Electronica 2008 - Read our full show coverage from Munich
At Electronica today Xilinx has shown for the first time its FPGA-based design platform for vision-based driver assistance systems.
The aim has been to support image processing algorithms from third party specialist US-based Digital Design Corporation (DDC) to create applications, including pedestrian detection, collision warning, sign recognition, blind spot detection, back-up and parking aid.
Called the XA Optical Flow, it is built on a Spartan-3 device and DDC Optical Flow IP core with motion estimation algorithms.
According to Paul Zoratti, senior system architect of automotive solutions for Xilinx, the XA Optical Flow solution use the DDC image processing technologies as building blocks for FPGA-based DA systems.
"Developers are no longer constrained by the limitations of serial DSPs which can run out of steam for high-end pixel processing, or Asic and ASSP alternatives that don't have the flexibility to support rapid integration of new algorithms and application requirements as the market evolves," said Zoratti.
The Optical Flow IP core extracts relevant information about the roadway environment from the video images provided by vehicle-based camera systems. The extracted motion images are segmented into separate objects (pixel blocks) and processed using a block matching technique. The output is a two- dimensional vector map that can be utilized to assess collision threats.
Improving on the data throughput of tradition DSP CPU-based approaches, the FPGA executes these operations in parallel, so in a single clock cycle multiple operations can be carried out.
"As the image resolution of vehicle-based cameras increases, the amount of data generated and throughput required to process it also increases greatly. This imposes a heavy burden on existing DSP CPU-based approaches, which cannot keep up with performance requirements," said David Kitchka, project manager at DDC.
Demonstrations of this new Xilinx automation solution are taking place in the Xilinx Exhibit Booth at the Electronica 2008 Conference, which is being held at the International Congress Centre (ICM) in the New Munich Trade Fair Centre on November 11-14, 2008.