Image recognition processor powers active safety system

Electronic systems are taking on an increasingly central role in driving, including advanced driver assistance systems and support for autonomous vehicles, and particularly in promoting road safety. The latest iteration of the influential European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), the EU-backed safety standard, adds criteria for evaluating anti-collision features that improve protection for bicyclists and pedestrians.

The Visconti4 image recognition processor is equipped with eight media processing engines, allowing it to execute eight applications simultaneously. It can detect and analyse camera-generated images and recognises traffic lanes; nearby vehicles, both parked and moving; traffic signs and signals; the headlights of oncoming vehicles; plus the most vulnerable road users of all, bicyclists and pedestrians.

Visconti4 has double the number of processing engines of its predecessor, the Visconti2, used by DENSO since 2015. It also integrates a new image recognition algorithm, Enhanced CoHOG Accelerator that delivers enhanced processing of luminance differences between objects and their backgrounds to better detect pedestrians at night and low light conditions.

Toshiba and DENSO are also cooperating in AI, on the development of deep neural network-intellectual property (DNN-IP) for use in image recognition, and plan to bring this technology to future additions to the Visconti series.

The global market of vehicle-mounted cameras is expected to approach $9.6bn in 2021. Toshiba is committed respond to with automotive semiconductor solutions that further pursue traffic safety.