Argon Design Ltd, a company specialising in digital video and multimedia technology, has signed up the first licensee for Argon360, hardware based intellectual property for real-time video stitching, addressing the rapidly expanding 360-degree panoramic video camera market.
This photograph shows the input to the stitching process and the second the output. Argon team used a 6-camera rig with cameras on the faces of a cube to capture a complete 360° view. Each camera has a field of view of 120° x 90°. The cube is mounted by a corner, so the views are all at an angle. The resulting 6 images are shown in this picture.
Argon360 is designed to be incorporated into next generation SoCs for cameras, smartphones and other devices supporting 360° panoramic video acquisition. Argon Design CTO Steve Barlow explains: “By implementing sophisticated video stitching algorithms in hardware, Argon360 is able to offer an unmatched combination of video quality and performance, with the low power consumption required for portable battery-powered devices. The system can handle any combination of up to six sensors with an output resolution of up to 8192 x 4320 at 30 frames per second, and has an ultra-low latency of just one frame”.
Argon team stitched these 6 images using Argon360 to produce an 360° equirectangular projection output which is shown in this picture. The equirectangular projection is a standard way of representing a surround view that is understood by video sharing sites such as YouTube. In this projection, longitude and latitude angles are mapped directly to X and Y respectively. The “North Pole” is spread across the whole of the top edge of the image and the “South Pole” across the whole of the bottom edge.
Argon360 is targeted at semiconductor companies and product manufacturers for use in applications such as action cameras, broadcast equipment, security cameras, medical equipment and drones. The instant availability of high quality stitched content helps to simplify and enrich the user experience, supporting 360° streaming for immersive social media interaction, real-time 360° preview, instant playback of stitched video and immediate availability of immersive content for upload to the Cloud.
Argon360 is marketed worldwide by CamverTech. For more information please visit www.argondesign.com/products/argon360/, contact your local CamverTech sales representative, or email argon360@argondesign.com.
*The photos were taken at our office in Cambridge – St John’s Innovation Centre, Cambridge, UK. The two pictures provided show an example of video stitching.
Argon Design, based in Cambridge UK offers electronic product design services and world leading products such as Argon Streams, which has been licensed to many of the world’s top semiconductor manufacturers and in 2016 received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category. Argon360 is the result of a 10 man-year Argon R&D investment, building on Argon’s extensive experience in digital video and multimedia.
See www.argondesign.com/products/argon360/ or contact argon360@argondesign.com.
CamverTech is a Global Technical Sales Specialist. Their highly experienced sales talent is distributed across Europe (including Israel), USA, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.