Rewrite the market landscape of embedded camera modules
High bandwidth, long distance, and high versatility unlock AI vision applications such as smart manufacturing AMRs and smart city shared transportation
Innodisk, a global leader in AI solutions and industrial-grade storage, continues to deepen its edge AI deployment and today (23rd) announced the world's first "MIPI over Type-C" exclusive technology, which enables its embedded camera modules to break through the long-term insurmountable line length limitations of high-spec MIPI cameras, expand the versatility of connectivity, and expand to AI machine vision, intelligent manufacturing field AMRs (autonomous mobile robots), Smart cities, shared transportation vehicles, and other diversified global edge AI applications.
MIPI over Type-C technology breaks through the limitation of camera cable length and facilitates edge AI innovation with high bandwidth, long distance, and high versatility
As computer vision becomes the dominant science in the development of AI, the demand for industrial cameras continues to expand, and according to Transparency Market Research[1], the market size of industrial cameras is expected to reach US$20 billion by 2031. Due to the complete infrastructure and rapid development of smart cities, the European and American markets have a high degree of introduction of embedded AI vision applications, and many emerging markets will follow suit. Among the industrial-grade camera solutions, the MIPI interface camera module has become the first choice for many application scenarios due to its high bandwidth and high image frame rate. However, despite the excellent performance of MIPI cameras, there are technical bottlenecks when introducing them into specific application scenarios - the current MIPI transmission line is only 30 cm long, and it must be installed inside the embedded system, which is difficult to extend externally, resulting in a relatively limited application level. The SerDes interface, which supports long-distance transmission, can solve the problem of cable length, but it is expensive. It can be seen that there are still obvious market faults and gaps between the two solutions.
In order to solve the above problems, Innodisk's exclusive new MIPI over Type-C technology enables the camera module to not only maintain the advantages of MIPI high bandwidth, but also convert MIPI to the newly defined USB Type-C interface through a special adapter board, and at the same time, break through the original MIPI specification of 30 cm cable length limit, and greatly extend the external connection distance to more than 2 meters. Compared with the SerDes solution, this technology also has a high cost performance advantage, striking a perfect balance between enterprise procurement cost and high transmission performance, and is expected to rewrite the current embedded camera market with new options, and has received high attention from the international market at the Embedded World exhibition held in Germany this month (April).
MIPI over Type-C technology will combine the existing features of Innodisk's MIPI camera module to maximize its advantages, including high bandwidth, low power consumption, built-in Image Signal Processor (ISP) to adjust image quality, and the whole series supports high customization, firmware optimization, IQ settings, field of view angle, size design, etc., according to customer needs, to present the clearest image details. In addition, Innodisk has actively invested R&D resources to make the solution more versatile across platforms, and has successfully introduced NVIDIA Jetson, Intel x86, and ARM platforms to fully accelerate the implementation of edge AI applications on clients.
Highly customizable, multi-platform support, Taiwan's first Intel-certified MIPI embedded camera partner
At the same time, Innodisk continues to expand its MIPI camera module product diversity to meet the needs of FRONTLINE embedded vision applications. These include the MIPI Fisheye Camera, which can freely adjust the field of view and record ultra-wide-angle images, and the MIPI Global Shutter Camera, which is designed for high-speed dynamic scenes such as highway traffic, equipment operation, and smart factory production lines, and the 13MP MIPI High Resolution Camera, which accurately captures every detail in the dynamic process. Innodisk's full MIPI camera lineup supports Intel 12th-13th Gen & Core Ultra processors, AMD Xilinx, NVIDIA Jetson, NXP, and more.
"Innodisk's MIPI camera modules have been widely adopted in many edge AI sites, and Innodisk is currently the only Intel-certified MIPI camera partner in Taiwan, and works closely with IPC fabs to provide customers with comprehensive integration and import services," said Zhiqing Wu, Director of Innodisk's International Intelligent Peripheral Application Division. The camera module equipped with the latest MIPI Over Type-C technology is also expected to start shipping in the second half of 2024, and it is expected to provide customers with long-distance external solutions with high image quality and low latency from the 'visual sensing' side, and overcome the previous AI applications that were limited by line length and import costs, opening up new development opportunities." "
Innodisk's MIPI over Type-C is expected to support a wide range of smart application scenarios, such as autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and forklifts in industrial automation or smart manufacturing, providing high-bandwidth, long-range, and cost-effective imaging solutions, or in smart cities, equipped with shared locomotives, bicycles and other transportation vehicles to provide high-quality driving monitoring and real-time video data collection.
[1]"Industrial Camera Market", Transparency Market Research,10thApr, 2024.
About Innodisk
Innodisk is a global leader in AIoT solutions and industrial-grade storage, headquartered in Taiwan and with a global footprint. Since its establishment in 2005, Innodisk has achieved the No. 1 position in the global industrial data storage device market[1], and its industrial memory modules are among the top 10 in the world. With the AI wave sweeping the world, Innodisk is committed to combining professional technology and insights, with a professional software, hardware and firmware team, to tailor the best solutions for enterprises, and is committed to becoming a pioneer in promoting global AIoT solutions through the core spirit of software and hardware integration, comprehensively laying out the AIoT application market, and working with industry partners to build an intelligent world.
[1] Since 2018, Innodisk's global market research report has ranked No. 1 in the global industrial SSD market share for five consecutive years.