StereoSpike: Depth Learning With a Spiking Neural Network

Depth estimation is an important computer vision task, useful in particular for navigation in autonomous vehicles, or for object manipulation in robotics. Here, we propose to solve it using StereoSpike, an end-to-end neuromorphic approach, combining two event-based cameras and a Spiking Neural Netwo...

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Main Authors: Ulysse Rancon, Javier Cuadrado-Anibarro, Benoit R. Cottereau, Timothee Masquelier
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2022-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9969606/
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author Ulysse Rancon
Javier Cuadrado-Anibarro
Benoit R. Cottereau
Timothee Masquelier
author_facet Ulysse Rancon
Javier Cuadrado-Anibarro
Benoit R. Cottereau
Timothee Masquelier
author_sort Ulysse Rancon
collection DOAJ
description Depth estimation is an important computer vision task, useful in particular for navigation in autonomous vehicles, or for object manipulation in robotics. Here, we propose to solve it using StereoSpike, an end-to-end neuromorphic approach, combining two event-based cameras and a Spiking Neural Network (SNN) with a modified U-Net-like encoder-decoder architecture. More specifically, we used the Multi Vehicle Stereo Event Camera Dataset (MVSEC). It provides a depth ground-truth, which was used to train StereoSpike in a supervised manner, using surrogate gradient descent. We propose a novel readout paradigm to obtain a dense analog prediction–the depth of each pixel– from the spikes of the decoder. We demonstrate that this architecture generalizes very well, even better than its non-spiking counterparts, leading to near state-of-the-art test accuracy. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that such a large-scale regression problem is solved by a fully spiking neural network. Finally, we show that very low firing rates (< 5%) can be obtained via regularization, with a minimal cost in accuracy. This means that StereoSpike could be efficiently implemented on neuromorphic chips, opening the door for low power and real time embedded systems.
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spelling doaj.art-970bc469366749b1928af3cb1253531a2022-12-22T03:52:14ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362022-01-011012742812743910.1109/ACCESS.2022.32264849969606StereoSpike: Depth Learning With a Spiking Neural NetworkUlysse Rancon0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3149-4870Javier Cuadrado-Anibarro1Benoit R. Cottereau2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2624-7680Timothee Masquelier3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8629-9506CerCo, CNRS UM 5549, Université Toulouse III, Toulouse, FranceCerCo, CNRS UM 5549, Université Toulouse III, Toulouse, FranceCerCo, CNRS UM 5549, Université Toulouse III, Toulouse, FranceCerCo, CNRS UM 5549, Université Toulouse III, Toulouse, FranceDepth estimation is an important computer vision task, useful in particular for navigation in autonomous vehicles, or for object manipulation in robotics. Here, we propose to solve it using StereoSpike, an end-to-end neuromorphic approach, combining two event-based cameras and a Spiking Neural Network (SNN) with a modified U-Net-like encoder-decoder architecture. More specifically, we used the Multi Vehicle Stereo Event Camera Dataset (MVSEC). It provides a depth ground-truth, which was used to train StereoSpike in a supervised manner, using surrogate gradient descent. We propose a novel readout paradigm to obtain a dense analog prediction–the depth of each pixel– from the spikes of the decoder. We demonstrate that this architecture generalizes very well, even better than its non-spiking counterparts, leading to near state-of-the-art test accuracy. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that such a large-scale regression problem is solved by a fully spiking neural network. Finally, we show that very low firing rates (< 5%) can be obtained via regularization, with a minimal cost in accuracy. This means that StereoSpike could be efficiently implemented on neuromorphic chips, opening the door for low power and real time embedded systems.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9969606/Computer visionbio-inspired learningdeep neural architecturesneuromorphic computingspiking neural networksstereo depth regression
spellingShingle Ulysse Rancon
Javier Cuadrado-Anibarro
Benoit R. Cottereau
Timothee Masquelier
StereoSpike: Depth Learning With a Spiking Neural Network
IEEE Access
Computer vision
bio-inspired learning
deep neural architectures
neuromorphic computing
spiking neural networks
stereo depth regression
title StereoSpike: Depth Learning With a Spiking Neural Network
title_full StereoSpike: Depth Learning With a Spiking Neural Network
title_fullStr StereoSpike: Depth Learning With a Spiking Neural Network
title_full_unstemmed StereoSpike: Depth Learning With a Spiking Neural Network
title_short StereoSpike: Depth Learning With a Spiking Neural Network
title_sort stereospike depth learning with a spiking neural network
topic Computer vision
bio-inspired learning
deep neural architectures
neuromorphic computing
spiking neural networks
stereo depth regression
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9969606/
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AT javiercuadradoanibarro stereospikedepthlearningwithaspikingneuralnetwork
AT benoitrcottereau stereospikedepthlearningwithaspikingneuralnetwork
AT timotheemasquelier stereospikedepthlearningwithaspikingneuralnetwork