Video enhancement chips and power
Hardware and software algorithms exist in video display devices that scientifically eliminate the above distortions. However, they are not cost-effective, use too much computational and battery power, and are scene and content dependent.

For instance, algorithms used for DTV's (Digital Television) are implemented in video enhancement chips containing tens of millions of gates or an array of DSP's (Digital Signal Processors) making them too expensive in price and too power consuming to be used in portable devices.

In summary, various distortions degrade video quality prodigiously, which diminish the end users' viewing experience. With the advent of digital portable devices, additional conflicts emerge between improving video quality and compromising video processing speed, efficiency and cost. In other words, what digital portable devices desperately need is an efficient, self-adaptive and effective way to enhance video quality. Simply increasing resolution without better pixel quality doesn't provide the improvement needed -- it's the quality of pixels that matters!

Ipera Technology's Pixel Magic Video Engine
Ipera Technology understands that digital video will dominate the next generation of digital portable products and end users expect the same or better video quality that they are used to seeing on their TVs. After two years of research, Ipera has developed it's Pixel Magic Video Engine which integrates the latest innovations for video enhancements. The Pixel Magic Video Engine helps bridge the gap between the poor-quality video that is delivered today and what the user expects, meeting the ever-increasing demands for video quality in the fast-developing market of portable digital video devices.

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Figure 2: Video processing flow with the Pixel Magic Video Engine

The Pixel Magic Video Engine can be integrated into numerous locations in the video decoding and transmission path as shown in Figure 2. Video can be enhanced right after it is captured and before it is encoded to eliminate numerous anomalies created by the video capture device or after it is encoded and before the transmission to enhance the video and reduce the bit-rate required for transmission. The Pixel Magic Video Engine is also designed to be integrated in the portable device or streaming terminal to enhance the video after it is received and decoded but before it is displayed on the screen.

In consideration of the aforementioned distortions that degrade video quality, the Pixel Magic Video Engine has been carefully designed so that:

• Codec-related deficits such as blocky, ringing and mosquito effects are eliminated
• Both spatial and temporal noise is suppressed
• Brightness is adjusted towards a suitable level
• Details and edges are restored and become more distinguishable
• Contrast is enhanced dynamically
• Colors are resumed and naturalized with pleasing saturation

Next: Architecture and input buffer