Approximation-Based Fault Tolerance in Image Processing Applications

Image processing applications exhibit an intrinsic degree of fault tolerance due to i) the redundant nature of images, and ii) the possible ability of the consumers of the application output to effectively carry out their task even when it is slightly corrupted. In this application scenario the classical Duplication with Comparison (DWC) scheme, that rejects images (and requires re-executions) when the two replicas' outputs differ in a per-pixel comparison, may be over-conservative. In this article, we propose a novel lightweight fault tolerant scheme specifically tailored for image processing applications. The proposed scheme enhances the state-of-the-art by: i) improving the DWC scheme by replacing one of the two exact replicas with an approximated counterpart, and ii) allowing to distinguish between usable and unusable images instead of corrupted and uncorrupted ones by means of a Convolutional Neural Network-based checker. To tune the proposed scheme we introduce a specific design methodology that optimizes both execution time and fault detection capability of the hardened system. We report the results of the application of the proposed approach on two case studies; our proposal achieves an average execution time reduction larger than 30% w.r.t. the DWC with re-execution, and less than 4% misclassified unusable images.