{"id":4473,"date":"2016-06-28T12:18:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T16:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=4473"},"modified":"2016-06-28T12:18:11","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T16:18:11","slug":"seeing-is-believing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Is Believing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>The quest to create a camera that\u00a0<\/strong>can see the way we see\u2014continuously, selectively, alert to movement and meaning\u2014is the challenge facing Ralph Etienne-Cummings<\/a>, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering<\/a> and an expert on human senses and the digital processes that one day may replicate or even exceed them.<\/p>\n

Etienne-Cummings is a specialist in\u00a0the field of neuromorphic engineering\u2014 the attempt to construct electronic signal-processing systems that are inspired by the neural circuits inside a living human or animal brain.<\/p>\n

Working with research associates at\u00a0the Vision Institute in Paris, Etienne-Cummings is designing a machine-vision system that is able to activate individual pixels only\u00a0when their infinitesimal field\u00a0of view receives new information, just as our eyes ignore a static background until something occurs there\u2014a fly on a wall or\u00a0a flash of lightning outside a window\u2014to divert our attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cStandard cameras cannot do this,\u201d he says. \u201cBasically, you have a single shutter that opens and closes, and then you have to get the information out. The information you get is the average over the time that the shutter was open. But when the shutter is closed, you get no information at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though exposure times have decreased from hours at the dawn of the daguerreotype in the 1840s to milliseconds in our smartphone cameras today, the frame-by-frame basis of photography remains an obstacle.<\/p>\n

The goal of neuromorphic engineering, Etienne-Cummings explains, is to bring \u201calways-on\u201d\u2014yet low-power, battery-conserving\u2014capability to cameras in robots and medical devices for such roles as 3-D mapping and quick response to movements within the visual field. Such devices would be capable of interpreting the real-time streams of continuous data that our eyes and brain handle without conscious effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo fully unlock the potential of eyelike vision sensors, you need to abandon the whole notion of a video frame,\u201d Etienne-Cummings writes in the\u00a0<\/em>IEEE Spectrum<\/em>. \u201cThat can be a little hard to get your head around, but as soon as you do that, you become liberated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The quest to create a camera that\u00a0can see the way we see\u2014continuously, selectively, alert to movement and meaning\u2014is the challenge facing Ralph Etienne-Cummings, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an expert on human senses and the digital processes that one day may replicate or even exceed them. Etienne-Cummings is a specialist…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[373,411],"class_list":["post-4473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact","tag-machine-vision","tag-neuromorphic-engineering","issue-summer-2016"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSeeing Is Believing - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeing Is Believing - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The quest to create a camera that\u00a0can see the way we see\u2014continuously, selectively, alert to movement and meaning\u2014is the challenge facing Ralph Etienne-Cummings, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an expert on human senses and the digital processes that one day may replicate or even exceed them. Etienne-Cummings is a specialist...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-28T16:18:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-28T16:18:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"headline\":\"Seeing Is Believing\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-28T16:18:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-28T16:18:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":341,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"machine-vision\",\"neuromorphic engineering\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Impact\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/\",\"name\":\"Seeing Is Believing - JHU Engineering Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-28T16:18:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-28T16:18:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2016\\\/06\\\/seeing-is-believing\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Seeing Is Believing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/\",\"name\":\"JHU Engineering Magazine\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\",\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Abby Lattes\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Seeing Is Believing - JHU Engineering Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Seeing Is Believing - JHU Engineering Magazine","og_description":"The quest to create a camera that\u00a0can see the way we see\u2014continuously, selectively, alert to movement and meaning\u2014is the challenge facing Ralph Etienne-Cummings, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an expert on human senses and the digital processes that one day may replicate or even exceed them. Etienne-Cummings is a specialist...","og_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/","og_site_name":"JHU Engineering Magazine","article_published_time":"2016-06-28T16:18:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-06-28T16:18:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":200,"url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Abby Lattes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Abby Lattes","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/"},"author":{"name":"Abby Lattes","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#\/schema\/person\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742"},"headline":"Seeing Is Believing","datePublished":"2016-06-28T16:18:10+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-28T16:18:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/"},"wordCount":341,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg","keywords":["machine-vision","neuromorphic engineering"],"articleSection":["Impact"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/","name":"Seeing Is Believing - JHU Engineering Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg","datePublished":"2016-06-28T16:18:10+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-28T16:18:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#\/schema\/person\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/SeeingIsBelieving_THUMB.jpg","width":300,"height":200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2016\/06\/seeing-is-believing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Seeing Is Believing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#website","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/","name":"JHU Engineering Magazine","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/#\/schema\/person\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742","name":"Abby Lattes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c56cb7af5427f847aa288542444ba9ff3d2107bf85dc6c6d44a4d1315608258d?s=96&r=g","caption":"Abby Lattes"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4473"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4826,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473\/revisions\/4826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}