A Highly Integrated Solution For IP Cameras
WISchip Cypher 7108 Streaming Media Encoder
Surveillance cameras are rapidly moving away from their coaxial past into a networked future. The new generation of networked surveillance cameras use digital technology and Internet protocols (IP) to provide greater functionality at significantly lower cost, and promise to revitalize traditional surveillance markets and create entirely new ones. These technologies also enable designers of IP networked cameras to provide solutions that are more compact, more feature-packed and more cost-efficient.
WISchip is helping manufacturers of IP cameras overcome these hurdles with the WISchip Cypher 7108 Streaming Media Encoder, a highly integrated audio/video system-on-chip (SoC) solution offering real-time digital video and audio encoding, including MPEG-4 ASP and Dolby Digital AC-3, for reduced bandwidth. The Cypher 7108 provides a range of essential video and audio interfaces and encoders, extensive image processing, a full complement of peripheral controllers and digital I/O interfaces, AES encryption/decryption and a MIPS processor core in a single 484-ball BGA (23 mm x 23 mm) package.
The Rise of IP Cameras According to Security magazine, IP video for corporate security purposes has become a fast growing market. Industry analyst J.P. Freeman and Co. Inc. estimates that IP cameras will comprise more than half of the security camera market by 2007, with the global network video market reaching $790 million in 2005 alone. Lower costs combined with the ability to access an IP camera across a broadband connection from any place in the world are opening up new opportunities at the low end of the market, too, as witnessed by the increasing popularity of home surveillance systems and nanny cams.
Modern, digital video surveillance systems offer a number of advantages over their analog predecessors:
Reduced Total Cost of Ownership Besides the lower cost of the IP cameras themselves, digital video systems have significantly lower cabling costs. A single, network cable can support all video/audio streams, all the pan, tilt and zoom (PTZ) control of all the cameras and power needs in many cases, while still supporting traditional computing needs. On the back end, the use of open, standards-based servers instead of proprietary recorders and other hardware further reduces initial and recurring equipment and administrative costs, and compressed video requires only 1/20 the amount of storage, can be accessed randomly and stored remotely and securely.
Greater Flexibility and Scalability Plug-and-play deployment means cameras can be placed almost anywhere and moved easily without re-cabling, in most instances, and additional cameras can be added quickly and easily as needed. Live and recorded video streams can be accessed and controlled from anywhere in the world through a standard web browser.
Better Image Quality Digital video is not restricted by NTSC/PAL limitations, and can produce images of far greater detail and clarity than analog video can provide.
Built-In Intelligence A camera that can recognize and react to events is one of the next big trends. From detecting motion, processing external sensor data, reading license plates and counting people to sounding alarms, opening or locking doors, turning lights on or off and sending email alerts with embedded images, IP cameras with embedded intelligence can automate a number of surveillance tasks.
Security IP-based surveillance systems can employ the same encryption and authentication technologies used by online banks, retailers and government agencies to protect the video/audio streams, and digital watermarks can be employed for forensic purposes.
Design Requirements for IP Cameras
A network camera can be thought of as a camera and computer combined into one unit. The camera component comprises the lens, the CCD/CMOS image sensor and any optical filters, and is usually available as a preassembled module.The computer component includes the camera sensor interface, video encoding and compression, image processing, network connectivity, peripheral and I/O interfaces, encryption and, of course, an embedded CPU and operating system. Audio support may be included, too.
The computer provides the local intelligence to handle a variety of control functions, such as adjusting exposure, white balance, image sharpness and other aspects of image quality, as well as focus, pan, tilt and zoom, and enables the camera to react autonomously to changing external conditions, detect motion, respond to sensor inputs, etc. The computer also enables the IP camera to be an autonomous network node, with its own IP address, web server, ftp server, email client and more.
The basic design requirements for an IP camera touch on each of the following areas, and, ideally, be embodied in a single, robust platform capable of supporting a broad range of functionality from which several designs of increasing complexity could be created:
Video and Audio Quality Video input should support a variety of resolutions up to 720 x 480/240 @ 30/60 frames per second (DVD NTSC) and 720 x 576/288 @ 25/50 frames per second (DVD PAL). Standard digital audio with A/V sync for accurate synchronization of video and audio streams should also be included.
Encoding and Compression MPEG-4 is highly configurable and offers tremendous flexibility to tailor the video quality and compression rate for specific applications, and MPEG-4 playback can be achieved easily and inexpensively. Real-time MPEG-4/2/1 and Motion JPEG video streaming may also be required, and capture from full D1 CCIR-656/601 YUV video sources is necessary to provide adequate image quality along with Dolby Digital AC-3 and MPEG audio.
Image Processing Image sensor noise filtering, image enhancement filters, cropping, gamma correction, auto exposure and auto white balance correction are some of the essentials necessary to ensure the highest quality video.
Network Integration As an autonomous network node, an IP camera must provide logical and physical network connectivity. Industry standard 10/100 Ethernet, over a variety of wired and wireless technologies, is the standard. Streaming of video and audio is accomplished using Internet protocols and technologies such as web servers.
Peripheral and I/O Interfaces Modern IP cameras require a variety of peripheral and I/O interfaces to connected them to the outside world. Some of the common examples are USB, ATAPI, GPIO, I2C and serial UART, as well as PCI, HPI, Ethernet MAC and transport stream output (TSO).
Local Intelligence The onboard CPU must be powerful enough to handle all the decisions and camera control tasks assigned to it, and support an industry standard operating system to reduce software development costs.
Security Because IP cameras transport their video and audio over non-secure networks, including the Internet, encryption is necessary to protect data transmission, while authentication is needed to prevent unauthorized access to control and other functions.
The WISchip Cypher 7108 Streaming Media Encoder
The Cypher 7108 is a versatile, highly integrated video and audio streaming media encoder SoC with extensive image processing, encryption, peripheral and I/O interface support, and a powerful, 32-bit MIPS CPU core. The 7108 provides high-quality, real time MPEG-4/2/1/H.263/MJPEG video and Dolby Digital AC-3 and MPEG audio streaming and capture from full D1 CCIR-656/601 YUV and RGB Bayer video sources. Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the Cypher 7108 streaming media encoder SoC.
Figure 1. WISchip Cypher 7108 streaming media encoder block diagram.
The video input provides a direct interface for an external 8 or 10-bit CCIR-656/601 or RGB Bayer digital video source up to full D1, and performs video format conversion, RGB Bayer to RGB conversion, color space conversion, de-interlacing, frame scaling and video frame buffering. User-configurable filters include sub-sample, sub-window, and median/low pass/edge enhancement, as well as a flexible downscaling mechanism. The Cypher 7108 supports I2S audio input in both master and slave modes and three standard data formats as well as a special mode for Oki voice codecs.
The video encoder supports industry standard MPEG encoding, including MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile (no GMC), MPEG-2 MP & ML, MPEG-1, H.263/ H.263+, Motion JPEG, Raw Capture and progressive and interlace coding. The audio encoder supports Dolby Digital (AC-3), MPEG-1 and -2, layers I and II and ΅-law/A-law (G.711 voice codec).
Extensive onboard image pre-processing provided in RGB Bayer mode includes adaptive de-mosaic for fewer zigzags and false colors, RGB gain and offset adjustment (for color balance and black level adjustment), separated RGB gamma correction curve function, contrast and brightness control, hue and saturation adjustment, motion adaptive de-interlacing, 5-tap horizontal de-noise filter, 3-tap horizontal and vertical filtering and auto exposure and auto white balance statistics for processor control.
The 7108 provides on-chip industry standard 10/100 Ethernet MAC (EMAC). The EMAC interface contains a dedicated DMA controller for communicating with an external 10/100 PHY device, dedicated transmit and receive channels, four internal FIFOs to move data to and from DDR memory and an MDIO interface for PHY programming.
Integrated peripheral and I/O interfaces and 32-bit MIPS CPU simplify design, speed time to market and reduce total system cost. The cipher 7108 integrates an ATAPI-5 controller, 16/32-bit DDR SDRAM memory controller, USB 2.0 (OTG) controller, PCI version 2.2, CardBus controller, two UARTs, transport stream output (TSO), I2S audio, I2C sensor I/O, 8-pin GPIO, a local bus interface/external memory interface with four chip selects at 16 MB each supporting both Intel and Motorola timings and a host parallel interface (HPI).
The 7108 incorporates a 32-bit MIPS processor core operating at 166 MHz. The core implements the MIPS32 architecture and contains all MIPS II instructions, special multiply-accumulate, conditional move, prefetch, wait, leading zero/one detect instructions and the 32-bit privileged resource architecture.
For security, the Cypher 7108 supports industry standard AES 128-, 192- or 256-bit encryption and decryption in ECB, CBC, CTR, CFB and OFB modes.
Figure 2 shows the Cypher 7108 in an IP camera application. In this application, CCD input data is transferred to the 7108 via a CCIR-656/601-compliant interface. Encoded data is output through PCI based wireless LAN adapter or the on-chip Ethernet MAC interface, which connects to an external 10/100 PHY device.
Figure 2. The WISchip 7108 in an IP camera application.
As with almost any digital product, integration is the key to lower cost, lower power, higher reliability and compact size. The highly integrated WISchip Cypher 7108 provides all the video and audio input, processing and encoding, network integration, peripheral and I/O support, local intelligence and security designers need to create highly successful and customizable IP camera designs and bring them to market quickly and cost effectively.
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