Patent ID: 8326092

Claim:
A heterogeneous image processing system, comprising: an image co-processor comprising a plurality of distinct special purpose engines (SPEs), the image co-processor being configured to: receive a plurality of images collectively and substantially simultaneously recorded by a plurality of image recordation mechanisms, each image recordation mechanism providing at least one of the plurality of images for acquisition by one of a plurality of image grabbers, each image grabber sending at least one of the plurality of images to one of a plurality of peripheral component interconnects, each of the plurality of peripheral component interconnects sending at least one of the plurality of images to a pure load balancer; distribute distinct portions of the plurality of images across the plurality of SPEs, wherein the distinct portions are different views of an object recorded at substantially a same time by at least two of the plurality of image recordation mechanisms; collectively and substantially simultaneously process the distinct portions of the plurality of images at the plurality of SPEs to determine associated image data; and receive a selective off-load of at least one library function at a run time, wherein the at least one library function is written for a plurality of parallel multi-core processors, wherein the at least one library function supports the processing of the distinct portions of the plurality of images at the plurality of SPEs, and wherein the at least one library function is one of at least one algorithm, an optimization for a processor architecture, and a wrapper for a scripting language.