Real-time image and video processing in portable and mobile devices

Mobile handheld and battery-operated consumer electronic devices such as digital still cameras, personal media players, digital camcorders, camera phones, mobile video telephones, etc. have become very popular and their annual shipments are already in hunderds of millions of units. The ability to carry out image and video processing in real-time has been one of the major reasons for the widespread success of these devices. In this article, the typical components present in such devices and the image and video processing that are carried out are described first. Some of the emerging trends relevant to image and video processing algorithms used on these devices are highlighted next. A brief overview of system requirements and challenges for image and video processing on these devices is then provided. These requirements are driving image and video processing research in new directions.