[Elphel-support] FPGA CCD Camera Video Compression to send Windows App using Altera Cyclone IV

[Adam Gibson]

Hi Andrey,

 

I appreciate the reply.

I've found this article:

 
<http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/Linux-For-Devices-Articles/Elphel-camera
-under-the-hood-from-Verilog-to-PHP/>
http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/Linux-For-Devices-Articles/Elphel-camera-
under-the-hood-from-Verilog-to-PHP/

 

1.       Is this article still accurate?

2.       Is your MJPEG encoder fully created in hardware? I'm sifting
through the Verilog files for 353 version 8.09 and I'm finding it difficult
to identify the compression parts and match to the block diagram. 

3.       Is the compression code something I can dissect out? If so what
files exactly construct it? I've noticed some of the Verilog files are
labelled 333.

4.       What was the reason that your new models changed to MJPEG? These
still achieve 1280x1024 at 27fps with MJPEG?

 

Note regarding my system. The only things set is:

.         Its on Altera.

.         The camera gives Bayer pattern row by row. (ie. R-G rows and B-G
rows).

.         I've got a very basic Ethernet going, but it will need adjustments
depending on what data I get.

.         Everything else requires me to solve the video compression and
construct the hardware/software around it.

 

Again thank you for your help Andrey.

 

Adam Gibson

 

From: elphel at gmail.com [mailto:elphel at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Andrey
Filippov
Sent: Monday, 9 May 2011 12:06 PM
To: support-list at support.elphel.com; a.gibson at uon.edu.au
Subject: Re: [Elphel-support] FPGA CCD Camera Video Compression to send
Windows App using Altera Cyclone IV

 

 

QUESTIONS
1. What recommendations do people have for video compression. Keeping in my
mind that I need this to consume as little of my time as possible (I know a
shocker).


Adam,

I do not think I can give you any useful advice on this - I do not know
"easy" way that will not consume much of your time. And currently we do not
have any real video compression - Ogg Theora was implemented on the previous
camera (model 333) and was never ported to the current one. In 353 camera we
use just Motion JPEG (sequence of JPEG frames), either with standard JPEG or
the modified version - JP4, that is designed to compress raw Bayer pixels
without conversion to YCbCr 4:2:0
 

2. If I were to port Elphel's compression (with their express permission),
what Xilinx to Altera problems am I likely to run into?


You do not need any type of the permission from us -all our code is released
under GNU GPLv3, but your derivative FPGA code has to be available under the
same license - you may find more on our wiki -
http://wiki.elphel.com/index.php?title=FAQ
 

3. Is there more detailed documentation on the Elphel FPGA design? The
current level I have been able to find is not very helpful with the level
I'm getting down to.


What kind of the documentation are you looking for? I do not think there is
much of it - the code base is a work in a constant progress, there were some
published articles describing the code in general, the rest are just
comments in the code.

I looked on you block diagram - our code does not exactly fit there, the
sensor data goes to the memory (through the FPGA) before being (optionally)
color-converted and compressed.

Andrey
 

4. Is anyone else working on similar things that would wish to pool our
resources?

Thanks in advance guys for any help you're willing to give, no matter how
small.

Regards,

A. Gibson

_

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