AEFSNN: Adaptive Filtering Spiking Neural Network for Event-Based Sensors

Dynamic Vision Sensor (DVS) is an event-based imaging technology inspired by biological photoreceptors, which holds great promise for edge computing. The event streams produced by DVS are often contaminated by Background Activity (BA) noise and hot-pixel noise, which degrade downstream processing. Existing filters typically use fixed parameters, resulting in poor adaptability to changing illumination. In this paper, we propose a lightweight Adaptive Event-based Filtering Spiking Neural Network (AEFSNN) to address these limitations. Inspired by homeostatic plasticity, AEFSNN dynamically adjusts neuronal thresholds by monitoring the input-to-output spike ratio, allowing the network to autonomously converge to an optimal operating point across different lighting conditions. Furthermore, we introduce a novel neuronal wake-up mechanism that inhibits processing neurons until triggered by valid input, which effectively suppresses redundant events generated by neighboring activity. Experiments show that AEFSNN is more robust under varying illumination. Compared with current filters, our method increases the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of the output data by 1.42–2.33 dB. Additionally, the filtered data improves classification accuracy on downstream tasks, validating its practical value for neuromorphic vision systems.