The Horizon Europe project 2DNEURALVISION kicked off on 9 – 10 October in Castelldefels, Barcelona. Funded with 5.5 M€ from the European Commission, the initiative will seek to investigate the next generation of computer vision and, to develop enabling photonic and electronic integrated circuit components for a novel low-power consumption computer vision system that could be used under adverse weather and low light conditions.

The project consortium is made up of seven partners from four different European countries, coordinated by ICFO (ES), and with the participation of QURV Technologies (ES), BLACK – Black Semiconductor GMBH (DE), UHEI – Heidelberg University (DE), IMEC (BE), Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (DE), FI Group (PT).

The project held its kick-off meeting on 9 and 10 October, hosted at ICFO, in Barcelona. The event propelled a first contact between all partners, who shared their technical backgrounds and presented their expected contributions to the project. The meeting ended with a lab tour, followed by planning for the upcoming activities and deliverables.

Gerasimos Konstatantos, project coordinator at ICFO, commented: “I am very excited and proud to coordinate this multidisciplinary effort that aspires to achieve major breakthroughs in computer vision technology for machine imaging and automotive applications. 2DNEURALVISION will innovate image sensors with high performance, low cost and scalable manufacturing technologies as well as demonstrate optical neural networks with unprecedented power efficiency and computation capabilities. At the heart of this project lie 2D materials (Graphene and TMDCs – transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers) and quantum dots, two material platforms whose impact and importance have been recognised with two Nobel Prizes. I am looking forward to closely working with all partners that are leaders in their corresponding fields, to bring this technology closer to market for the benefit of society at large.”

2DNEURALVISION, a major step toward optical neuromorphic systems

The project aims to develop the enabling components for a low-power consumption, computer vision system that could be used for adverse weather and low light conditions. These components are a two-dimensional materials (2DM) enhanced wide-spectrum image sensor and optical neural network with enabling 2DM passive and active elements. Additionally, the use of 2DM will make devices smaller in size and with greater functionality compared to what can be achieved with silicon technologies today.

In this context, the scientific achievements of this European project will have enormous societal impacts by enabling disruptive improvements in the automotive, AR/VR, service robotic, and mobile device sectors.

2DNEURALVISION, a wider impact on the European autonomy in strategic areas

The project expects to provide significant advances towards the integration of 2DM technology by developing European competence in semiconductor process technologies with the development of wafer scale BEOL (black end of line) processes for graphene and TMDCs (transition-metal dichalcogenide).

Consequently, it will have a wider impact on “Europe’s open strategic autonomy” by sustaining first-mover advantages in strategic areas including AI, data, robotics, quantum computing and graphene, and by investing early in emerging enabling technologies, reinforcing the European industry leadership across the digital supply chain and robust European industrial and technology presence in all key parts of a greener digital supply chain, from low-power components to advanced systems, future networks, new data technologies and platforms.