Built-In Neural Hardware Allows Image Recognition in Nanoseconds

Researchers at Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) have developed an image sensor that can be trained to recognize (in a matter of nanoseconds) certain objects. The image sensor is made from a 2D material: tungsten diselenide, which is composed of only three atomic layers. The individual photodetectors, the “pixels” of the camera system, are all connected to a small number of output elements that provide the result of object recognition. The chip represents an artificial neural network capable of learning. The data does not have to be read out and processed by a computer, but rather the chip itself provides information about what it is currently seeing, within nanoseconds. The system is designed to work like...