Designing Adam 2

the weight and size of VEE
- VEE (and DPO) will be contained in the Adam2 as a discrete semiconductor device, weighing only a few grams. It will not add any appreciable size or weight to the tablet.
Rohan, I am really concerned about when the Adam2 prototype will be a realityI have read the information available on the Orthogonal Retina-Morphic Image Transform (ORMIT) algorithm and it still sounds very theoretical. They mainly deal with HD video cameras for security systems and probably developed by the Russians for intelligence gathering. This doesn’t sound like something to be used for a dependable, soon to be released product with the processing speed, power and memory that this algorithm appears to need.
- Prototypes: are up and running, so no concerns on the first part
- To be clear, the technology is a lot more along than just theoretical: iridix (by Apical Ltd, based out of the United Kingdom), the algorithm that is based on ORMIT, has shipped in more than 75 million (75,000,000) HDTVs and DSLR cameras. VEE and DPO have shipped in Pantech and BenQ products, along with other OEMs. Addressing the processing speed, VEE and DPO technologies are completely self-contained on the QuickLogic device, requiring no processing resources from the CPU, meaning the Adam2 will run at the full speed of the processor regardless of VEE. Actual power consumption is minimal, and when DPO’s power savings are factored in, the Adam2 will actually last significantly longer on a single battery charge than without VEE and DPO.
this “new” technology is like VividView processor used in Nook Tablet and Nook Color? Can you compare these two technologies? :
- VEE technology is specifically developed to address the issue of visibility improvement. VEE technologies differs from others primarily because it is a local-based, human-eye modeling processing technology. What this means is that viewability is improved in regions of the display requiring it, while regions with good viewability are not affected. Other visual improvement technologies rely on the theory of global processing, which while improving some regions of the image, can actually detract from others. The graphic below demonstrates this. With VEE, the native image is improved or maintained in all areas of the pictures, while competing, global-based technologies do improve some areas of the image while reducing viewability in others. More on VEE vs other technologies can be found on QuickLogic’s website at LINK (PDF).

By the way, above answers come directly from my friend Mr. Paul Karazuba who is S. Product Marketing Manager for QuickLogic Corp (you can ask more questions related to this technology and he would be more than willing to share 😉 )

So what is Visual Enhancement Engine?

This post is on VEE, the Visual Enhancement Engine for Image/Video Processing.

Displays are ubiquitous and we use them everywhere, under bright sun-light, varying ambient light and in no lighting condition.

To specifically target a part of this issue, viewing in sun-light, trans-flective screens were adopted for the first generation. What about the other lighting conditions? The PQ screens were very usable when you are outside, but once indoors, in little high, normal or low lighting condition, everyone felt bit a compromised on the color saturation. The more you use the devices, more you realize that the time you spend in direct sun-light is not the major use case, and then this little compromise suddenly becomes uncomfortable! All you are now left with is a near mono-chrome display in direct sun-light and washed out color feel in ambient lights. Good solution, but not good enough for how tablets are being used as of now.

Other solution to all the above problems was to record the ambient light using ambient light sensor, and bump up the backlight brightness or power display. Unfortunately doing so increases power consumption significantly, diminishing battery life.

To resolve specially this issue, Adam II comes with a Video Enhancement Engine on-board.

This engine delivers television-quality visual experience by adapting display data, in real-time, to imrpove the ability to view videos under low backlight or in bright ambient light conditions. It enhances the image and video quality by compressing the dynamic range to match the characteristics of the display, resulting in a better viewing experience.

The system is based on the Orthogonal Retina-Morphic Image Transform (ORMIT) algorithm. It is a sophisticated method of dynamic range compression which differs from conventional methods such as gamma correction in that it applies different tonal and color transformations to every pixel in an image. These algorithms implement a model of human perception, which results in a displayed image that retains details, color and vitality even under different viewing conditions. ORMIT was developed as a result into biological visual systems, with particular emphasis on the humans.

Simply put, the display will be tuned in most lighting condition for different sort of images, and right set of parameters are acquired for this algorithm. Now when the devices on field, experiences a certain lighting conditions type and an image/video, it can quickly change the image properties and increase visual quality.

Here is how it works:

OMAP reads data from the memory, it can be an image, or video. The Ambient Light Sensor sends measured light values to OMAP (so it can control VDO to be covered in the next blog) and VEE. OMAP has DSI out, which should be converted to LVDS signals so the display can read data. Instead on Adam II, this DSI out is sent to the VEE which does it visual enhancement real time and outs the data as LVDS which the screen can now read. VEE also takes the ambient light signal values as one of its parameters. You can see on the extreme right how a display might look when VEE is off and when it is on. This is a photoshopped image and doesn’t do justice to the actual performance. Once ready, I will share videos on this, comparing the best know devices around. What is missing in the picture picture above is the DPO.

This Visual Enhancement Engine comes on board with a Display Power Optimizer (DPO), both of which are a part of a single brilliant package developed by one of our partners (who also holds the trademarks for VEE and DPO). In the next blog we will introduce our partner and what exactly DPO does, and most importantly what it means for the overall power optimizations and visual experience on Adam II.

Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan

Uncategorized

April 14, 2012

17 Comments

The Screen and the Battery

Hi,

This post took longer time since the launch of another disruptive product from THE APPLE needs far more introspection that otherwise required.

It’s something we dwelled on while finalizing the specifications for the upcoming Adam. The option we had was 1920×1200 in 10 inch for the same thickness. Only thing which was to be handled was to move the LCD driving circuit to the main mother board, which was also in favor of what we wanted to do since we have a very special VEE (Visual Enhancement Engine) for controlling the display. But, there were 2 problems, power requirement and availability of the apps to run on such a resolution.

Our specs want the second to be charged in under 2.5 hours. With 25Whr battery, that would mean 2A on 5V. 3 important observations here. First, it can be charged with a normal laptop drawing around 500mA (using a micro USB cable). Second, any mobile charger with mirco-USB charger can charge it (unlike proprietary charger everyone needs to carry for most of the tablets, including 1). And third, leads to reduction in number of components. Micro-USB charging is much closer to EU’s charging specifications.

Bumping up the resolution would need 45Whr battery. The new iPad has it. Some hard decisions made were, heavier devices (more battery = more weight), more heat and worse more charging time. A 10W charger will charge it in ideally 4.5 hours. If you connect it with Mac it will take more than 18-20 hours! (5V and 500mA). All of this was a BIG no for us, but doens’t seem to be so for new iPad’s users.

Other was the availability of the applications. If you don’t have applications to make use of it, looking only at a beautiful homescreen won’t make sense. Just to give you an idea, even 1080p movie on this screen needs to be scaled up!

Higher-resolution screen is there on our roadmap, but not yet. Android eco-system is not ready, and instead of bumping up the battery to support higher res screen, we’d rather focus on how to cut the battery even further to support a higher resolution screen.

In the next blog I will introduce the VEE and a DPO (Display Power Optimizer) technologies which are the part of our next product. If implemented correctly it can result an improvement in between 20-40% on LCD power consumption.

Regards

Rohan Shravan

Uncategorized

April 8, 2012

21 Comments