General Vision Pairs Neuromorphic Hardware to Xilinx ZYNQ platforms

PETALUMA, Calif., July 21, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- General Vision's new NeuroShield HDK brings simple and practical AI to the Xilinx ZYNQ developers' community with a trainable digital neural network accessible through the ZYNQ7000 ARM®-based processor or FPGA.

Video, audio, vibration and other sensory inputs can be acquired, formatted, learned and immediately recognized. Decision can be taken on-board to control an actuator, transmit or store data of interest, or else. Typical applications include detection of abnormal vibrations in an appliance, classification of outdoor noises from glass debris to bird songs, monitoring of a flame (or absence of a flame), identification of a person or object in a field of view, etc.

The NeuroShield board features a digital neural network of 576 neurons, expandable to 4032 neurons. It can learn features extracted from single or multiple sensors upon the push of a button or other external or programmatic events managed by the ARM or FPGA of the ZYNQ SOC. As soon as a learning has occurred, the neurons can be queried and depending on the application, the ARM or FPGA can retrieve a simple recognition status (Identified, Uncertain or Unknown), the category of the closest match or a detailed classification integrating the response of all firing neurons.

Unlike a conventional CNN or DL approach, the NeuroMem neurons are capable of intrinsic learning and recognition. Learning does not require access to massive data bases of annotated models and the teacher can observe results immediately after teaching a few relevant examples of each category. Note that the training can also be done offline since the NeuroShield can be interfaced to a PC via its USB connector. In either case, the knowledge built by the neurons can be saved and exchanged between platforms using General Vision's software tools.

ZYNQ platforms currently tested include the Digilent Arty Z7 (switches & leds, GiGE input, HDMI in and out, audio, 2 PMODs, Arduino connectors and SD card) and the Avnet MiniZed (switches & leds, WIFI, BLE, 2 PMODs and Arduino connectors). The General Vision HDK comes with Vivado and SDK projects and can be edited to support other ZYNQ7000 development boards.

SOURCE General Vision Inc.