CapnaDSP: SPECTER - System-level Programming Environment and Common Framework for Intelligent Image Processing

近年来，传感器技术的进步与高性能的嵌入式处理器相结合，产生了许多新的应用和产品，如自动泊车、血管介入的实时可视化、车辆跟踪和3D图像重建。这些设计的限制因素通常不是设计者的发明，而是设备的潜在性能和编程所需的努力。通过提供开放、强大且易于编程的平台，我们满足了多个关键市场。该项目面向不断增长的智能成像市场，随着向更高分辨率、帧速率和多源成像技术的转变，应用程序对性能的要求不断提高，以提高交付给用户的内容价值。在安全方面，下一代闭路电视不再依赖操作员驱动的独立摄像机平台，但在上下文和位置感知辅助操作中，将单个图像馈送组合在一起以建立更高的场景感知能力，例如，当感兴趣的区域在一个摄像机馈送中扩展时；这需要进行通信，以允许多源图像的动态拼接以保持全景覆盖。还需要进一步的技术，如组合来自射频频谱不同部分的可视和红外图像源。例如，合并红外图像以在可见光减弱时提高质量。由于本地数据存储昂贵，而分发数据卷又令人望而却步，因此需要对数据的持续时间和保留做出明智的决策。虽然这些技术的性质复杂，但它们依赖一套基本的操作模块来促进其实施，如果在模块化、可扩展的硬件加速处理平台中提供这些模块，将被证明是相对于其他选择的主要卖点。现场可编程门阵列硬件加速已经应用于高端系统，但广泛的市场采用将需要降低中端和低容量细分市场的进入门槛。正是通过提供可快速定制和实施的通用模块化解决方案，Capna DSP看到了一个强大且快速新兴的市场机会。我们相信，通过最终通过COTS平台和可轻松配置的即插即用编程工具访问这项技术，我们可以将具有真正独特卖点和商业吸引力的产品推向市场。这将打开以前无法实现FPGA硬件加速的细分市场。从300万像素的ccd设备到8+百万像素范围的cmos摄像头，帧速率从10-30fps提高到60fps+，这将意味着在非常短的时间内，数据量将需要新的处理方法。正是在这一点上，在展示了我们的方法在该项目中的优点后，我们将寻求将输出商业化，并将我们的即插即用处理解决方案引入一系列市场。

Advances in sensor technology combined with high performance embedded processors hasyielded many novel applications and products in recent years, such as self-parking cars, realtimevisualisation for vascular intervention, vehicle tracking, and 3D image reconstruction.The limiting factor in these designs is generally not in designer inventiveness but in theunderlying performance of the device and effort required to program it. By providing anopen, powerful, and easy to program platform, we address a number of key markets.The project is targeted at the growing intelligent imaging market where applications aredemanding ever increasing performance with the shift towards higher resolutions, frame ratesand multi-source imaging techniques to improve content value delivered to users. In security,next generation CCTV can no longer rely on operator-driven, standalone camera platforms buton context and position-aware assisted operation where individual image feeds are combinedto build up an increased scene awareness, e.g. as a region of interest is expanded in onecamera feed; this needs to be communicated to allow dynamic stitching of multi-sourceimages to maintain full scene coverage.Further techniques such as combining image sources from different parts of the radiofrequency spectrum, visible and infra-red, are also needed. For example, merging infra-redimages to increase the quality as the visible light decreases. As local data storage is expensiveand distributing data volumes is prohibitive, smart decisions on duration and retaining of datais required. While complex in their nature, these techniques rely on a set fundamentaloperational blocks to facilitate their implementation which if provided in a modular,extensible hardware accelerated processing platform, would prove a major selling point overother options. FPGA hardware acceleration has been applied to high end systems butwidespread market adoption will require a lowering of the barriers to entry for mid-range andlow-volume market segments. It is in providing a generic modular solution that can be quicklycustomised and implemented that CapnaDSP sees a strong and rapidly emerging marketopportunity.We believe that by ultimately making this technology accessible through a COTS platformwith easily configurable plug and play programming tools we can bring a product to marketthat has a genuine unique selling point and commercial appeal. This will open up marketsegments where FPGA hardware acceleration was not previously viable. Moves from 3 megapixelCCD devices to CMOS cameras in the 8+ mega-pixel range, with frame rates risingfrom 10-30fps to 60fps+, will mean that in a very short space of time the amount of data willmandate new processing approaches. It is at this point that having demonstrated the merit ofour approach in this project, we will seek to commercialize the output and introduce our plugand play processing solution to a range of markets.