Image Enhancement with Polymer Grid Triode Arrays

An array of polymer grid triodes connected by a common grid functions as a "plastic retina," providing local contrast gain control for image enhancement. This simple device, made from layers of conducting polymers, functions as an active resistive network that performs center-surround filtering. The polymer grid triode array with common grid is a continuous analog of the discrete approach of Mead, with a variety of fabrication advantages and significant savings in area within the unit cell of each pixel.