University start-up has a novel way with MPEGSteve BushA new UK company has been set up to exploit MPEG image compression technology developed at the University of Reading.
"We have developed a completely new way of providing motion compensation and can show by calculation that our algorithm gives better reproduction and is faster than 'block matching' which is the standard method," said Professor Graham Megson, a director of Systolica, as the company will be known.
Motion estimation is part of the MPEG image compression process. Megson is aiming to sell his algorithm, as a VHDL intellectual property block, to companies developing MPEG compression devices.
Step one for Systolica is to push various video streams through its algorithm and "put some numbers on exactly how much faster our method is", said Megson.
The next step is to develop a prototype parallel processing architecture that will implement the algorithm in hardware.
Towards these aims, the company recently received a DTI SMART award.
Based on the prototype, Megson and colleagues will develop the licensable IP core. Market introduction is planned for the first quarter of 2001.
The product has a name, but Megson would not disclose it. "The algorithm is not patented yet and people could work back to it from the name," he said.
Systolica currently has four employees, all directors, "two techies and two business men", said Megson.
The company also intends to take on contracts to develop similar parallel processing VHDL designs.
Motion estimation is a technique used to reduce the amount of data that has to be transmitted to send video images. By comparing sequential frames, much of a succeeding frame can be constructed purely from the preceding frame.