Address-Event Representation

Address-Event Representation (AER) is an abstract data format used to describe discrete events using coordinates in space-time. AER is useful when working with sparse temporal data where most entries are zeros and can be ignored, and is closely related to coordinate-based representations of tensors and matrices. It is the default standard for neuromorphic sensors, such as event cameras.

Example

In AER, an event is represented by its address as a tuple, such as:

${\text{Time}}\times {\text{Space}}\times {\text{Data}}$

Event cameras that captures the positive or negative electrical polarity of photons in a 2-dimensional sensor array, uses the following AER representation

${\text{Time}}\times {\text{X}}\times {\text{Y}}\times {\text{Polarity}}$

Background

The representation was initially designed by Misha Mahowald and Carver Mead to ``provide high-bandwidth communication among large arrays of neurons.

See also

• Neuromorphic engineering