Archives for October 2014

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APress publishes "Computer Vision Metrics" free ebook by Scott Krig, having a nice summary of image sensor basics in the first chapter. For instance, here is the table on 3D vision approaches:


Other APress' free ebooks are available here.
Thanks to TL for the link!

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Grand View Research publishes "Thermal Imaging Market Analysis And Segment Forecasts To 2020." "The market has undergone a shift towards commercial applications such as surveillance & security, thermography and transportation systems. High investment, availability of cost effective thermal cameras due to mass production, and a range of diverse applications integrating thermal imaging technology are expected to be the key market drivers. The global thermal imaging market was valued at USD 3,250 million in 2012."

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With no official announcement, Toshiba publishes a flyer of 1/3-inch 1080p60 TCM3232PB CMOS Sensor with >100dB DR for security/surveillance applications. Toshiba's single-frame, alternate-row, dual-exposure HDR implementation in the TCM3232PB is said to be well suited for capturing fast-moving objects compared to conventional multi-framesystems. The 2.7μm pixel size coupled with CNR processing improves low light color quality. The sensor is designed for long-term use, operating 24 hours a day.

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ST Micro Q3 2014 Earnings Report talks about cost-cutting measures in its imaging business:

"We are discontinuing our commodity camera module products, while reinforcing our imaging efforts on prioritized customer projects and opportunities."

"Effective in the fourth quarter of 2014, the existing Digital Convergence Group (DCG) and Imaging, Bi-CMOS and Silicon Photonics Group (IBP) will be combined under one single organization, called Digital Product Group (DPG). DPG will focus on ASSPs addressing home gateway and set-top box, as well as FD-SOI ASICs for consumer applications; FD-SOI and mixed process ASICs, including silicon photonics, addressing communication infrastructure; and differentiated imaging products.

In parallel, ST announced a plan to achieve $100 million in annualized savings, upon completion of the plan during the course of the third quarter of 2015. A portion of the savings coming from the identified initiatives will leverage the synergies from the combination of the DCG and IBP product groups. Other new initiatives include the disengagement from ST’s commodity camera module products as part of the re-positioning of ST’s imaging strategy and a global workforce review within the Embedded Processing Solutions perimeter to affect about 450 employees worldwide."

Electronics Weekly talks about the possible layoffs at ST's Edinburgh, Scotland site, although they do not appear to affect the imaging group.

From 2012 ST marketing brochure:

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CMOSIS: Deloitte Rising Star Event and Technology Fast50 Award Committee recognized CMOSIS for the 2nd place among the fastest growing companies in Belgium. CMOSIS has achieved 2,580% growth in 5 years.

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BusinessWire: Lattice Semiconductor, Fairchild Imaging and Helion Vision demonstrate a new image sensor solution based on Fairchild Imaging’s HWK1910A image sensor and Helion Vision’s IONOS IP cores at VISION 2014 in Stuttgart, Germany, November 4-6.

Lattice HDR-60 Video Camera Development Kit utilizes the Fairchild HWK1910A image sensor, a Lattice ECP3TM FPGA and Helion Vision’s IONOS Imaging pipeline. The solution delivers up to 120dB DR in a single frame at 30fps. Other security camera systems typically stack frames to achieve WDR, causing negative side effects such as image blur, reduced frame rate and decreased integration times. Those issues are solved by the capabilities of this trailblazing solution.

“The HDR-60 showcases the strengths of the HWK1910A sensor, including its exceptionally low read noise and its massive intra-scene dynamic range,” said Vern Klein, Director of Marketing and Sales, Fairchild Imaging. “We are excited to be part of this ecosystem of Lattice and Helion Vision to deliver the high-performance imaging technologies from Fairchild Imaging.”

“Our HDR-60 based reference design enables OEMs to quickly evaluate the HWK1910A image sensor and develop and roll out high-definition camera systems with excellent low-light and WDR performance ideal for security, surveillance and intelligent transportation applications,” said Kambiz Khalilian, Marketing Director, Industrial and Automotive Solutions, Lattice Semiconductor.

Fairchild Imaging HWK1910A sCMOS 2.0 Sensor

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Waskul.tv publishes a 18 min-long interview video interview Pelican Imaging’s Founder and CTO Kartik Venkataraman where he discusses strengths and weaknesses of the company's array camera technology.

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e2v launches the first member of its Onyx family of low-light CMOS sensors for outdoor camera applications where illumination budgets are restricted and industrial machine vision applications where high-speed inspection is required.

The new Onyx EV76C771ABT/ACT is a 2/3-inch 1080p 2MP CMOS sensor featuring lower readout noise than e2v’s previous Sapphire and Ruby CMOS sensor families. The Onyx 5.3µm pixels have improved global shutter with Parasitic Light Sensitivity of 4000:1, a higher full well for a wider linear dynamic range, and some non-linear modes to enable image scenes well in excess of 100db to be captured. It also features an on-chip temperature sensor.

e2v also offers the ProxOnyx module, which forms a convenient demonstration platform for customers requiring only the sensor. The ProxOnyx board solution offers some unique and exclusive application features to enable active imaging in fog, smoke and other diffusing environments as well as a Digital Double Sampling (DDS) feature for less than 6e- of total readout noise in global shutter mode, and real-time WDR for imaging in the harshest of climatic conditions.

The Onyx 2MP full HD image sensor will be sampling from mid-November onwards, and full production is planned before the end of this calendar year, with further market variants planned for the near future.

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Albert Theuwissen continues his series of tutorials on MTF. The latest part discusses the MTF change dependence on the lens F#.

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Business Wire: Forza Silicon announces a fully reconfigurable stacked image sensor design with multiple programmable features and functions in a single chip. This flexibility provides a platform, which can be used to connect smart sensors to the Internet and enable a variety of “Internet of Things” (IoT) product applications.

The reconfigurable image sensor can be programmed to perform multiple monitoring and decision-making tasks at the sensor “edge.” It can be configured to integrate into different product applications and can be reconfigured to include more features and capabilities in the existing device.

The new image sensor enables a range of I/O and processing functions. The programmable logic can be configured to enable camera functionality not supported by existing microprocessor chips. It is configurable for different system interfaces [network connections (Ethernet/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth), memory processors, PC, USB] and image processing [color, HDR, motion detection, object/facial recognition, other biometric applications]. The onboard ADC is adjustable for different frame rates, power conservation and noise limits for improved performance.

Additionally, the reconfigurable image sensor architecture allows the manufacturer to provide upgrades to product firmware through its network connection in which product features are added or enhanced. The value of this feature has already been documented in instances where existing IoT devices did not have a reconfigurable capability requiring either the disarming of a product feature or product recall.

To demonstrate the sensor’s capabilities, Forza Silicon developed a platform in which a single reconfigurable sensor device was used in tandem with a smoke detector to monitor, detect and stream video confirmation of a fire event within a household to the homeowner’s mobile phone. The device integrated a compact, low-power image sensor with a low-power MachXO2-7000 FPGA from Lattice Semiconductor. The customizable Lattice MachXO2-7000, with its high functional density, was particularly well suited to this application’s high-bandwidth, low-latency requirements, minimizing power and network bandwidth needs.

“The sensor’s expansive programmability enables the next generation of smarter applications in the car, home, factory, environment and more,” says Barmak Mansoorian, president and co-founder at Forza Silicon. “Our reconfigurable image sensor technology can facilitate endless possibilities for smart applications in this growing network of sensors, from smart cars to smart electricity grids.”

A Youtube video explains the reconfigurable technology features:

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GalaxyCore, the largest CMOS sensor fabless company in China, announces it successfully developed Through-Silicon-Illumination (“TSI”) technology for image sensor manufacturing on 12-inch wafer based on TSMC 90nm process, and will commence volume production shortly.

GalaxyCore owns wide scope of of TSI technology IP, including analog design, pixel layout, and pixel-related process technology. The TSI applies to manufacturing of image sensors with pixel size of 1.75um to 1.1um, and will further extend to 0.9um pixel size node. GalaxyCore expects to launch 5MP, 8MP and 13MP TSI products in 2014 and 2015.

TSI technology features:

• High performance: TSI significantly improves sensitivity and signal-noise ratio, meanwhile it significantly reduces thermal noise, dark current, and crosstalk.
• High speed and low power: TSI technology adopts 90nm TSMC technology with fine-tuned process parameters. Combined with the optimal analog and digital design, it is said to achieve high speed and low power consumption at the same time, which leads to high frame rate as well as low thermal noise (probably, due to less heating).
• Cost efficiency: By utilizing Galaxycore's proprietary pixel process technology, TSI is said to achieve excellent image performance with fewer process steps.

“We are very excited about the timely success in TSI technology development and its outstanding performance revealed so far,” said GalaxyCore CEO Zhao Lixin, “I would like to thank TSI R&D team in GalaxyCore for their excellent job and thank TSMC for their great supports. We will promptly launch 5-Megapixel, 8-Megapixel and 13-Megapixel image sensors utilizing this TSI technology with 1.1 – 1.4um pixel size in the next a few months. We dedicate to offer high performance and cost efficient world-class image sensors products for the fast-growing market of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.”

Slideshare gives a snapshot of GalaxyCore business from Feb. 2014:

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PRWeb: MarketsandMarkets' report "Gesture Recognition For Smart TV Market 2013-2018" forecasts "the gesture recognition module in Smart TV is expected to reach $479.88 Million by the end of 2018 at a CAGR of 131.26%. The key players in the gesture recognition module in Smart TV market are Eyesight Tech (Israel), Leap Motion Inc. (U.S.), LG Electronics Inc. (South Korea), PointGrab Ltd. (Israel), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (South Korea), and many more."

Source: MarketsandMarkets analysis

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PR Newswire: OmniVision announces the 1/-3-inch 1.2MP OV9750 for security applications. Using OmniVision's latest 3.75um OmniPixel3-HS FSI technology, the OV9750 captures both visible and NIR video in HD format at 60fps at 10b bit output or 45fps at 12b output.

"The OV9750 reflects OmniVision's ongoing commitment to developing innovative, high-performance imaging technologies for the fast-growing surveillance markets," said Paul Gallagher, senior director of marketing and business development. "The OV9750, a dedicated security image sensor, comes to market at a time when traditional analog CCTV cameras are quickly transitioning to 960H resolutions. At the same time, HD analog and IP cameras continue to see strong consumer and commercial demand. Tailored for these market trends, the OV9750's advanced capabilities are calculated to provide a considerable competitive advantage for surveillance solutions as the market continues to develop."

The OV9750 fits into a 6.3 x 5.2 mm package. It is currently available for sampling and is expected to enter volume production in the beginning of 2015.

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Nvidia Research publishes its paper and presentation "FlexISP: A Flexible Camera Image Processing Framework" by Felix Heide (UBC), Markus Steinberger (TU Graz), Yun-Ta Tsai (NVIDIA), Mushfiqur Rouf (UBC), Dawid Pająk (NVIDIA), Dikpal Reddy (NVIDIA), Orazio Gallo (NVIDIA), Jing Liu (UC Santa Cruz), Wolfgang Heidrich (KAUST), Karen Egiazarian (TUT), Jan Kautz (NVIDIA), Kari Pulli (NVIDIA), to be presented at SIGGRAPH Asia in December 2014.

While conventional ISP pipelines are usually defined as a series of cascaded modules, each responsible for addressing a particular problem, FlexISP promises to achieve everything in a single step. Vimeo video explains:

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While Sony is commercializing its first curved sensors, Microsoft applies for a patent US20140301728 "Anti-shake correction system for curved optical sensor" by Brian Guenter and Neel Joshi, a continuation of a similarly named granted patent US8699868. The main idea is that the curved sensor or lens need to be rotated with respect to each other, rather than shifted like in a regular flat sensor OIS:

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CMOSIS receives ‘De Prijs van de Vlaamse Regering voor de Beloftevolle Onderneming’ award. The Flemish government aims with this award to recognise companies with clear growth potential.

“First and foremost, CMOSIS stands out due to its technological excellence. The company has a technology that competes at the highest level, evidenced by its prestigious clients which are known worldwide and their loyalty to the company, and this award. In addition, CMOSIS still has significant growth potential that can be realised through new applications of existing technologies and continuous innovation. Finally, we opted for CMOSIS because this innovative company plays an exemplary role, and is an excellent ambassador for entrepreneurship in Flanders. Its management never rests on its laurels, and has a drive that can only inspire other companies”, says Geert Noels, memberof the Jury.

Resently, CMOSIS also got ISO 9001:2008 certification for the design, development, manufacturing, testing and sales of CMOS image sensors.

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Melexis introduces its 3rd generation automotive image sensor, the MLX75421 Blackbird. The new 1.35MP 1/3-inch HDR sensor is aimed to automotive safety applications like automatic emergency braking (AEB), electronic mirrors/camera monitor systems (CMS) and autonomous evasive steering. The device is also highly optimized for next generation viewing applications like surround/rear view systems with object detection functions.

The 1344x1008 pixels MLX75421 features a 4 stabilized kneepoint HDR response curve which provides up to 125dB of HDR inside every frame. The HDR full frame rate is 45fps, while 60fps can be achieved when capturing image data from 800 rows. This makes the image sensor also compatible with 720p applications. The device runs fully automatically in HDR mode without the need for a companion chip.

The MLX75421 Blackbird has a dark leakage of less than 5 electrons/s at 25°C and dark temporal noise of less than 4.4 electrons for a 1/30s exposure time. This results in an SNR1 illuminance value of 0.005 lux for light with a wavelength of 535nm over a 1/30s exposure time. The device has a wide operating temperature range of -40°C to +115°C, which benefits its temperature robustness.

“For almost every automotive camera function, car manufacturers and their technology partners are telling us that they need markedly improved low-light performance on what is currently available from image sensor suppliers. Drivers who have earlier generation camera systems in their cars generally want to see more at night. Also upcoming New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) 5-star car ratings are expected to include night conditions for pedestrian and bicycle detection. That’s why we made camera sensitivity and low noise design paramount when developing the Blackbird series. The result is best in class low-light and HDR behavior,” says Cliff De Locht, Product Marketing Manager at Melexis.

The MLX75421 Blackbird sensor has 4 versions: monochrome, RCCC, color RGBG and color RGBC. Production start is planned for early 2015.

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If Fuffr's (Stockholm, Sweden) user interface idea succeeds, the smartphone image sensor market would multiply its size. ARMdevices' Youtube video shows the concept:

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Point Grey publishes a white paper comparing EMVA1288 measurements of Sony ICX274 CCD with global shutter CMOS sensor IMX174:


Point Grey also promises to reveal Sony's new generation global shutter CMOS sensor, the IMX249, in its pre-Vision Show Youtube video.

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Grenoble, France-based Device-ALab presents an affordable compact thermal imaging camera module for proof of concept makers and medium volumes application makers. SmartIR80 is the perfect learning tool, tanks to the integrated USB 2.0 interface with 14 bit streaming video.


Thanks to AC for the link!

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Business Wire: Ambarella introduces S3, a security IP camera SoC family with support for the new H.265/HEVC video standard. S3’s full implementation of H.265 delivers up to twice the compression efficiency of Ambarella’s current H.264 IP camera SoCs. S3 can encode H.265 video at up to 4Kp30 resolution, or H.264 up to 4Kp60. Its latest generation of ISP provides advanced noise reduction to maximize the benefits of H.265, while HDR processing manages challenging high contrast scenes. S3 also includes flexible de-warping hardware for cameras with 180-degree or 360-degree panoramic viewing with dynamic windows and digital PTZ.

“With S3, we establish a new standard of H.265 encoding excellence to enable future generations of the highest quality HD and Ultra HD IP cameras,” said Fermi Wang, President & CEO of Ambarella.

The S3 family comprises software-compatible SoCs that range in performance from 1080p60 to 4Kp60 video with support for multiple streams and transcoding between H.264 and H.265 formats. S3 includes a 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU with floating point and NEONTM as well as dedicated DSP subsystems for ISP, video compression and analytics. It also supports comprehensive I/O including high-speed SLVS/MIPI/HiSPI sensor interfaces, USB host and client and gigabit Ethernet. The S3 Linux-based SDK allows designers to create IP cameras with differentiated features including wireless connectivity, cloud services, wide-angle panorama viewing, analytics, edge recording and transcoding.

S3 Feature Summary:

• H.265 (HEVC) Main Profile encoding up to 4Kp30 video with support for Ambarella SmartHEVC low-bitrate streaming enhancements.
• H.264 (AVC) Baseline/Main/High Profile Level 5.1 encoding up to 4Kp60 video with support for Ambarella SmartAVC low-bitrate streaming enhancements.
• Flexible encoder engine supporting multiple streams with independent resolution, frame rate, quality and codec configurations. Support for transcoding between H.265 and H.264, Scalable Video Codec (SVC-T) and sub-frame low-delay encoding.
• ISP with high-speed SLVDS/MIPI®/HiSPi™ interfaces supporting up to 64MP sensor resolution.
• Line-interleaved multi-exposure HDR processing up to 4Kp30.
• Motion-compensated 3D noise reduction with de-ghosting to enhance low-light performance.
• 1.2 GHz Dual Core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU with floating point, NEON and 1 MByte full speed L2 cache. Intelligent video analytics hardware acceleration.
• Real-time hardware-accelerated de-warping for 180/360 degree panoramic lenses with up to 4Kp30 performance, multiple window layouts and digital PTZ.
• AES/3DES/SHA-1/MD5 encryption engines.
• Support for DDR4/DDR3/DDR3L, gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 host and device, HDMI® 2.0, SDXC SD™ Card, and dual sensor interfaces.
• Low-power 28nm process

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Yole Developpement releases a "Solid State Medical Imaging: X-ray and Endoscopy" report.

"The solid-state medical image sensors market is driven by two major applications: X-ray imaging and endoscopy. The global Medical Image Sensors market will grow in volume from 2.1M units in 2013 to 6.7M units by 2019, fueled by emerging endoscopy products like camera pills and disposable endoscopes. These emerging products will enjoy broad adoption in clinical practices, owing to incentives being provided in Europe and the U.S. to reduce nosocomial infections.

From a revenue standpoint, the medical image sensors market will grow at a significant 11% CAGR from 2014-2019, and is expected to reach $142M by 2019. X-ray image sensors account for 93% of total medical image sensors market revenue, due to the high cost of X-ray sensors.

The medical image sensors market is characterized by a straight duality between X-ray imaging and endoscopy applications on price and volume. X-ray imaging is a very high-end application with a multitude of players, while endoscopy is a high-volume, low-price point application with a limited number of players."

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PR Newswire: OmniVision announces additions to its portfolio of OmniHDR automotive sensors: the 1.3MP/60fps BSI OV10642 and the WVGA/60fps OV10625. Both the OV10642 and the OV10625 are said to deliver top-level sensitivity and HDR performance in their respective market segments. The sensors also use a special red-clear filter that is required for many forward-looking automotive applications. These benefits ADAS systems, including lane departure warning, blind spot detection and traffic signal detection, among others.

"As more automobiles adopt image sensor technology to enhance safety and the driving experience, the importance of high quality imaging and reliable sensing technology cannot be overstated," said Inayat Khajasha, senior product marketing manager for automotive products at OmniVision. "With industry-leading HDR and ultra-low light sensitivity, these sensors are capable of supporting highly advanced vehicle sensing systems deployed in the latest vehicle platforms."

The 1/2.6-inch 4.2um pixel-based OV10642 fits into a compact 7.4 x 7.2 mm package and supports 120dB HDR mode. The 1/3.2-inch 6um pixel-based WVGA OV10625 too delivers HDR of up to 120 dB and best-in-class low-light sensitivity of 15 V/Lux-sec and fits into one of the industry's most compact and efficient 7.3 x 7.8 mm package.

Both sensors are currently sampling and are expected to enter volume production in Q4 2014.

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Khronos Group announces the public release of the OpenVX 1.0 specification, an open, royalty-free standard for cross platform acceleration of computer vision applications. OpenVX enables performance and power-optimized computer vision processing for embedded and real-time uses such as face, body and gesture tracking, smart video surveillance, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), object and scene reconstruction, augmented reality, visual inspection, robotics and more. The full OpenVX 1.0 specification and details about the OpenVX Adopters Program are available at www.khronos.org/openvx.

“Increasingly powerful and efficient processors and image sensors are enabling engineers to incorporate visual intelligence into a wide range of systems and applications,” said Jeff Bier, founder of the Embedded Vision Alliance. “A key challenge for engineers is efficiently mapping complex algorithms onto the processor best suited to the application. OpenVX is an important step towards easing this challenge.”

The OpenVX spec is supported by many well known companies:

Stereo Machine Vision Example

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FLIR One Youtube video says that two sensors are better than one:

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Sony presents an industrial version of its 3.75um pixel-based highly sensitive sensor, previously announced for automotive applications. The lineup for industrial applications includes the IMX224LQR, with WDR function, and the IMX225LQR with now WDR. Most of the spec is shared with the automotive version, including minimum subject illumination of 0.005 lx or less at a gain of 72dB, but some parts are explained in more details:

"The IMX224LQR supports a DOL (digital overlap)-type WDR function. This function uses a method that outputs the data for three frames with different storage times line by line instead of frame by frame, enabling improvement of picture quality especially under low illumination compared to the existing multiple exposure WDR function." The sensors feature a nice set of interfaces: LVDS, 4-lane MIPI CSI-2 with 594 Mbps/lane, and CMOS parallel.

Sony shows a higher resolution image shot at 0.05 lux (10x of the stated minimum) with F1.4 lens at 30fps and internal gain of 60dB (click to expand to 799x597 pix image):


Another recent announcement is system LSI for entry-level IP security cameras, the CXD4145GG, supporting ISP and H.264 encoding at 30fps up to 3MP, or 15fps for 5MP:

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PR Web: LensVector and Sunny Opotech announce what they say is the world’s smallest 5MP autofocus camera, P5S10A, aimed to low cost smartphones. The P5S10A combines LensVector’s solid-state LV4519 autofocus with Sunny’s 3531 base lens and a small 5MP sensor in a compact size measuring 6.5 mm x 6.5 mm x 4.6mm. The module can fit both main cameras and high-end front facing cameras.

“Our LV4519 autofocus device contains no moving parts, which is a huge step up from electro mechanical alternatives. We're also smaller, easier to integrate and require less power than other options,” said Howard Earhart, CEO at LensVector. “Through our relationship with a world-leading camera module supplier like Sunny, we’re creating a new generation of miniature autofocus cameras for the rapidly growing budget smartphone market.”

“Sunny Opotech is pleased to offer the world’s smallest autofocus camera, powered by LensVector’s LV4519 solid-state autofocus device,” said David Wang, GM at Sunny Opotech. “P5S10A was created to deliver high performance at lower costs for the rapidly growing smartphone market where size and affordability are critically important.”

The camera is currently sampling and is expected to enter volume production in early 2015.

LensVector's Gen3 AF device spec, including the driver with integrated heater and temperature sensor:


In another news, LensVector founder, Tigran Galstian, received Canadian Ernest Manning Innovation Award for development liquid crystal technology to replace the mechanical focus in camera phones.

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