Demystifying event-based camera latency: sensor speed dependence on pixel biasing, light, and spatial activity

This report explores how various mechanisms effect the response time of event-based cameras (EBCs). EBCs are based on unconventional electro-optical IR vision sensors, which are only sensitive to changing light. Because their operation is essentially “frameless,” their response time is not dependent to a frame rate or readout time, but rather the number of activated pixels, the magnitude of background light, local fabrication defects, and analog configuration of the pixel. A test apparatus was devised using a commercial off-the-shelf EBC to extract the sensor latency’s dependence on each parameter. Under various illumination levels, results show a mean latency and temporal jitter can increase by a factor of 10 via configuring bias parameters. Furthermore, worst-case latency can exceed 1–2 ms even when 0.005% of the array is activated simultaneously. These and many other findings in the report hope to inform use of event-based sensing technology when latency is a critical component of successful application.