[Inter BEE 2009] Soliton Systems exhibits pattern recognition hardware

A data processing engine achieving high-speed pattern recognition and image processing

Soliton Systems exhibited the "Expresso FPGA" ultra-high-speed data processing engine. This interfaces with a PC via PCI express (4 lanes). Designed not only for image processing, the engine also works for pattern recognition with its dramatically increased speed.

The exhibit featured a facial recognition demonstration that matched faces with stored face data. The company says we can expect a 10x-100x increase in speed compared to facial recognition with software only.

Soliton Systems proposes that this data processing engine be used in conjunction with multiple surveillance cameras. Examples of applications for recognition capability would include collecting images from cameras in various shops in a shopping mall to enable customer movement to be converted to useful data, or using the system as a notification mechanism during a VIP visits. The company provides face recognition software separately.

The data processing engine uses two FGPAs by Accela, one of them (called FPGA 2) is accessible to the hardware designer. Designers can devise rules for the FPGA circuit for high-speed processing.