Artificial intelligence has revolutionised smart medicine, resulting in enhanced medical care. This study presents an automated detector chip for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) using a support vector machine (SVM) and three-dimensional (3D) optical coherence tomography (OCT) volume. The aim is to assist ophthalmologists by reducing the time-consuming AMD medical examination. Using the property of 3D OCT volume, a modified feature vector connected method called slice-sum is proposed, reducing computational complexity while maintaining high detection accuracy. Compared to previous methods, this method significantly reduces computational complexity by at least a hundredfold. Image adjustment and noise removal steps are excluded for classification accuracy, and the feature extraction algorithm of local binary patterns is determined based on hardware consumption considerations. Through optimisation of the feature vector connection method after feature extraction, the computational complexity of SVM detection is significantly reduced, making it applicable to similar 3D datasets. Additionally, the design supports model replacement, allowing users to train and update classification models as needed. Using TSMC 40 nm CMOS technology, the proposed detector achieves a core area of 0.12 mm2 while demonstrating a classification throughput of 8.87 decisions/s at a maximum operating frequency of 454.54 MHz. The detector achieves a final testing classification accuracy of 92.31%.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration (AMD); application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC); artificial intelligence (AI); optical coherence tomography (OCT); slice-sum.