Inilabs and Inivation (2013-2017)
Event cameras (also known as dynamic vision sensors or DVS) see the world not as a series of frames, but as a set of changes occurring at individual pixels. Information about change is transmitted asynchronously and with very low latency. Data rates can be very low in some applications.
In my role at iniLabs GmbH and then iniVation AG, I worked on the design of third-generation DVS as part of the EU's SEEBETTER project, and as part of DARPA's SyNAPSE project, gaining deep insight into IBM's TrueNorth technology. Other neuromorphic hardware arising from INI include the Dynamic Audio Sensor of Dr. Shih-Chii Liu and students, and the Dynamic Neural Asynchronous Processor (Dynapse) of Prof. Giacomo Indiveri and students.
I oversaw the marketing, sales and support of these prototypes into hundreds of organisations, including both academic and commercial R&D departments, and I worked with several organisations to develop algorithms and applications for these technologies. I've therefore gained an unparalleled insight into the attempts of many major companies to adopt neuromorphic technology.
Here are a couple of videos from Inilabs, which I worked with a colleague to create, which show some of the output of these sensors:
This article from IMVE magazine Dec 2017 gives a good overview of the state of play by the end of my involvement.
Here's Dharmendra Modha's IBM True North team photo:
Italian Institute of Technology (2019-present)
I've continued my work with event-based sensors, by looking at how to fuse 3D geometrical algorithms with deep learning for perception, bringing together my in-depth knowledge of dynamic vision sensors and spike-based computation with my experience of large-scale deep learning models.
Visualising your data is often the first step to solving a problem, so we created a library that could unpack many different event camera data formats and run many standard visualisations.
I've also worked on a prototype electronic skin, using event cameras to look through transparent silicone (publication under review @Dec 2025).
Publications
- "A Sensitive Dynamic and Active Pixel Vision Sensor for Color or Neural Imaging Applications", Moeys D, Corradi F, Li C, Bamford S, Longinotti L, Voigt FF, Berry S, Taverni G, Helmchen F, Delbruck T, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems, 2018, vol. 12, no. 1, pp: 123-136. pdf
- "Color Temporal Contrast Sensitivity in Dynamic Vision Sensors", Moeys DP, Li C, Martel JN, Bamford S, Longinotti L, Motsnyi V, Bello DSS, Delbruck T, IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 2017 pdf
- "Demonstration: Real-time machine-vision applications on a million-spiking-neuron chip", Merolla P, Alvarez-Icaza R, Amir A, Longinotti L, Bamford S, Taba B, Modha D, Akopyan F, Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), 2014 Abstract
- "Improvements in or relating to tactile sensing", Lepora N, Ward-Cherrier B, Bamford S, Patent filing 2018, GB2579846A. pdf
- "Temperature and Parasitic Photocurrent Effects in Dynamic Vision Sensors" Nozaki Y, Delbruck T, (Acknowledged contribution), IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 2017, vol 64, no 8, pp 3239-3245. pdf
- "High-Throughput Asynchronous Convolutions for High-Resolution Event-Cameras", De Souza Rosa L, Dinale A, Bamford S, Bartolozzi B, Glover A, 8th International Conference on Event-Based Control, Communication, and Signal Processing (EBCCSP), 2022, pp: 1-8. pdf
- "luvHarris: A Practical Corner Detector for Event-cameras", Glover A, Dinale A, De Souza Rosa L, Bamford S, Bartolozzi C, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 2021, pdf