System and method for processing image data relative to a focus of attention within the overall image

A vision system having an image sensor that produces image data relative to each of a sequence of acquired images comprising:

• a first processor group including a plurality of SIMD processors, at least one general purpose processor and a directly accessible data memory, each residing on a single die and operatively connected to the sensor so that the first processor group receives the image data read-out from the image sensor, wherein the data memory is smaller in capacity than a size of the image data relative to each of the sequence of acquired images, the first processor group being arranged to receive one or more images sequentially from the image sensor;
• an additional memory that concurrently receives the image data read-out from the image sensor;
• and
• wherein the plurality of SIMD processors in the first processor group is constructed and arranged to employ a data reduction function on each received image to produce a reduced data set which is stored in the data memory, the reduced data set including identifiers for regions of the image data in stored the additional memory that are subject to further vision system processes.

A method for processing image data with a vision system having an image sensor that produces image data relative to each of a sequence of acquired images comprising the steps of:

• receiving, by a first processor group including a plurality of SIMD processors, at least one general purpose processor and a directly accessible data memory, each residing on a single die, the image data read-out from the image sensor, the data memory being smaller in capacity than a size of the image data relative to each of the sequence of acquired images;
• generating, on the first processor group, a reduced data set with respect to each image data concurrently as the image data is read-out;
• receiving, by a second processor, at least a portion of the image data concurrently as the reduced data set is stored in the data memory;
• and
• generating, by the second processor, output values based upon information in the reduced data set.