Archives for April 2015

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EETimes publishes Yole Developpement's table on CIS vendors market shares in 2012 and 2014:

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PRNewswire: AltaSens introduces collaborative products that incorporate its Super-35 4K sensor and a new mini 4K camera module. The AL-CM460 Camera Module delivers full video processing control of UHD 4K video at 60 fps while simultaneously saving to SD card and outputting via Fiber Optic, 4 x 3G-SDI, or HDMI 2.0. The Micro Four Thirds (MFT) lens mount allows the capture of high-end cinematic imagery with affordable lenses, while the short flange focal distance means most cinema lenses can be adapted for use. Multiple down-converted formats also offer superior quality video for applications using HD footage. The AL-CM460 is driven by AL41410C 4K CMOS sensor, with 5.2 um pixel pitch and appears to be a reduced size version of the module announced a year ago.

"Owing to the fruits of extensive collaboration with our parent, JVC Kenwood, and our camera partner, Bradley Engineering, we are thrilled to debut our excellent 4K Image sensor simultaneously with leading edge UHD camera solutions to the broadcast community," explained Lester Kozlowski, the company's founder and CEO.

Ilya Koshkin, VP of Business Development at AltaSens added, "The unmatched versatility of our 4K Camera Module makes it an ideal solution for nearly any application where crystal clear "Beyond HD" video quality and flexible system design are a priority."

AltaSens' AL-CM460 4K Camera Module

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PRNewswire: OmniVision and VIA Technologies announce a partnership to develop a battery-powered HD video monitoring solution that enables OEMs to dramatically reduce time-to-market for wireless multi-node monitoring systems in homes and small businesses.

"This partnership between OmniVision and VIA Technologies exemplifies both companies' desire to meet the rapidly growing demand for turnkey solutions that can give OEMs the ability to quickly and cost-effectively bring innovative smart devices to market," said Paul Gallagher, senior director of marketing at OmniVision. "By offering 'instant-on' crisp HD video and streaming capabilities in an extremely power-efficient, battery operated package, OmniVision's OV9712 and OV788 video signal processor together provide excellent capabilities for the advanced solution now under development."

Utilizing the OV9712 sensor with OmniPixel3-HS high sensitivity pixels, the solution will operate in conjunction with OmniVision's ultra-low power OV788 video signal processor. That processor will provide video compression, 720p HD video streaming, and AES-256 encryption over any Wi-Fi network, thus allowing users to quickly stream high quality video content using the video monitoring solution.

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Caltech presents its paper "Nanophotonic coherent imager" by Firooz Aflatouni, Behrooz Abiri, Angad Rekhi, and Ali Hajimiri published in Optics Express. The 4 x 4 pixel imager is utilizes a coherent LIDAR principle and is said to be able to resolve 15um depth difference at 0.5m distance.

"By having an array of tiny LIDARs on our coherent imager, we can simultaneously image different parts of an object or a scene without the need for any mechanical movements within the imager. By coupling, confining, and processing the reflected light in small pipes on a silicon chip, we were able to scale each LIDAR element down to just a couple of hundred microns in size—small enough that we can form an array of 16 of these coherent detectors on an active area of 300 microns by 300 microns," says Ali Hajimiri. In the future, Hajimiri says, that the current array of 16 pixels could also be easily scaled up to hundreds of thousands.


Thanks to TKL for the pointer!

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Sony posts Youtube videos comparing a phase detection AF with a contrast one:

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Pelican Imaging patent application US20150091900 "Systems and Methods for Depth-Assisted Perspective Distortion Correction" by Samuel Yang, Manohar Srikanth, Dan Lelescu, and Kartik Venkataraman proposes a solution to the common selfie problem:

"Close range portraiture photographs, such as self-portraits, are often perceived as having apparent perspective distortions at typical image viewing distances, even if the optics produce a geometrically accurate perspective projection of the scene. A mismatch in the field of view of the camera and that of the viewing display configuration can result in the perceived distortion, which in portraiture photographs, tends to magnify the size of the nose and chin, among other features. These distortions are especially common with photographs taken with mobile device cameras due to the wide angular field of view typical of such cameras and close range nature of many self-portraits and candid portraits."

Pelican proposes to use the depth information to post-process the image and fix the distortions:

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Electronics360: IHS teardown of GoPro Hero revealed On Semi (Aptina) 8MP sensor inside, although the camera is speced at 5MP. The 1/3.2-inch sensor is based on 1.4um pixel.

The camera module is estimated to cost about a quarter of the total cost of $47.11:

GoPro Hero cost contributors

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Japanese ITE (Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers) Transactions on Media Technology and Applications announces a forthcoming Special Section on “Advanced Image Sensor Technology” to be published in April 2016. The objective of the special section is focus on the advances in image sensor technologies. The original research papers are invited. The topics include the following:

• CMOS image sensors, CCD image sensors, and related technologies
• Application specific image sensors
• Novel architecture, operation and materials for imaging devices
• Invisible imaging devices (IR, UV, X-ray, high-energy particles, ions, etc.)
• Machine vision
• Others

Papers must be submitted by August 31, 2015.

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ADSReports presents a report on China image sensor market:

"The new report recognizes the following companies as the key players in the Mobile Image Sensor Market in China: Aptina Imaging Corp., OmniVision Technologies Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Sony Semiconductor Corp.

Other Prominent Vendors in the market are: Canon, GalaxyCore, LG Innotek, Panasonic Corporation, Sharp, Sharpvision, SiliconFile, Sunny Optical Technology, STMicroelectronics and Toshiba.

Further, the report states that one of the main challenges that are hindering the growth of this market is the high cost of production because of the high cost of raw materials. The cost of producing image sensors is increasing yearly because of the R&D expenditure incurred by vendors and also because of the marketing costs."

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