A single-chip FPGA implementation of real-time adaptive background model

This paper demonstrates the use of a single-chip FPGA for the extraction of highly accurate background models in real-time. The models are based on 24-bit RGB values and 8-bit grayscale intensity values. Three background models are presented, all using a camcorder, single FPGA chip, four blocks of RAM and a display unit. The architectures have been implemented and tested using a Panasonic NVDS60B digital video camera connected to a Celoxica RC300 Prototyping Platform with a Xilinx Virtex II XC2v6000 FPGA and 4 banks of onboard RAM. The novel FPGA architecture presented has the advantages of minimizing latency and the movement of large datasets, by conducting time critical processes on BlockRAM. The systems operate at clock rates ranging from 57MHz to 65MHz and are capable of performing pre-processing functions like temporal low-pass filtering on standard frame size of 640X480 pixels at up to 210 frames per second

ReS²tAC—UAV-borne real-time SGM stereo optimized for embedded ARM and CUDA devices

With the emergence of low-cost robotic systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicle, the importance of embedded high-performance image processing has increased. For a long time, FPGAs were the only processing hardware that were capable of high-performance computing, while at the same time preserving a low power consumption, essential for embedded systems. However, the recently increasing availability of embedded GPU-based systems, such as the NVIDIA Jetson series, comprised of an ARM CPU and a NVIDIA Tegra GPU, allows for massively parallel embedded computing on graphics hardware. With this in mind, we propose an approach for real-time embedded stereo processing on ARM and CUDA-enabled devices, which is based on the popular and widely used Semi-Global Matching algorithm. In this, we propose an optimization of the algorithm for embedded CUDA GPUs, by using massively parallel computing, as well as using the NEON intrinsics to optimize the algorithm for vectorized SIMD processing on embedded ARM CPUs. We have evaluated our approach with different configurations on two public stereo benchmark datasets to demonstrate that they can reach an error rate as low as 3.3%. Furthermore, our experiments show that the fastest configuration of our approach reaches up to 46 FPS on VGA image resolution. Finally, in a use-case specific qualitative evaluation, we have evaluated the power consumption of our approach and deployed it on the DJI Manifold 2-G attached to a DJI Matrix 210v2 RTK unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), demonstrating its suitability for real-time stereo processing onboard a UAV

A survey of network-based hardware accelerators

Many practical data-processing algorithms fail to execute efficiently on general-purpose CPUs (Central Processing Units) due to the sequential matter of their operations and memory bandwidth limitations. To achieve desired performance levels, reconfigurable (FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array)-based) hardware accelerators are frequently explored that permit the processing units’ architectures to be better adapted to the specific problem/algorithm requirements. In particular, network-based data-processing algorithms are very well suited to implementation in reconfigurable hardware because several data-independent operations can easily and naturally be executed in parallel over as many processing blocks as actually required and technically possible. GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) have also demonstrated good results in this area but they tend to use significantly more power than FPGA, which could be a limiting factor in embedded applications. Moreover, GPUs employ a Single Instruction, Multiple Threads (SIMT) execution model and are therefore optimized to SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) operations, while in FPGAs fully custom datapaths can be built, eliminating much of the control overhead. This review paper aims to analyze, compare, and discuss different approaches to implementing network-based hardware accelerators in FPGA and programmable SoC (Systems-on-Chip). The performed analysis and the derived recommendations would be useful to hardware designers of future network-based hardware accelerators.publishe

Full image-processing pipeline in field-programmable gate array for a small endoscopic camera

Endoscopy is an imaging procedure used for diagnosis as well as for some surgical purposes. The camera used for the endoscopy should be small and able to produce a good quality image or video, to reduce discomfort of the patients, and to increase the efficiency of the medical team. To achieve these fundamental goals, a small endoscopy camera with a footprint of 1 mm × 1 mm × 1.65 mm is used. Due to the physical prop erties of the sensors and human vision system limitations, different image-processing algorithms, such as noise reduction, demosaicking, and gamma correction, among others, are needed to faithfully reproduce the image or video. A full image-processing pipeline is implemented using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to accomplish a high frame rate of 60 fps with minimum processing delay. Along with this, a viewer has also been developed to display and control the image-processing pipeline. The control and data transfer are done by a USB 3.0 end point in the computer. The full developed system achieves real-time processing of the image and fits in a Xilinx Spartan-6LX150 FPGA.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pipeline Implementation of Peer Group Filtering in FPGA

In the paper a parallel FPGA implementation of the Peer Group Filtering algorithm is described. Implementation details, results, performance of the design and FPGA logic resources are discussed. The PGF algorithm customized for FPGA is compared with the original one and Vector Median Filtering

Biblioteca para diseño basado en modelos de algoritmos de procesado de imágenes en FPGA

This paper describes a library (XSGImgLib) that includes parameterizable blocks to implement low-level image processing tasks on FPGAs. A modelbased design technique provided by Xilinx System Generator (XSG) has been used to design the blocks, which implement point operation (binarization) and neighborhood operations (linear and non-linear filtering) in grayscale images. The blocks are parameterizable for input/output data precision, window size, normalization strategy, and implementation options (area versus speed optimization). The paper includes the implementation results obtained after fixing these options and exemplifies the combination of several blocks of the library to build a complete design for image segmentation purposes.Este artículo describe una biblioteca de bloques parametrizables (XSGImgLib) para la implementación de tareas de procesado de imágenes en FPGA. Se ha utilizado la técnica de diseño basado en modelos proporcionada por Xilinx System Generator (XSG) para diseñar diferentes bloques de procesado que implementan operaciones puntuales (binarización) y basadas en vecindad (filtros lineales y no-lineales) para imágenes en escala de grises. La parametrización de los bloques permite configurar la precisión de los datos de entrada/salida, el tamaño de la ventana, la estrategia de normalización y distintas opciones de implementación (optimización en área o velocidad). El artículo muestra los resultados de implementación para las diferentes opciones de configuración y ejemplifica la combinación de los bloques de procesado en el desarrollo de un sistema para segmentado de imágenes.Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo PCID/024124/09, PCID/030769/1

Design and FPGA Implementation of High Speed DWT-IDWT Architecture with Pipelined SPIHT Architecture for Image Compression

Image compression demands high speed architectures for transformation and encoding process Medical image compression demands lossless compression schemes and faster architectures A trade-off between speed and area decides the complexity of image compression algorithms In this work a high speed DWT architecture and pipelined SPIHT architecture is designed modeled and implemented on FPGA platform DWT computation is performed using matrix multiplication operation and is implemented on Virtex-5 FPGA that consumes less than 1 of the hardware resource The SPIHT algorithm that is performed using pipelined architecture and hence achieves higher throughput and latency The SPIHT algorithm operates at a frequency of 260 MHz and occupies area less than 15 of the resources The architecture designed is suitable for high speed image compression application