About the Image Processing on DM355

Are you aware of the Leopard Imaging board available for DM355 (https://www.leopardimaging.com/5M_HD_Camera_Board.html )?  It uses the same sensor you are using and Leopard has already developed the drivers for this sensor.  I believe they make the these drivers and source code freely available in their website.  This may be a good starting point; I have seen this setup working and the quality looked decent.

As you can see from the link:https://www.leopardimaging.com/Sample_Images.html,the image quality is just so so. I checked their code detaily and find that the ipiped parameters they used is the default value as the SDK provides.I think if I tune the ipipe paratemter very carefully, I cat get a very clear picture from it, isn't it?

We will use the digital camera to perform license plate recognition, so we need the image will be very clear and the edge of digital on the license plate is very sharp(The color balance of the image is not very improtant for our application).BUT as you can see from the sample images,the detail of the image is very dim. If we use the DC on a low light environment, the license plate recognition will be very hard.Is there any method to improve this condition?OR Does DM355 apply to this application?

btw:the ipipe blocks description on VPFE document is very simple,is there any additional document to help us to tune the ipipe parameter for our application?

Thank you very much for your kindly reply!

pavel said:

I think if I tune the ipipe paratemter very carefully, I cat get a very clear picture from it, isn't it?

pavel said:

If we use the DC on a low light environment, the license plate recognition will be very hard.Is there any method to improve this condition?OR Does DM355 apply to this application?

You may be able to improve some things, but I think what you would really need to get a sharper picture is a better lens setup, I am not sure how much focus capability there is in such a small module, these are more designed for small space considerations as opposed to high quality and focus flexibility. I am somewhat curious why you are looking at the DM355 for this application, as it does not have a DSP, but only a MPEG4/JPEG accelerator, so it may not have the performance needed to run advanced object recognition software, this would typically be more suited to a DM644x device. Of course the DM355 makes perfect sense if you are just streaming images out to a backend processor to do the actual recognition.

pavel said:

btw:the ipipe blocks description on VPFE document is very simple,is there any additional document to help us to tune the ipipe parameter for our application?

In general documentation on the IPIPE is somewhat limited, for additional details you will want to work with your local TI contact as there will likely be an NDA involved.

Thank you for your kindly reply!

We have used zoran COACH to perform the same task on MT9P031 and the same Lens setup(a HD lens from Computar),the image quality is very good.But the zoran chip doesn't have streaming and network capality,so we want to use DM355 to substitute it.but up to now, we can't compare the image quality from DM355 with the zoran result.I think the reason is that we have not the optimized ipipe parameters for MT9P031. But after I checked the image quality from Leopard Imaging,I wonder wheter  the DM355 adopt to our application or not, so I want to konw if there are any successful application that using DM355 as still DC(not DV or IPCam)?

I am in China, If I want to apply the NDA protected documents,how should I contact with TI?

btw: We doesn't need to use DM644x to do the auto recognition task,because we just use DM355 to capture and jpegenc the image,then upload it to PC,there are somebody do the recognition task using their eyes:)

I believe Kodak has a digital still camera implemented with DM355.  Normally, NDAs are worked thru your local sales office; you should be able to get contact information via our website (I tried going to TI-China website, but could not understand the letters).  Let us know if you cannot find the contact to your local sales office.

Hi,Juan!

I have apply the NDA documents of detailed description on DM355 VPFE through the WPI group in China in September,  but up to now the NDA apply is not approved.Now our image quality have some improvement after I use the data clamp in CCDC, but the noise problem is very serious, and we can't find a proper noise table for the IPIPE noise filter. So I want you to check what should I do to speed up the NDA apply progress. You can send me your e-mail address, I will forward the detailed NDA apply e-mail to you.

Thank you very much! If you need, I can send some test image to you.

Hi Pavel,

Unfortunately, I am not too familiar with our NDA process as this normally gets handled thru our sales channel on a case by case basis.  I am not even sure if it is handled differently in different regions of the world as laws vary from country to country.  I will alert the proper TI-contacts to see how they may want to proceed.

Kind Regards, Juan

Pavel,

Just wanted to give you an update on this; the feedback I got was that a TI-representative assigned to your region will be contacting you.  Thank you for your patience and understanding.

pavel,

would you mind submitting your request via www.ti.com/support and address it to myself (Juan Gonzales); I will make sure to pass on your contact to the right person in your region.

Hi,Juan!

Thank you very much for your kindly help!

I will submit my request via the DSP EMail support channel on  www.ti.com/support, Is it Right?  I need your EMail address to complete the request. Thank you again for your kindly work!

yes, www.ti.com/support is the proper way to submit; no need for my e-mail, just put my name and a link to this forum post in your request.  Thank you.

Ok,Thank you very much for your patient help!

I have submit the request, please check it!

We are in a very urgent state,because we want to begin the production stage at 2010-02, if we can't solve the image quality problem more quickly, we have to delay the hardware design. Thank you!

Do you have a service request # I can track?

Hi Pavel,

I found the SR; it appears someone had sent you a reply back and closed it; that is why I had a hard time tracking it down... Anyway, we are good now, I have forwarded your information to the appropriate contact in your region who should be in touch with you soon.

PS: I also deleted your last post to protect your personal contact info

Hi，Juan!

Is there any update of my request?Up to now, I didn't receive any contact from TI in China. But NOW is a very urgent stage for us.so I want to konw is it possible to request the document from TI in USA directly?

Thank you very much!

just sent a follow up to our product manager on this to see what he advises.

Hola Juan,

I would like to get also the documentation of VPFE in order to improve the image quality, can you please explain me what is the procedure?

Many thanks

Magda