RFEL with video image stabilisation IP core

Stabilisation is performed in real-time and entirely digitally, with the algorithm compensating for unwanted roll and horizontal and vertical shifts of a scene, thereby improving the display to the end-user and reducing work-load. The IP core can be configured to be highly resource efficient and very low power if required. "Image stabilisation is an important capability for many electro-optic sensors," explained Dr Alex Kuhrt, CEO of RFEL Ltd. "Our IP-Core can therefore enhance many practical viewing systems, spanning a very broad range of applications including those found in defence and security sectors. The Image Stabilisation IP-Core provides a means for reducing both image blur and unwanted frame-to-frame image shifts and rotations, thereby aiding image interpretation and reducing the operator's workload." While current electronic image stabilisation approaches use prominent image features to generate frame-to-frame flow vectors, and relatively simple processing in order to achieve sufficient throughput performance, RFEL's approach is to process image frames on a tiled basis in the spatial frequency domain. This allows the IP Core to process all of the scene information and gives a far more robust and accurate stabilisation solution. The Stabilisation Core is designed to deliver a stable image under the most demanding of applications, including: driving aids for military vehicles, diverse airborne platforms, targeting systems and remote border security cameras. The algorithm implemented within the IP core stabilises images subjected to two-dimensional translations and rotations, from both static and moving platforms. The stabilisation function provides real-time correction at frame-rates of up to 150 Hz for various imaging devices, or for resolutions of up to 1080p including both daylight and infrared cameras. For example, a 1080p colour camera operating at 8 bits and with a frame-rate of 60 Hz, necessitates operation with an input data rate of ~1 Gbits/s. The accuracy of image stabilisation, achieved when tested using a very diverse and demanding range of evaluation video data, has been shown to be better than ± 1 pixels, even when subjected to random frame-to frame displacements of up to ± 25 pixels in the x and y directions and with a frame-to-frame rotational variation of up to ± 5˚. The Image Stabilisation IP-Core is designed to work on all suitable major FPGA vendors' devices, although additional performance is available for Xilinx Zynq-7000 SoC devices only.