Configurable hardware based digital imaging apparatus

A digital imaging apparatus, comprising:

• an optical sensor converting an object image into a detected image;
• an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the optical sensor, the analog-to-digital converter convening the detected image to a plurality of digital image information data packets;
• a plurality of heterogeneous computational units including a first computational unit having a first architecture of a first plurality of computational elements each including algorithmic logic for simple computations, a data input and a data output, and a second computational unit having a second digital signal processing architecture of a second plurality of computational elements each including algorithmic logic for digital signal processing, a data input and a data output;
• an interconnection network coupled to the plurality of heterogeneous computational units and to the analog-to-digital converter, the interconnection network providing the plurality of digital image information data packets, configuring the plurality of heterogeneous computational units for performance of a first imaging function in response to configuration information that configures the interconnections between at least the first plurality of computational elements and simultaneously in response to different configuration information to configure interconnections between the second plurality of computational elements, and by reconfiguring the plurality of heterogeneous computational units for performance of a second imaging function in response to configuration information that reconfigures interconnections between at least the first plurality of computational elements, the first imaging function being different than the second imaging function thereby providing a plurality of processed digital image data packets based on at least the first or second imaging function;
• and
• a digital output interface coupled to the interconnection network, the digital output interface selecting a plurality of processed digital image data words from the plurality of processed digital image data packets and assembling the plurality of processed digital image data words to form a processed digital image.

A method of processing a digital image comprising:

• convening an object image into a detected image via an analog-to-digital converter;
• convening the detected image to digital image information;
• providing a plurality of heterogeneous computational units including a first simple computational unit having a first architecture of a first plurality of computational elements each including algorithmic logic for simple computations, a data input and a data output, and a second digital signal processing computational unit having a second architecture of a second plurality of computational elements each including algorithmic logic for digital signal processing, a data input and a data output;
• providing an interconnection network coupled to each of the plurality of computational elements and to the analog-to-digital converter;
• configuring the plurality of computational units via the interconnections between at least the first plurality of computational elements and simultaneously in response to different configuration information to configure interconnections between the second plurality of computational elements for performance of a first imaging function;
• and
• reconfiguring the plurality of computational units for performance of a second imaging function in response to second configuration information by changing the interconnections between at least the first plurality of computational elements, the first imaging function being different than the second imaging function.

A digital imaging apparatus, comprising:

• a digital image information input;
• a plurality of heterogeneous computational units to process digital image information to produce a processed digital image, the plurality of heterogeneous computational units including a first simple computational unit having a first architecture of a first plurality of computational elements each including algorithmic logic for simple computations, a data input and a data output, and a second computational unit having a second digital signal processing architecture of a second plurality of computational elements each including algorithmic logic for digital signal processing, a data input and a data output;
• and
• an interconnection network coupled to the plurality of heterogeneous computational units, the interconnection network providing the digital image information to the plurality of heterogeneous computational elements and configuring the plurality of heterogeneous computational units to perform a first imaging function by simultaneous providing different configuration information to interconnections between the first plurality of computational elements and the interconnections between the second plurality of computational elements, and reconfiguring the plurality of heterogeneous computational units for performance of a second imaging function in response to providing configuration information that reconfigures the interconnections between at least some of the first plurality of heterogeneous computational elements.