (ReImagine) program paints a colorful vision: "Picture a sensor pixel about the size of a red blood cell. Now envision a million of these pixels — a megapixel's worth — in an array that covers a thumbnail. Take one more mental trip: dive down onto the surface of the semiconductor hosting all of these pixels and marvel at each pixel's associated tech-mesh of more than 1,000 integrated transistors, which provide each and every pixel with a tiny reprogrammable brain of its own."
The idea is to construct a sensor that can switch into a variety of modes to fit a user's requirements.
"This could mean selecting between different thermal (infrared) emissions or different resolutions or frame rates, or even collecting 3-D LIDAR data for mapping and other jobs that increase situational awareness," DARPA said. "The camera ultimately would rely on machine learning to autonomously take notice of what is happening in its field of view and reconfigure the imaging sensor based on the context of the situation."
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