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The Latest Trend in Features
In recent years the trend has been to make improvements in the areas of image enhancement. More specifically, the areas of block artefact and mosquito noise reduction. These areas will increase in importance in the next few years as compression rates are turned up to squeeze as much video content as possible in to available distribution channels and onto media such as SD and HD discs. Figure 3 and 4 respectively highlight the possible improvements that can be achieved when employing the latest block and mosquito noise reduction algorithms.

Other typical areas of image enhancement improvements include adaptive contrast enhancement, sharpness and texture enhancement, and selective colour correction.

What Does the Future Hold?
The next big hurdle in the field of image processing will be the inclusion of motion compensated processing. As silicon providers' rush to incorporate new levels of processing (based on motion compensation) we will see a wide variety of offerings and various levels of quality and capabilities.

Initial implementations will focus on addressing frame rate conversions between 50 ý 60Hz and from 60 ý 120Hz. As demonstrated in Figure 5, significant gains can be achieved by using motion compensation techniques, but the challenge for silicon providers will be to find the optimal trade-off between cost (including things like die area, external memory requirements and off-chip bus bandwidth) and performance. A number of silicon generations will be required before silicon providers reach the optimal point.

As a manufacturer, what's right for you?
Your focus should be on specialization if you deem image quality as one of your core competencies and/or the key driver to differentiate your product and promote your brand.

What does this mean to the consumer?
The consumer will win! Until recently, innovation in merchant silicon image processors was slow to happen. With additional competition and technology advances consumers should see much shorter design cycles between new product offerings.

In the short-term, to take advantage of the new specialized offerings, the majority of consumers will need to purchase standalone scaler box products like the Crystalio II or Vantage-HD and future generations of these types of products.

Over the long-term, more manufacturers will begin to adopt specialized image processing across their product lines, offering the very best in image quality to consumers. As this model gains popularity, the need for standalone scaler boxes will be reduced and the advancements in technology will be made widely available at an affordable price.

Conclusion
With the increasing number of image processing merchant silicon providers, and the push for further refinements in image processing techniques, the end consumer will benefit the most due to advancing feature sets and lower prices.

As we move forward, manufacturers need to decide whether to focus on integration or specialization or both.

The future looks bright for the field of image processing and the consumer alike!

About the Author
David Vrhovnik is the Manager of Video Algorithm Development at Gennum Corporation of Burlington, Ontario, Canada. David obtained his Computer Engineering and Management degree from McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario). He also has an MBA with a focus on Management of Innovation and Technology from the DeGroote School of Business (Hamilton, Ontario). If you have any comments or question about the article, you can contact him at dave_v@gennum.com .

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