IMS Neuromorphic Engineering

Sensemaker Project

IST-2001-34712 (2002-2005)

The original goal of the SenseMaker project was to conceive and implement electronic architectures that can merge sensory information from different modalities into a unified perceptual representation of the environment. This three-year, €1.6 Million project involves the collaboration of five research groups from the UK, France, Germany and Ireland, funded under the IST Future and Emerging Technologies, Life-Like Perception initiative of the European Commission.
The project has two principle aims. One is to combine biological, physical and engineering technological approaches in the production of a multi-sensory, task specific adaptable perception system. The second aim is to push forward knowledge of natural systems and to find the links between what we consider as biological principles and the science of mathematics, which has been used effectively by humans in the construction of intelligent machines. It is hoped that integration of certain principles of biological function into concepts for the design of intelligent machines will lead to a new generation of dynamically adaptable, flexible architectures with multi-competent working ranges, in some ways resembling the parallel processing capacities and learning abilities of the animal or human brain.

In the Sensemaker project, IXL developed the VLSI hardware and the software/hardware environment that form an original neural simulation system, to address the simulation of biomimetic neural networks of conductance-based neuron in adaptive networks. The system architecture ensures real-time processing, whatever the network complexity; it also facilitates the generation of biological-like outputs, able to control living neurons through classical electrophysiology instrumentation. The implemented models are parametered at the single cell level and were defined in close collaboration with biologists.


	PROJECTS
	Sensemaker Project IST-2001-34712 (2002-2005) The original goal of the SenseMaker project was to conceive and implement electronic architectures that can merge sensory information from different modalities into a unified perceptual representation of the environment. This three-year, €1.6 Million project involves the collaboration of five research groups from the UK, France, Germany and Ireland, funded under the IST Future and Emerging Technologies, Life-Like Perception initiative of the European Commission. The project has two principle aims. One is to combine biological, physical and engineering technological approaches in the production of a multi-sensory, task specific adaptable perception system. The second aim is to push forward knowledge of natural systems and to find the links between what we consider as biological principles and the science of mathematics, which has been used effectively by humans in the construction of intelligent machines. It is hoped that integration of certain principles of biological function into concepts for the design of intelligent machines will lead to a new generation of dynamically adaptable, flexible architectures with multi-competent working ranges, in some ways resembling the parallel processing capacities and learning abilities of the animal or human brain. In the Sensemaker project, IXL developed the VLSI hardware and the software/hardware environment that form an original neural simulation system, to address the simulation of biomimetic neural networks of conductance-based neuron in adaptive networks. The system architecture ensures real-time processing, whatever the network complexity; it also facilitates the generation of biological-like outputs, able to control living neurons through classical electrophysiology instrumentation. The implemented models are parametered at the single cell level and were defined in close collaboration with biologists.

PROJECTS