An object position and orientation IC with embedded imager

A CMOS VLSI chip that determines the position and orientation of an object against a dark background is described. The chip operates in a continuous-time analog fashion, with a response time as short as 200 mu s and power consumption under 50 mW. A self-contained phototransistor array acquires the image directly, and the output is a set of eight currents from which the position and orientation can be found. The output can be sampled at up to 5000 frames/s, and there is a greatly reduced analog-digital (A-D) conversion requirement (per frame) for real-time interfacing with a digital system. Orientation is determined to within +or-2 degrees or better for moderately sized and sufficiently elongated objects. Chip dimensions are 7900 mu m*9200 mu m.>