what is isp ?(image signal processor)

 

Image Signal Processor, "ISP",

is a core device of camera systems.

when the sensor senses the light from the camera then it needs to process it with the help of a processor, it can not be done by the primary processor of the system because it is not optimized for processing the image signals. ISPs are specially designed to process the image signals.

Image Signal Processor, “ISP”, is a core device of camera systems. so it can process efficiently, fastly, and safely without losing any information from the picture.

o wThe ISP equips a high-performance image signal processing engine developed by and executes processes like demosaicing, noise reduction, auto exposure, autofocus, and auto white balance in high speed and high quality. ISP（Image Signal Processor ) 
An image signal processor, also called image processing engine, is a specialized digital signal processor used for image processing in digital cameras, mobile phones or other devices. 

nowadays the cameras are including more and more features like artificial intelligence(AI), beautification mode and more other features. this is possible only because of the dedicated Image Signal Processing(ISP) unit.

So what purpose does ISP have? Well, pixels are sensitive to light between some set of wavelengths, essentially they’re color agnostic. The way to get a color image out is to put a filter on top, usually a bayer pattern color filter, then interpolate the color of the pixels adjacent. Your 8 MP CMOS doesn’t sense red green and blue for each pixel, it senses one color for each, then ISP guesses the color based on what’s next to it. This is called demosaicing, and it’s probably the primary job of ISP, and there are many secret sauce methods to computing this interpolated image. In addition, ISP does all the other housekeeping, it controls autofocus, exposure, and white balance for the camera system. Recently correcting for lens imperfections like vignetting or color shading imparted by the imperfect lens system (which you’ll add right back in with Instagram, you heathen) has been added, along with things like HDR recombining, noise reduction, another filtering, face or object detection, and conversion between color spaces. There’s variance between the features that ISP does, but this is really the controller for getting that bayer data into a workable image array. 

A normal ISP has the following properties.

1. Bayer transformation 
2. Demosaicing
3. Noise reduction
4. image sharpening
5. beautification
6. AI features
7. face detection

some of the ISP manufactures are following.

• Canon - DIGIC (based on Texas Instruments OMAP)
• Casio - EXILIM engine
• Epson - EDiART
• Fujifilm - EXR III or X Processor Pro
• Google - Pixel Visual Core
• Leica - MAESTRO (based on Fujitsu Milbeaut)
• Nikon - Expeed (based on Fujitsu Milbeaut)
• Panasonic - Venus Engine (based on Panasonic MN103/MN103S)
• Ricoh - GR engine (GR digital), Smooth Imaging Engine
• Samsung - DRIMe (based on Samsung Exynos)
• Sharp - ProPix
• Sony - Bionz
• HTC - ImageSense .

what is a microprocessor? and what is it's work?

A microprocessor is a processing unite which process the data according to our work. it is fabricated on a small chip who’s size is decreasing day by day.

It is made of transistors through the size of transistor is decreasing that's why the size of microprocessors, microcontroller and, chips are also decreasing.

A microprocessor is a small processor. it processes the data which program is currently running in the system. a microprocessor consists of ALU(Arithmetic and Logical Unit), register sets(Array), and control unit.

IT takes the input  while processing it need some memory to fetch the related data and saves the output and gives us the output

processes the data in an instruction cycle.

there are three stapes in an instruction cycle.

1. Fetch

In this stape, the microprocessor fetches(reads) the codes wherever it is saved in the memory (probably copied to the main memory(RAM) before processing)

2. Decode

After fetching the data it decodes it. simply decoding is a process in which the computer let it know that what is going to be performed and what actions are to be taken by the system hardware.

3. Execute

decoding the data when the system knows that what to be done by the hardware of the system it simply execute those instructions.

Features of a Microprocessor

Here is a list of some of the most prominent features of any microprocessor −

Reliability

 − The failure rate of an IC in microprocessors is very low, hence it is reliable.

Power efficiency

 − Microprocessors are manufactured by using metal-oxide semiconductor technology, which has low power consumption.

Cost-effective

−The microprocessor chips are available at low prices and results in its low cost.

Size

− The microprocessor is of small size chip, hence is portable.

Usability

− The microprocessors are versatile as we can use the same chip in a number of applications by configuring the software program.