OmniVision's new OAX4000 image signal processor reduces the complexity of car camera design

     OmniVision, the world's leading developer of digital imaging solutions, has announced the new OAX4000. This companion image Signal processor (ISP) provides design flexibility for the next generation of automotive single - and multi-camera architectures, enabling Oems to keep their designs timeless and versatile as market demands change. Combined with Howe Technologies' comprehensive sensor portfolio, the OAX4000 provides the ultimate solution.

     Perfect for a variety of automotive applications, including circumnavigation systems, electronic rearview mirrors, in-car and autonomous driving cameras, the OAX4000 is a high-performance application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) capable of processing data streams generated by up to four 3-megapixel cameras or one 8-megapixel camera. The product supports multiple color filter array (CFA) modes and offers independent output stream options for machine vision and human vision pipelines. In addition, the imaging pipeline has been upgraded to provide excellent image quality. The product also uses a next-generation tone mapping algorithm.

     "Our mission is to help automotive Oems by understanding the issues they need to address now and in the future," said Andy Hanvey, Director of Automotive Marketing at OmniVision. "The new OAX4000 ISP is designed to be flexible, compact and adaptable to a variety of camera architectures, reducing development complexity and cost. In addition, this high-performance ASIC has the ability to handle a wide range of camera use cases."

     "In the medium to long term, the automotive vision processing market is expected to maintain double-digit growth in the next decade, but the automotive vision processing market is not a panacea," "Vision processing development strategies for advanced driver assistance systems serving the mass consumer market, shipping and transportation, mobility as a service or future autonomous vehicles are going in different directions," said Tom Hackenberg, principal analyst for computing and software at Yole Semiconductors, Memory and Computing. It covers a range of products from smart camera modules to multiple basic cameras connected to a single domain controller. Additional sensors may need to be integrated into the imaging system. It's clear that there are many paths to vision processing, and image processing needs to be feature-rich and adaptable to all of these scenarios."