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Concept
Image processor
Summary
An image processor, also known as an image processing engine, image processing unit (IPU), or image signal processor (ISP), is a type of media processor or specialized digital signal processor (DSP) used for , in digital cameras or other devices.
Image processors often employ parallel computing even with SIMD or MIMD technologies to increase speed and efficiency. The processing engine can perform a range of tasks.
To increase the system integration on embedded devices, often it is a system on a chip with multi-core processor architecture.
The photodiodes employed in an are color-blind by nature: they can only record shades of grey. To get color into the picture, they are covered with different color filters: red, green and blue (RGB) according to the pattern designated by the Bayer filter - named after its inventor. As each photodiode records the color information for exactly one pixel of the image, without an image processor there would be a green pixel next to each red and blue pixel. (Actually, with most sensors there are two green for each blue and red diode.)
This process, however, is quite complex, and involves a number of different operations. Its quality depends largely on the effectiveness of the algorithms applied to the raw data coming from the sensor. The mathematically manipulated data becomes the photo file recorded.
As stated above, the image processor evaluates the color and brightness data of a given pixel, compares them with the data from neighboring pixels, and then uses a demosaicing algorithm to produce an appropriate colour and brightness value for the pixel. The image processor also assesses the whole picture to guess at the correct distribution of contrast. By adjusting the gamma value (heightening or lowering the contrast range of an image's mid-tones), subtle tonal gradations, such as in human skin or the blue of the sky, become much more realistic.
is a phenomenon found in any electronic circuitry. In digital photography its effect is often visible as random spots of obviously wrong colour in an otherwise smoothly-coloured area.
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