Design and simulation of a CMOS image sensor with a built-in edge detection for tactile vision sensory substitution

Tactile Vision Sensory Substitution (TVSS) systems are used to convert scene images captured by the image sensors to tactile patterns that can be used to stimulate the skin sensory of the blind users. These types of devices needed to be wearable, small size, low power consumption, lightweight, and affordable cost. This paper presents the integration of an edge detection scheme inside a CMOS image sensor forming an Edge Detection CMOS Image Sensor (EDIS). The design is simulated using LTSPICE and MATLAB, performing three ways of simulation, giving accepted edge images having very few fine edges but keeping the main edges. The proposed way is simple, low component-count, doesn’t reduce the fill factor, use no analog to digital converter, presents adaptable comparator-reference-voltage, and make a step towards an integrated all-in-one tactile vision sensory substitution device.