Embedded Vision: Look and Identify

by Farhad Fallahlalehzari, Applications Engineer, Aldec

Embedded vision is proving more and more popular across a range of industry sectors, and is increasingly requiring FPGA-based hardware acceleration to alleviate processor workload. This article outlines the challenges and solutions involved, and explains how an ADAS demonstration unit works.

Having given rise to several dedicated trade events, plus the formation of a bespoke alliance, ‘embedded vision’ is certainly an industry hot topic. The term refers to the integration of machine vision into a system so that it can automatically recognise certain aspects of its surrounding environment – and take action if required. Industry sectors looking to employ embedded vision technology include aerospace, automotive, industrial, medical and security.

Video cameras are, of course, the system’s ‘eyes’, and in this respect, the higher the resolution and the faster the frame rate, the greater the volume of data that must be processed. Dubbed ‘Big Data’, processing it is proving challenging, particularly in the automotive sector. Here, a variety of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) solutions are under development. They offer the potential to make driving safer, easier and more comfortable, and ADAS is regarded as a significant step towards fully autonomous vehicles.

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