An excitable membrane is described which can perform different visual tasks such as contour detection, contour propagation, image segmentation, and motion detection. The membrane is designed to fit into a neuromorphic multichip system. It consists of a single two-dimensional (2-D) layer of locally connected integrate-and-fire neurons and propagates input in the subthreshold and the above-threshold range. It requires adjustment of only one parameter to switch between the visual tasks. The performance of two spiking membranes of different connectivity is compared, a hexagonally and an octagonally connected membrane. Their hardware and system suitability is discussed.