US Patent 11030518 Asynchronous artificial neural network architecture

An asynchronous convolutional neural network (CNN) can interpret a sequence of input data. An input value representing a sample of the sequence of input data is received by a computational unit (CU) in a layer of the asynchronous CNN. The CU calculates a dot product of the input value and a weight assigned to the CU to produce an activation value. A change detector (CD) associated with the CU detects a difference between the activation value and previous activation values. The CD determines whether the detected difference is significant, indicating that the sample of the sequence of input data includes a significant change. If the detected difference is significant, the activation value is supplied to at least one subsequent CU included in a subsequent layer of the asynchronous CNN.