Nov 27 2007
DxO Labs announced today that the new DxO IPE and DxO ISP product lines of embedded image processing solutions will contain the same professional quality demosaicing technology as can be found in the popular DxO Optics Pro v5 software package targeting serious and demanding photographers.
This represents the first time that such high quality image processing has been made available as silicon IP for implementation into mobile devices such as camera phones. In addition to the high quality RAW conversion, other D-SLR quality features previously available only in DxO Optics Pro such as adaptive lighting and smart vibrancy will also be included.
The solutions are implemented using DxO's proprietary, highly configurable and programmable SIMD processor core and are extremely power, space and form factor efficient. Due to the flexibility of the architecture, the solutions are available in several configurations to support resolution from 1.3MP to 12MP. The solutions are available to be embedded on CMOS imaging sensor chips, on companion chips inside camera modules, or on baseband or application processor chips.
"Despite the increase in the average resolution of camera phones, the quality of image processing available in these devices still lags behind what is available to consumers in DSCs and D-SLRs," said Jerome Meniere, CEO of DxO Labs. "Through our development of advanced image processing technologies for our DxO Optics Pro software, and our investment in building RTL and silicon design capabilities within DxO, we are now able to offer superior image processing technologies for camera phones. As our customers begin to implement these technologies, we believe that the gap between camera phone image quality and DSC image quality will be further reduced."
With the purchase of a license and royalty contract, DxO Labs will deliver the following:
- A system level bit-accurate C model for the RTL and microcode;
- A hardware integration guide including external interfaces (hardware I/F, timing, registers & memories);
- Configured RTL (obfuscated structural Verilog) with 100% coverage;
- Verification coverage and guidelines (including documentation, verification vectors and tools for integration);
- Recommended chip test methodology;
- A software integration guide including Microcontroller firmware and library description;
- Microcontroller firmware and library;
- One lens design which when mated to the system hardware meets the optical system specifications (for DxO DOP and DxO IPE families only);
- Support for chip specification, RTL integration and verification, firmware integration and verification, chip backend, system level verification, lens sample manufacturing and verification, chip verification and image quality tuning;
- Upon receipt of first samples, DxO Labs will also perform a lens and sensor system calibration. This calibration testing results in the creation of additional binaries (codes and data) for ROM or RAM integration for the final camera module using the mated lens.