Agilent Technologies Announces Innovative Image Pipe for Camera Phones; Processor Enables Digital-Camera-Like Image Quality for Cell-Phone Cameras in All Lighting Conditions
PALO ALTO, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Nov. 28, 2005—
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced an
innovative image pipe processor that allows mobile phone and computing
devices to take lifelike, rich color photos in all lighting
conditions. The image pipe is integrated in Agilent's new family of
system-on-chip (SOC) sensors, which feature the enhanced-performance
(EP) pixel architecture.
What sets Agilent's image pipe apart from existing image signal
processors (ISPs) is the degree of built-in processing intelligence
and adaptability to lighting conditions, which results in exceptional
image quality. The image pipe accommodates a wide range of lighting
conditions, from indoor to sunlight to fluorescent, and can enhance
overexposed or underexposed images.
The Agilent image pipe contains more than 10 new design
enhancements, including proprietary Agilent innovations such as
automatic illuminant detection and highly advanced exposure control,
pixel correction and contrast control. The image pipe is also
specifically tuned to Agilent's enhanced performance (EP) pixel
architecture, and is part of the company's EP-based SOC product line.
The EP pixel architecture reduces dark current and noise, provides
unmatched low image lag and removes the lens shading effect to offer
breakthrough low-light CMOS sensor performance. Agilent's EP sensor
matches CCD sensor results by producing bright, high-quality images in
extremely low-light conditions.
"Image pipe processors make the raw sensor picture pleasing to the
human eye," said Feisal Mosleh, director of Mobile Imaging Marketing
in Agilent's Semiconductor Products Group. "This is achieved in
digital still cameras by invoking a host of auto functions, such as
exposure control and auto white balance. These same functions are not
generally as advanced in camera phone ISPs. Agilent's image pipe
raises the bar with a streamlined, low-power ISP designed to produce
sharper, more vivid images than past camera phones and rivals those
from good digital still cameras. Until now, no camera phone ISP has
been able to behave so much like its bigger sibling, the digital still
camera ISP."
Unlike many third-party graphics processors, Agilent's image pipe
is tightly coupled with the CMOS sensor, resulting in better colors,
higher contrast, truer skin tones, and picture rendering that is
highly adaptive to varying lighting, shadows and movement.
"We believe the market will increasingly demand higher picture
quality," said Chris Crotty, senior analyst, consumer electronics,
with iSuppli Corp. "By working on enhancing the picture quality of its
image sensor/processor chips, Agilent is addressing an important
industry trend."
Image Pipe Features
The Agilent image pipe is the industry's most advanced camera
phone ISP design in terms of perceptual image quality. It can be
delivered with seventh-generation JPEG compression and enables
visually pleasing prints in a 4" x 6" format. The image pipe includes
a special effects generator, advanced exposure control, true color
image processing and enhanced automatic pixel correction. It also
offers these key features:
-- Plausible illuminant (adapts to the ambient light), an
automatic illuminant detector that improves auto white balance
for true color accuracy (1).
-- Adaptive tone mapping that provides dynamic range expansion to
deliver better contrast and richer, more vivid colors (1).
-- Advanced exposure control that offers flexible exposure
settings (vs. conventional auto exposure) to produce brighter
non-flash images (1).
-- Enhanced automatic pixel correction that is 5X better than
conventional bad pixel amelioration (1).
-- Adaptive compression that ensures the best-quality JPEG
compression with no dropped frames (1).
-- Programmable dual LED and Xenon flash strobe support (1).
-- Locally adaptive color noise suppression (1).
-- Smooth digital zoom to emulate an optical zoom movement (1).
-- Special-effects generator with "blue people," black and white,
sepia, solarization and 20 other special effects.
-- Anti-vignetting correction for lens shading effects.
-- Picture sharpening and auto-flicker correction.
Availability
The image pipe will be included in Agilent's new EP megapixel and
multi-mega-pixel SOC sensors in the first half of 2006. Further
information about Agilent's EP-based CMOS image sensors and image pipe
processors is available at www.agilent.com/view/imaging.
Agilent's Mobile Appliance Solutions
Agilent is a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions for
today's highly integrated, feature-rich mobile handsets. In addition
to CMOS image sensors and processors that enable camera phones,
notebooks and mobile cams, Agilent provides FBAR filters and E-pHEMT
and HBT power amplifiers that save battery life and help shrink
handset size, infrared transceivers for transmitting data,
surface-mount LEDs that provide backlighting styling options,
proximity sensors that automate the speakerphone, and ambient light
photo sensors that save battery life by controlling backlighting. No
other component vendor offers all of these solutions for mobile
appliances. More information about Agilent's family of mobile
appliance semiconductor solutions is available at
www.agilent.com/view/mobile.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is the world's premier
measurement company and a technology leader in communications,
electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 27,000
employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net
revenue of $5.1 billion in fiscal 2005. Information about Agilent is
available on the Web at www.agilent.com.
(1) Agilent proprietary advantage.
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Semiconductor Products Group at 800-235-0312, or e-mail us at
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at www.agilent.com/go/news.
Contact:
Agilent
Mark Alden, 408-435-6905
Email Contact
or
Weber Shandwick (for Agilent)
Elvia Soltero, 408-530-8400 ext. 2226
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