EMBEDDED STANDARDS
Trevett: Te automotive industry is one of the largest users of advanced sensors, and there is an increasing number of smart devices such as drones, industrial robots, security devices that will benefit from advanced sensor APIs. But for the exploratory group, we warmly invite camera, sensor and silicon vendors, and software developers from any market segment that has an interest in state-of-the-art sensor processing applications.
g
can, in fact, generate a consensus on what camera API standards would most benefit the industry. What standardisation activities result from the exploratory group, if any, will depend on the results of this group discussion – there is no predetermined outcome. Te exploratory group is open to all at no cost – we invite organisations to join. Yates: Any organisation that is willing to sign a simple NDA can participate in these meetings and share their expertise, whether they are a member of the Khronos Group or the EMVA; and to protect the IP of all participants, the meetings will explicitly exclude any detailed design discussions. Our goal will be to create an agreed scope of work which will outline the standardisation activities that can best address the fragmentation of embedded sensor control APIs. From this starting point, we can work on any actual standards development using established processes and IP frameworks, such as those used by both Khronos and EMVA in their existing standards development activities. EMVA and Khronos represent
complementary groups in the overall vision technology sector. By bringing together as many parties as possible from across multiple industries, we will create a much more representative quorum for the exploratory group.
How long will any activities take? Trevett: An exploratory group typically goes through three phases. Firstly, all members are invited to present on relevant public technologies or projects, pain points that they are experiencing, and requirements they feel are key – so that all participants
‘Te goal is to expand the commercial opportunities for all companies making and using advanced cameras’
are aware of the current industry situation. Ten the group brainstorms on potential directions to fill any identified standardisation gaps. Ten, finally, the group triages any proposals and attempts to generate consensus on standardisation activities that would gain industry participation and produce a scope-of-work document. Tis would typically take around six months, maybe less depending on how the discussions go. Yates: Beyond the creation of an effective statement of work, there is obviously a significant effort to generate a first consistent API specification. We expect this phase to take around 18 months to reach a v1.0 specification, but the actual timelines will, of course, depend on the scope and complexity of the work. While the overall project may take several years to reach wide-scale deployment in the field, it is important that we achieve a consensus in the scope of work in a reasonable timeframe to crystallise the benefit to industry.
Who would you like to be involved? Yates: While many sectors already make heavy use of embedded vision, this joint- initiative is truly open, and will benefit from participants from all sectors, and companies providing the component technologies.
34 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE VISION YEARBOOK 2021/22
Why now? Trevett: A number of companies are asking for a solution to streamline use of cameras and sensors in their software stacks, and we see a growing willingness to consider cross- vendor standards, so we think this may be the right time. A significant number of Khronos members have expressed interest in participating in the exploratory group including: All3D, Almalence, AMD, Apertus, the Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance, Arm, Cadence, Codeplay, Collabora, EA, Facebook, Google, Holochip, HP, Huawei, LunarG, Mobica, Nvidia, Oculus, Oppo, Qualcomm, RedHat, Texas Instruments, Ultraleap and Valve. Yates: We are also seeing a number of EMVA members and major machine vision companies such as Allied Vision, Adimec, Lucid Labs, Matrix Vision, Basler, Baumer, China Daheng, MVTec, and Stemmer Imaging signing up. We also have interest from significant open- source projects. I think it is important to remember that standards development is a long-term and iterative activity, but by starting this initiative now, we have the best chance to provide a firm foundation for future development at a time when the market is active and innovating, and I would encourage as many companies to participate as possible. O
Neil Trevett is president of the Khronos Group and VP of developer ecosystem at Nvidia; Chris Yates is president of EMVA and director of Vision Ventures. For more information and to join the Embedded Camera API Exploratory Group please go to
www.khronos.org/embedded-camera or
www.emva.org/standards-technology/ embedded-camera-api/
@imveurope |
www.imveurope.com
Visual Generation/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
