Texas Instruments

Away from the main hall in the PMA 'technology suites' chip manufacturer Texas Instruments is giving a taste of what we can expect to see appearing in the next generation of digital cameras thanks to its remarkable new 'DaVinci' image processor. DaVinci is a combined hardware and software solution on a single chip that allows cameras to offer faster performance and more comprehensive features. We were shown demos of in-camera panorama stitching, red-eye removal, color correction and noise reduction, an impressive digital image stabilization system (for movie clips), HDTV video output and real-time MPEG encoding and decoding. Because DaVinci is so fast and so powerful it can perform processes in software that would traditionally be hard-wired, meaning camera manufacturers can offer a much wider range of features without worrying about power or speed issues. Expect to see models featuring this processor to start arriving in the second half of the year.