Aptina Licenses DxO Lab's Digital Pixel Processing

AG sent me an interesting PR which does not appear anywhere, other than on this site. Here it is in full:

January 31, 2011 - DxO Labs today announces that it has entered into a licensing agreement with Aptina Imaging Corporation to integrate its DxO Digital Pixel Processing (DxO DPP) technology into high-end CMOS imaging products for Aptina.

"We are very excited to team up with CMOS image sensor leader Aptina," said Jérôme Ménière, CEO of DxO Labs. "Our DxO DPP technology research scientists have developed a ground-breaking solution that can significantly improve the image quality of miniaturized cameras while reducing manufacturing costs."

"We are very pleased to partner with DxO Labs, a very innovative and leading imaging company," said Farshid Sabet, Vice President and General Manager of Aptina's Mobile, PC and Gaming Business Unit. "This technology will provide our customers two key benefits: first, DxO's DPP technology clearly provides improved overall image quality, and secondly, the technology reduces system complexity, increases overall product quality, and enables rapid integration."

About DxO DPP

Color shading and green imbalance are system-level issues that occur when the camera is miniaturized by using 1.75µ pixels and smaller. The color light rays are much more spread out as they pass through the lens and infrared filter and then onto to sensor. The problem is made more complex due to a high variability of conditions, including numerous different kinds and intensities of light sources, the colors in the scene, and the unit dependency.

All these root causes and variations make this a very complex problem to solve. Current correction methods are based on costly calibrations on the production line for a limited number of predetermined situations. They introduce failures in most indoor real-life situations, even with high-end smart phones using backside illumination (BSI) sensors.

DxO Labs engineers have succeeded in developing an advanced technology that provides the color uniformity that end-users expect, regardless of the sensor size, the light source, the scene, and the unit. DxO DPP estimates color lens shading and green imbalance maps on the fly from the stream of images before correcting RAW data for color non-uniformity and high-frequency structured noise.

Using DxO DPP technology, digital camera and camera phone OEMs can:

• Differentiate their image quality compared to current per-unit calibration-based methods;
• Market thinner devices by relaxing constraints on lenses;
• Reduce system costs thanks to easier camera manufacturing;
• Shorten time-to-market through simplified integration and tuning.

DxO DPP solution is available in two versions:

• A hardware version delivered as a soft RTL IP that can be integrated either in a CMOS sensor die or in a processor chip.
• A software version delivered as a library running on any ARM core or embedded processor.

Update: Quality Magazine and I-Micronews published the PR.

Update #2: The official PR is published at PRLog site.