NEC Electronics Announces New Technology to Boost Low Resolution in Images and Video

NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723) today announced that it has developed a technology for improving the display of low-resolution images and movies on large screen panels. Working with NEC Corporation, NEC Electronics has achieved a new technology for greatly reducing the blurring and graininess that occurs when low-resolution media is magnified for large-screen display.
The new technology is a single frame super-resolution technology which analyzes and processes the information contained in one frame of data to improve blurring and graininess. It is based on an algorithm which refines the contours of people and objects in image magnification process, and compensates for the quality and enhances the color rendition for crisp images.
The application of the new algorithm enhances 1seg ground digital broadcasts from the QVGA format (320 × 240 pixels) of image data to the WVGA format (800 × 400 pixels) for crisp image display on mobile phones and car navigation systems, five times the display resolution. Additionally, the technology boosts image data in VGA format (720 × 480 pixels) ordinarily used for TV broadcasts and DVD storage to six times the resolution, providing clear images for HDTV (1920 × 1080 pixels).

Before the end of summer, NEC Electronics will begin accepting orders for ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) products with the new technology incorporated in the IP core. Shipping of ASICs with the single frame super-resolution is expected to begin as early as summer 2009, with orders projected to reach ¥10 billion in fiscal year ended March 2011.
Because of the capability to improve image quality using only a single image, the advanced IP core requires less data capacity and can process in real time without the need for external processing memory. Further, with no software required and a familiar video interface widely used in other applications for outputting data, the new IP core is easy to load in existing systems.
The hardware developer can therefore use the new IP core to quickly and inexpensively construct 1seg broadcast receivers such as mobile phones and car navigation systems as well as HDTVs capable of magnifying and displaying low-resolution images (still or movies) on large screen panels.

In Japan, a ground digital 1seg broadcast service started in April 2006. This allows a range of devices such as mobile phones, car navigation systems, portable game machines and portable music players to receive digital broadcasts, and the images and movies the service provides have become more integrated into people's daily lives. With 1seg, QVGA or other low-resolution images are transmitted from a station. The image is then boosted to WVGA on the receiving side, a process currently capable of enhancing the received signal five times. The improvement in resolution rises to six times on the latest HDTV products when reproducing media taken with older cameras and video cameras so common in households.
To magnify low-resolution still images and movies for display on large screen panels, a variety of conventional techniques are employed. For example, in bilinear interpolation, pixel value is interpolated from four pixels around it. In bicubic interpolation, pixel value is interpolated by fitting 3rd order equation to 16-pixel around it. With these techniques, however, there are problems in the clarity of the magnified image, with blurring occurring or the contour of people and objects becoming grainy.
There does exist a technology for improving the quality of still images and movies to create a clear image. With this technique, high-frequency component is restored by analyzing multiple observations of the target captured in successive frames. This technique requires a dramatic increase in analysis data, however. It also entails increased component costs for the larger external memory required, and real-time processing is difficult, making it unsuited for consumer electronics applications.
With the aim of developing a technology to improve image quality that can easily be incorporated into a system quickly and without high costs, NEC Electronics has therefore developed an algorithm to reproduce clear images with one frame analysis, decreasing the data required, and is planning the start of supplying the algorithm in an IP core loaded on ASICs.

While the main purpose of this technology is to improve 1seg received images and the display of older media, it also enables the display of media at a high resolution even if taken by a digital still or video camera at a lower resolution. Rather than filming at 17 minutes at high resolution, for example, users can therefore film for twice as long with the same 1 GB of memory and still view the result with high quality. With photographs as well, twice the number can be taken for high, bright photo results. With scanners, high resolution images can be reproduced from low-resolution scans, greatly reducing the scanning time and system costs.

As a dedicated semiconductor manufacturer, NEC Electronics is actively expanding its home digital semiconductor base as a core business, and product and technology development are the principle area of focus in the field of image processing. NEC Electronics aspires to lead the industry, continuing in its R&D efforts and bringing new products to market.

NEC Electronics will have an exhibit and demonstrations of its new technology at the 11th Embedded System EXPO & Conference (ESEC) at Tokyo Big Site from May 14 to 16.

About NEC Electronics

NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) specializes in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the high-end computing and broadband networking markets, system solutions for the mobile handset, PC peripherals, automotive and digital consumer markets, and platform solutions for a wide range of customer applications. NEC Electronics Corporation has subsidiaries worldwide including NEC Electronics America, Inc. (www.am.necel.com) and NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH (www.eu.necel.com). For additional information about NEC Electronics worldwide, visit www.necel.com.