New ‘smart’ image sensors with built-in ISP will boost battery life, image clarity in AR/VR headsets, smart doorbells and security cameras

Coming to the aforementioned smart features, ‘Wake on Motion’ allows the sensor to operate in a low-power mode, drawing a fractional amount of power. Upon detecting movement, it switches almost instantly to its high performance state. Another one is ‘Smart ROI’, which can output one region of interest (ROI) at reduced bandwidth, to give a context view of the scene, and a separate ROI in full resolution, making it easier to select either bandwidth or detail as the priority.

These features, plus on-chip subsampling options like pixel binning, offload some of the image signal processor’s workload by pre-processing the data, further saving power and increasing system performance. The low power draw also reduces heat generation, leading to lower thermal noise in the image, and making heat sinks unnecessary.

All these advantages should benefit devices like smart doorbells, battery powered security cameras, AR/VR headsets – basically multi-sensor, battery-powered vision systems that currently compromise on image quality to achieve acceptable efficiency levels. Customers can expect fewer battery changes/recharges, as well as clearer images from devices that cost less.

You can buy the new Blink Outdoor 4 Floodlight Wire-free smart security camera with motion detection, and the Blink video doorbell on Amazon.