Deep Learning with Energy-efficient Binary Gradient Cameras

Power consumption is a critical factor for the deployment of embedded computer vision systems. We explore the use of computational cameras that directly output binary gradient images to reduce the portion of the power consumption allocated to image sensing. We survey the accuracy of binary gradient cameras on a number of computer vision tasks using deep learning. These include object recognition, head pose regression, face detection, and gesture recognition. We show that, for certain applications, accuracy can be on par or even better than what can be achieved on traditional images. We are also the first to recover intensity information from binary spatial gradient images–useful for applications with a human observer in the loop, such as surveillance. Our results, which we validate with a prototype binary gradient camera, point to the potential of gradient-based computer vision systems.