Award Abstract #0541241
A Spike-based Computer Architecture for Sensory Processing

NSF Org:	CCF Division of Computer and Communication Foundations
Initial Amendment Date:	February 14, 2006
Latest Amendment Date:	August 27, 2008
Award Number:	0541241
Award Instrument:	Continuing grant
Program Manager:	Sankar Basu CCF Division of Computer and Communication Foundations CSE Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering
Start Date:	March 15, 2006
Expires:	February 28, 2010 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:	$340000
Investigator(s):	John Harris harris@cnel.ufl.edu (Principal Investigator) Jose Principe (Co-Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:	University of Florida 1 UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA GAINESVILLE, FL 32611 352/392-3516
NSF Program(s):	SLC ACTIVITIES, COMPUTING PROCESSES & ARTIFACT
Field Application(s):	0000912 Computer Science
Program Reference Code(s):	HPCC, 9218, 7352
Program Element Code(s):	7704, 7352

ABSTRACT

0541241

PI: John G. Harris

University of Florida

A Spike-Based Computer Architecture for Sensory Processing

The PIs will develop, study, and build a neurobiologically inspired architecture based on neuronal spikes (or action potentials). The proposed architecture combines previous spike-based sensory processing ideas developed by the PIs with a compelling model of brain computation called the Liquid State Machine (LSM). This model provides a conceptual framework for working with biologically realistic pulsed neuron models (integrate-and-fire neurons) as the basic computational element within a recurrent nonlinear architecture. The PIs propose three key steps for developing networks of spiking processing elements that are useful for computation:

1. The PIs will develop a sampling theory for converting continuous variable inputs into aperiodic spike trains (and likewise transform spikes trains back to continuous amplitude signals).

2. Although interesting, the architecture of the LSM can be largely improved once the characteristics of the computation are better understood. In particular, while the interconnect of the liquid is arbitrary and fixed, the PIs plan to develop a theory of adaptation for such spike based representations.

3. The PIs will map the spike-based architecture to todays silicon electronics. This hybrid analog/digital architecture is fundamentally different from both conventional digital architectures and past analog computing devices. However, the proposed architecture will be of only scientific interest if it cannot be built with competitive performance measures in terms of computational capability, power consumption, noise immunity and dynamic range. Therefore, in order to design the architecture in silicon, the PIs will identify key computational principles, design signal transformations, and fabricate the resulting building blocks with huge numbers of sufficiently small components in CMOS technology.

Finally, in order to ground the theoretical research and design in engineering practice, the PIs propose to develop a prototype system for chemical sensing using an off-the-shelf electronic nose (or e-nose) as the front end. This application was chosen due to its importance in homeland security, and also because it provides a natural input to the proposed spike-based architecture.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

(Showing: 1 - 8 of 8).

A. Camacho and J.G. Harris..  "A pitch estimation algorithm based on the smooth harmonicaverage peak-to-valley envelope,"  Proc. of IEEE International Conference on Circuits andSystems (ISCAS), New Orleans, LA, May 2007.,  2007,  p. 3940.

Dockendorf, K. P., Park, I. I., He, P., Principe, J. C., & DeMarse, T. B..  "Liquid state machines and cultured cortical networks: The sep¬aration property,"  Biosystems,  v.95,  2009,  p. 90.

I. Uysal, H. Sathyendra, and J.G. Harris..  "Spike-based feature extraction for noise robustspeech recognition using phase synchrony coding.,"  Proc. of IEEE International Conferenceon Circuits and Systems (ISCAS),  2007,  p. 1529.

I. Uysal, H. Sathyendra, and J.G. Harris..  "A duplex theory of spike coding in the early stagesof the auditory system.,"  In Proc. of IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech andSignal Processing (ICASSP), Honolulu, Hawaii, April 2007.,  v.IV,  2007,  p. 733.

Il Park, António R. C. Paiva, José Príncipe, Thomas B. DeMarse.  "An Efficient Algorithm for Continuous-time Cross Correlogram of Spike Trains,"  Journal of Neuroscience Methods,  v.168,  2008,  p. 514.

Paiva A., Park I., Príncipe J. and DeMarse T..  "A Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space framework for Spike Train Signal Processing,"  Neural Computation,  v.21,  2008,  p. 424.

Park I., Paiva A., DeMarse T., Principe J..  "An efficient algorithm for continuous time cross correlogram of spike trains,"  J. of Neuroscience Methods,  v.168,  2008,  p. 514.

X. Gong and J.G. Harris..  "A precompensation algorithm for pwm-based digital audio amplifiersfor portable applications.,"  Proc. of IEEE International Conference on Circuits andSystems (ISCAS),,  2007,  p. 1577.


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