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

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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.