Patent ID: 8160354

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a processor; a plurality of converters, functionally coupled to the processor, each converter to input an input image and to compute a potential as a measure of contrast in the input image for each of a plurality of units of the input image, each converter further to generate an output set including a ranked set of coordinates, the ranked set of coordinates containing a coordinate of each unit in the input image whose potential exceeds a first threshold, the set of coordinates being ranked based on potential; and a first plurality of observers, each observer to process independently the output set of each of the converters, each of the observers configured to recognize a different type of feature in the input image when a coordinate of a feature of the corresponding type is present in the output set of one or more of the converters, wherein each observer of the first plurality of observers is configured to, for each coordinate in the output of each of the converters, integrate a corresponding potential over a range of time slices, and for each said unit whose potential exceeds a second threshold after integration by the observer, including the coordinate of the unit in an output set of the observer.