Methods and systems of low power facial recognition

Abstract

An image sensor comprises a plurality of pixels. Pixels are capable of detecting a change in an amount of light intensity and pixels are capable of detecting an amount of light intensity. In a first mode the sensor outputs data from the first one or more of the pixels. In a second mode the sensor outputs data from the second one or more of the pixels. The first mode may be a lower power operation mode and the second mode may be a higher power operation mode. At least one of the first mode and the second mode is selected by a processor based on at least one of a result of processing data output in the first mode and a result of processing data output in the second mode.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An object recognition system comprising:
 a first sensor configured to detect a change of an amount of light intensity;   a second sensor configured to detect an amount of light intensity; and   a processor configured to:
 process an output from the first sensor and output an event signal, 
 process an object detection based on the event signal, and 
 process an object recognition based on an output from the second sensor according to the object detection. 
   
     
     
         2 . The object recognition system of  claim 1 , wherein in response to processing the object detection based on the event signal, the processor activates the second sensor. 
     
     
         3 . The object recognition system of  claim 2 , wherein in response to processing the object detection based on the event signal, the processor deactivates the first sensor. 
     
     
         4 . The object recognition system of  claim 3 , wherein after processing the object recognition based on the output from the second sensor according to the object detection, the processor reactivates the first sensor and deactivates the second sensor. 
     
     
         5 . The object recognition system of  claim 1 , wherein processing the object detection based on the event signal comprises detecting an object in the output. 
     
     
         6 . The object recognition system of  claim 5 , wherein processing the object recognition based on the output from the second sensor according to the object detection comprises recognizing the object. 
     
     
         7 . The object recognition system of  claim 1 , wherein processing the object recognition based on the output from the second sensor according to the object detection comprising recognizing a face. 
     
     
         8 . An imaging system, comprising:
 a first sensor configured to detect a change of an amount of light intensity; and   a second sensor configured to detect an amount of light intensity, wherein an output from the first sensor is processed by a processor to output an event signal, an object is detected by the processor based on the event signal, and an object recognition is processed by the processor based on an output from the second sensor according to the object detection.   
     
     
         9 . The imaging system of  claim 8 , wherein in response to processing the object detection based on the event signal, the processor activates the second sensor. 
     
     
         10 . The imaging system of  claim 9 , wherein in response to processing the object detection based on the event signal, the processor deactivates the first sensor. 
     
     
         11 . The imaging system of  claim 10 , wherein after processing the object recognition based on the output from the second sensor according to the object detection, the processor reactivates the first sensor and deactivates the second sensor. 
     
     
         12 . The imaging system of  claim 8 , wherein processing the object detection based on the event signal comprises detecting an object in the output. 
     
     
         13 . The imaging system of  claim 12 , wherein processing the object recognition based on the output from the second sensor according to the object detection comprises recognizing the object. 
     
     
         14 . The imaging system of  claim 8 , wherein processing the object recognition based on the output from the second sensor according to the object detection comprising recognizing a face. 
     
     
         15 . A method of implementing object recognition, the method comprising performing functions as follows with a processor:
 processing an output from a first sensor configured to detect a change of an amount of light intensity;   outputting an event signal based on the output from the first sensor,   processing an object detection based on the event signal, and   processing an object recognition according to the object recognition based on an output from a second sensor configured to detect an amount of light intensity.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein in response to processing the object detection based on the event signal, the processor activates the second sensor. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein in response to processing the object detection based on the event signal, the processor deactivates the first sensor. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein after processing the object recognition based on the output from the second sensor according to the object detection, the processor reactivates the first sensor and deactivates the second sensor. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein processing the object detection based on the event signal comprises detecting an object in the output. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein processing the object recognition based on the output from the second sensor according to the object detection comprises recognizing the object.