Rice University School of Engineering and Computing, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Visual Computing Systems ยท Sensors 2021

Stagioni: Temperature Management to Enable Near-Sensor Processing for Energy-Efficient High-Fidelity Imaging

Authors
Venkatesh Kodukula, Saad Katrawala, Britton Jones, Carole-Jean Wu, Robert LiKamWa
Venue
Sensors 2021 - Dynamic Temperature Management of Near-Sensor Processing for Energy-Efficient High-Fidelity Imaging
Publisher recordBibTeX

Stagioni turns thermal management into an imaging-aware system service, helping near-sensor vision architectures realize their efficiency benefits without compromising the fidelity their applications require.

Introduction: The Thermal Cost of Near-Sensor Vision

Processing close to an image sensor can greatly reduce energy-expensive data movement. Continuous near-sensor processing, however, raises sensor temperature and can degrade the quality of captured images.

Traditional visual processing pipeline
Figure 1. Traditional visual processing moves image data off the sensor for computation.
Near-sensor visual processing pipeline
Figure 2. Near-sensor processing reduces data movement but introduces thermal constraints.
Relationship between sensor temperature and image noise
Figure 3. Rising sensor temperature increases image noise and can impair task accuracy.

System Architecture: Imaging-Aware Thermal Management

Stagioni characterizes the relationship between near-sensor processing, temperature, and image fidelity. Its runtime uses application requirements and ambient conditions to determine thermal boundaries, then applies stop-capture-go and seasonal-migration policies to regulate the system.

Stagioni runtime workflow for thermal management
Figure 4. Stagioni derives thermal boundaries from fidelity needs, ambient conditions, and workload activity.
Stagioni temperature-adaptive policy
Figure 5. The runtime adapts its policy to ambient temperature conditions.
Stagioni light-adaptive policy
Figure 6. The runtime also adapts to illumination and fidelity requirements.

Results: Efficiency With Sustained Fidelity

By adapting its policies to visual-task requirements, Stagioni saves up to 53% of system power in evaluated tasks while sustaining image fidelity and avoiding meaningful performance impact.