Consumer Electronics Systems Research Articles

A fast VLSI architecture of a hierarchical block matching algorithm for motion estimation

In this paper, an efficient VLSI architecture of a hierarchical block matching algorithm has been proposed for motion estimation. At the lowest resolution level, two motion vector (MV) candidates are selected to get better performance. In the next search level, these two candidates provide the center points for local searches to get one MV candidate. Then, at next level and the finest level, one MV candidate is chosen from one local search area (LSA), defined by the MV candidate, obtained from lower resolution level. This architecture requires nine processing elements and data are processed in such a way that calculation to obtain frames of different resolution is overlapped with the MV calculation. Simulation results indicate that this architecture is more area-efficient and faster than many full-search, three-step-search and multiresolution architectures which makes it suitable for SD and HD video. To avoid the delay due to pipelining, the MVs of all the macro-blocks are calculated for one resolution level and stored in RAM to get LSA for next resolution level. This architecture with about 16 K gates is implemented for a search range of [?15, +15]. As this architecture requires only two-port memory, which is very common in most consumer electronics systems, it can be integrated easily in any existing system at the expense of a very small area.

Real-time eye gaze tracking for gaming design and consumer electronics systems

Real time face detection combined with eyegaze tracking can provide a means of user input into a gaming environment. Game and CE system designers can use facial and eye-gaze information in various ways to enhance UI design providing smarter modes of gameplay interaction and UI modalities that are sensitive to a users behaviors and mood. Here we review earlier approaches, using wearable sensors, or enhanced IR illumination. Our technique only requires video feed from a low-resolution user-facing camera. The algorithm is described and some comparative results on a range of embedded hardware are provided. The potential for using eye-gaze as a means of direct user input and improving the accuracy of estimation accordingly is also discussed.

Two Stage Operational Amplifiers: Power and Area Efficient Frequency Compensation for Driving a Wide Range of Capacitive Load

Operational amplifiers (OpAmps) have found extensive applications in analog circuits and systems for communications, consumer electronics, controls and signal conversion. Two-stage OpAmps with freguency compensation are popular for driving capacitive loads while ensuring sufficient gain and stability. Frequency compensation technigues have been evolving over the last decades in distinct applications. In particular, power-and-area-efficent two-stage OpAmps capable of driving a wide-range capacitive load are demanded for low-dropout regulators (LDOs) or LCD-panel drivers. Capacitor multiplers (CMs) have emerged as one of the best solutions to implement such kind of OpAmps. This article reviews, for the first time, the state-of the-art CMs for two-stage OpAmps before describing a novel embedded-CM technigue, i.e., the CM as being part of the input stage of the OpAmp, effectively minimizing the physical size of the compensation capacitors while improving the slew-rate with no extra power consumption. Moreover, unlike the classical Miller compensation technique that can lead to an undesired right-half-plane (RHP) zero, a constructive left-half plane (LHP) zero, is created, that can improve the phase margin (PM). Comparing with the state-of-the art current-buffer and CM compensation topologies the proposed solution also features simpler circuitry. The technigue can be further incorporated with a class-AB output stage to speed up the OpAmp's transient re sponses with low guiescent power. A descriptive design example capable of driving capacitive loads ≥ 50 pF is systematically optimized in a 0.35-μm CMOS process. Finally, a few technigues are outlined which allow the combination of current-buffer-based Miller compensation with more sophisticated CMs, or a pole-zero pair (lead network), to further enhance the driving capability of two-stage OpAmps.

Development of behavior-profilers for multimedia consumer electronics

In spite of the rapid improvement of hardware performance, debugging and optimization still remain as important procedures for developing consumer electronics embedded systems due to the manufacturing cost and the product quality. However, because the properties of consumer electronics systems are significantly different from the traditional computing systems, the required functionalities of behavior-profilers for the multimedia consumer electronics systems have to be newly defined. We analyze the desirable characteristics of the behavior profilers for multimedia consumer electronics systems and based on the analysis results we also implement a novel profiler tool set which consists of light-weight profiler components and remotely executed GUI client programs. The implemented profiler tool set is independent to the processor architecture and able to analyze the whole system layers from operating systems to functions inside user-level applications. The effectiveness of our tool set was verified by actually performing optimization of a commodity digital TV system.

Design and analysis of flash translation layers for multi-channel NAND flash-based storage devices

NAND flash-based storage devices (NFSDs) have been replacing the conventional magnetic storage devices in many consumer electronic systems. One of the advantages of NFSDs is their read/write bandwidth, which is higher than that of the magnetic storage devices. For further increase of their bandwidth, high-end NFSDs employ multichannel and multi-way architectures in which it is possible to access the NAND flash memories (NFMs) in parallel for amortizing the long latency of NFMs. Even though this architecture provides higher bandwidth from the hardware perspective, the overall performance of an NFSD critically depends on how efficiently the multiple channels and ways are utilized. In this regard, the key design component is an intermediate software layer called flash translation layer (FTL), since it manages the hardware resources as well as data. To the best of authorsiquest knowledge, this is the first work to propose a general method to design an FTL for multichannel / multi-way NFSDs (FTL-MM). The proposed design method consists of two steps. First, we design an FTL for a single-channel / single-way NFSD (FTL-SS). Second, we extend the FTL to support an NFSD with an arbitrary number of channels and ways. To prove the generality and effectiveness of the proposed method, we apply the method to three well-known FTLs. The experimental results indicate that the FTLs enhanced by our approach are comparable to the ideal FTL and that their performance is scalable to various channel / way architectures. Quantitatively speaking, the average channel utilization decreases by at most 10%, when we increase the number of channels and ways up to four.

Eye-Pattern Design for High-Speed Differential Links Using Extended Passive Equalization

The performance of current high-speed consumer electronic systems is often compromised by degradation caused by distortion in eye patterns. This paper proposes a systematic method that uses the voltage transfer function for arbitrary source and load terminations to improve the eye patterns of high-speed differential links with passive components that minimize distortion. This approach is cost-effective since it only utilizes commercially available surface-mount components. The methodology has been validated by measurements in this paper.

Bendable GaAs metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors formed with printed GaAs wire arrays on plastic substrates

Micro/nanowires of GaAs with integrated ohmic contacts have been prepared from bulk wafers by metal deposition and patterning, high-temperature annealing, and anisotropic chemical etching. These wires provide a unique type of material for high-performance devices that can be built directly on a wide range of unusual device substrates, such as plastic or paper. In particular, transfer printing organized arrays of these wires at low temperatures onto plastic substrates yield high-quality bendable metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors. Electrical and mechanical characterization of devices on poly(ethylene terephthalate) illustrates the level of performance that can be achieved. These results indicate promise for this approach to high-speed flexible circuits for emerging applications in consumer and military electronic systems.

Battle of the blues

Will lack of industry agreement on standards hamper the potential of blue lasers in consumer electronics systems?.

Non-sequential video content representation using temporal variation of feature vectors

An efficient and low complexity algorithm for non-sequential video content representation is proposed. Our method is based on extracting a set of limited but meaningful frames (key-frames), able to represent the video content. The temporal variation of feature vectors for all frames within a shot, which form a trajectory in a high dimensional space, is used for key-frame selection. In particular, key-frames are extracted by estimating appropriate curve points, able to characterize the feature trajectory. The magnitude of the second derivative of the frame feature vectors with respect to time is used as a curvature measure in our approach. Due to low complexity of the algorithm, the proposed method can be easily implemented in hardware devices of even low processing capabilities thus can be embedded in many consumer electronics systems. For feature vector formulation, the video is first analyzed and several descriptors are extracted using a multiscale implementation of the recursive shortest spanning tree (RSST) algorithm, which significantly reduces the segmentation complexity. In addition, the whole procedure exploits information that exists in MPEG video databases so as to achieve a faster implementation. Finally, the extracted descriptors are classified using a fuzzy formulation scheme. Experimental results to real-life video sequences are presented to indicate the good performance of the proposed algorithm.

Microcontact printing with a cylindrical rolling stamp: A practical step toward automatic manufacturing of patterns with submicrometer‐sized features

Microcontant printing using self‐assembled monolayers has been extended to the patterning of large areas by the introduction of a rolling elastomeric stamp (see Figure). The procedure is described and scanning electron microscope images of silver test patterns are presented. The ability to form large areas of micropatterns rapidly is important for potential applications in sensors, microelectrode arrays, consumer electronic systems, and supports for cell cultures. magnified image

Optimizing communications solutions

The role of customer premises equipment (CPE) in the deployment of intelligent network capabilities is discussed. The evolution of CPE from traditional telephones, PBX switches, PC adjuncts, and key systems to high-grade audio, video and television media, and advanced consumer electronics systems is described. Future protocol requirements of the CPE and the providing of an interface to the user regardless of service type or origin by the CPE are also discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Philips Corporate Industrial Design: A Personal Account

The concept of product semantics as a part of corporate design vocabulary is relatively new. Its development has come about as a result of a logical search to take designed products beyond ultimate modernist reductivity to search for those human, expressive, and even joyful forms that give contemporary meaning to the triumphs of technology. As director of design for one of the largest companies in the world producing a broad range of professional and consumer electronic products and systems, I have a special interest in the subject of product semantics. When I joined Philips in 1980, the corporate image in both product design and communication was very gray. The company's products had a solid reputation for their technical quality, but consumers perceived their design as stodgy. Other companies' products, especially Japanese products, were considered to work as well as our products. Their accompanying packaging and advertising messages reinforced these perceptions, and the products themselves had a slick, high-tech look that attracted