Smooth motion video requires the sensor to read out at 60 FPS. This means a sensor that can support 8MP stills should support a readout rate of 480M pixels per second. Most high resolution sensors and image processors are incapable of processing at this rate, so binning (summing pixels together into a single output value before demosaicing) is employed. An 8M sensor might combine 4 pixels together to read out 2M pixels at 60 FPS rather than 8 Mpixels. Although this may sound like "full HD" resolution, binning introduces jaggy-edge artifacts and a significant loss of resolution compared with reading out the full 8M pixels at 60 FPS and downsampling after demosaicing with a high quality filter. Fortunately, high-resolution CMOS sensors have recently been introduced that are capable of reading the full sensor resolution at the 60 FPS rate, and Ambarella's recently introduced A390 can process pixels at this rate. The combination provides video quality that exceeds conventional camcorders, while providing still picture resolution in excess of 6M pixels The fast frame rate can also be applied to still captures, including seamless capture of a high resolution while shooting a video sequence.
AMBARELLA A5 HYBRID CAMERA PLATFORM PUTS HIGH-QUALITY PHOTOS AND VIDEO ON A CHIP
Will I see products using this technology in 2010?
