Toshiba Image Recognition Processor Targets ADAS, Industrial Applications

Toshiba: The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) requires automobile companies to introduce autonomous braking systems in 2014. These will initially cover other vehicles, and will be extended to include pedestrians in 2016. Initiatives like this are expected to spur 50-100% growth in the global market for image recognition processors between fiscal 2010 and 2015, from 75 to 100 billion yen.

In preparation to this Toshiba announces Visconti 3 series of automotive image recognition processor. The first device in this new series, TMPV7528XBG, is expected to extend its use beyond automotive to industrial applications.

Toshiba initially developed the Visconti series of image recognition processors to advance the creation of camera-based vision systems for automotive applications. The processors recognize traffic lanes, vehicles, pedestrians, traffic signs and more and both the Visconti 2 and 3 series devices incorporate image processing accelerators that detect pedestrians with high level detection ratio in real time.

In addition to these capabilities, the Visconti 3 integrates 2-core ARM A9 processor dedicated to supporting applications interfacing with the image recognition processor. With Visconti 3, Toshiba will seek to expand the image recognition processor business beyond automotive systems into camera-based vision systems for industrial applications. The company targets annual sales of 2 million Visconti image recognition processors in fiscal 2015.

Sample shipment of Visconti 3 will start in April 2013.