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Video Processing

T

Tom

Jan 1, 1970
0
Can anyone suggest a good cheap video processor IC that will take an input
from a CCD camera and then store a signle shot to RAM. It doesn't need to
compress the data or have a continuous feed as the system will mostly be
used to take an optical sample every second or so for analysis. However, it
would be nice if it could store the image in under a ms or so and then I can
read it out for display by an LCD controller to give an occasional live
feed.

AdvThanksAnce

Tom
 
F

Frank Bemelman

Jan 1, 1970
0
Tom said:
Can anyone suggest a good cheap video processor IC that will take an input
from a CCD camera and then store a signle shot to RAM. It doesn't need to
compress the data or have a continuous feed as the system will mostly be
used to take an optical sample every second or so for analysis. However, it
would be nice if it could store the image in under a ms or so and then I can
read it out for display by an LCD controller to give an occasional live
feed.

The majority of framegrabbers use the BT878 from Conexant.
 
T

Tom

Jan 1, 1970
0
Frank Bemelman said:
The majority of framegrabbers use the BT878 from Conexant.

I looked at Conexant's Website and they don't mention the BT878 but I've had
a look at the BT829B and it looks to be in the region of what I'm looking
for. However, I'm still quite new to video and I'm wondering how to store
the Y/C data in RAM as an RGB bitmap. I suspect that an FPGA or CPLD is
going to be required or are there devices available which will take care of
everything for me?
 
F

Frank Bemelman

Jan 1, 1970
0
Tom said:
I looked at Conexant's Website and they don't mention the BT878 but I've had
a look at the BT829B and it looks to be in the region of what I'm looking
for. However, I'm still quite new to video and I'm wondering how to store
the Y/C data in RAM as an RGB bitmap. I suspect that an FPGA or CPLD is
going to be required or are there devices available which will take care of
everything for me?

I suppose you have to translate Y/C to RGB if you want to display
it. But that is just software ;) I agree, these chips are not trivial
stuff to implement. Perhaps using a full digital CCD camera is
easier to connect. Or look for frame buffers used in 100Hz TV sets.
I don't think there is a converter chip that looks like an ordinary
static ram chip with just address and data lines, that would be ideal
of cource.
 
T

Tom

Jan 1, 1970
0
Frank Bemelman said:
I suppose you have to translate Y/C to RGB if you want to display
it. But that is just software ;) I agree, these chips are not trivial
stuff to implement. Perhaps using a full digital CCD camera is
easier to connect. Or look for frame buffers used in 100Hz TV sets.
I don't think there is a converter chip that looks like an ordinary
static ram chip with just address and data lines, that would be ideal
of cource.

It's encouraging that Y/C to RGB is just software because I don't reckon it
would be a huge problem to buffer streaming pixel data (famous last words).
Do you know what the conversion process is?
 
J

James Morrison

Jan 1, 1970
0
Can anyone suggest a good cheap video processor IC that will take an input
from a CCD camera and then store a signle shot to RAM. It doesn't need to
compress the data or have a continuous feed as the system will mostly be
used to take an optical sample every second or so for analysis. However, it
would be nice if it could store the image in under a ms or so and then I can
read it out for display by an LCD controller to give an occasional live
feed.

I'd suggest the ADI BlackFin. It's small, low-power, and cheap. You
will however need an external PLD or otherwise to generate the CCD
control signals. At least you would with any CCD I've used.

If you need any help developing with the BlackFin let me know.

Cheers,

James.
 
F

Frank Bemelman

Jan 1, 1970
0
Tom said:
It's encouraging that Y/C to RGB is just software because I don't reckon it
would be a huge problem to buffer streaming pixel data (famous last words).
Do you know what the conversion process is?

They take a group of 4 pixels and store luminance for all pixels, but
for the color information R-Y and B-Y only twice per group of 4 pixels,
or only once per group of 4 pixels. It's named YUV 4:2:2 or 4:1:1. Or
something like that.

To restore to 24 bit RGB, you have to add/subtract and multiply a
lot, with crazy factors I don't remember. But you can use lookup tables
to speed things up.
 
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