A 100MHz real-time tone mapping processor with integrated photographic and gradient compression in 0.13 μm technology

Abstract

As the advance of high quality displays such as light-emitting diode (LED), liquid-crystal-display (LCD) or laser TV, the importance of a real-time high dynamic range (HDR) data processing for display devices increases significantly. Many tone mapping algorithms are proposed for rendering HDR images or videos on display screens. The choice of tone mapping algorithm depends on characteristics of displays such as luminance range, contrast ratio and gamma correction. An ideal HDR tone mapping processor should include different types of tone mapping algorithms and be able to select an appropriate one depending on devices and applications. The photographic tone reproduction has lower complexity and better quality among global tone mapping schemes. The gradient compression, a local tone mapping, is known for detail preservation. In this paper, we present an integrated photographic and gradient tone mapping processor that can be configured for different applications. This design that can process 1024 times 768 images at 60 fps runs at 100 MHz clock and consumes core area of 8.1 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> under TSMC 0.13 mum technology with 50% improvement in speed and area compared with previous results.