Showlei Associates has announced its CamCoder video compression device that will dramatically lower the cost, power consumption and size for the compression of high-definition streaming images. This IC can be used in a variety of applications and especially addresses the need for high-resolution surveillance image recording. The device is able to simultaneously encode two separate streaming images — full size and quarter size — with robust compression and high quality. The IC also contains internal logic for user-programmable motion detection and watermark insertion, as well as on-board memory.

The CamCoder interfaces directly with a variety of CMOS imagers — from QVGA to very-high, eight-megapixel resolution, and above.

According to John Music, president, Showlei is known for proprietary time-domain video codecs that lower chip transistor count by more than 10:1 — compared with other MPEG designs.

As Music explained it, "A lot of applications want to go to high definition. The problem with the most popular forms of compression, such MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and H.264, is that at high-definition pixel rates, it take super-computer performance on the part of the compression engine. However, with our old tried and proven compression system, we can build a high-definition engine that is much less computation intensive. Therefore, you can put it in a tiny little piece of silicon that is both low power and low in cost."

Coupling CamCoder directly to a CMOS imager reduces system chip count while at the same time eliminating sources of noise and distortion. Eliminating external memory further reduces system cost and power consumption. CamCoder can be interfaced with a variety of external MPUs through a generic interrupt driven interface and has internal FIFO buffering of compressed data streams.

Showlei's and its predecessor company have a history of developing proprietary video codecs spanning more than 20 years. The company maintains technical staffs in Tokyo, Japan, Beijing, China and Temecula, CA.

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