Image processor

An image processor, image processing engine, also called media processor, is a specialized digital signal processor (DSP) used for image processing in digital cameras, mobile phones or other devices. Image processors often employ parallel computing even with SIMD or MIMD technologies to increase speed and efficiency. The digital image processing engine can perform a range of tasks. To increase the system integration on embedded devices, often it is a system on a chip with multi-core processor architecture.

The photodiodes employed in an image sensor are color-blind by nature: they can only record shades of grey. To get color into the picture, they are covered with different color filters: red, green and blue (RGB) according to the pattern designated by the Bayer filter - named after its inventor. As each photodiode records the color information for exactly one pixel of the image, without an image processor there would be a green pixel next to each red and blue pixel. (Actually, with most sensors there are two green for each blue and red diodes.)

This process, however, is quite complex and involves a number of different operations. Its quality depends largely on the effectiveness of the algorithms applied to the raw data coming from the sensor. The mathematically manipulated data becomes the photo file recorded.

As stated above, the image processor evaluates the color and brightness data of a given pixel, compares them with the data from neighboring pixels and then uses a demosaicing algorithm to produce an appropriate colour and brightness value for the pixel. The image processor also assesses the whole picture to guess at the correct distribution of contrast. By adjusting the gamma value (heightening or lowering the contrast range of an image's mid-tones) subtle tonal gradations, such as in human skin or the blue of the sky, become much more realistic.

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