DEVELOPMENT STORY.
The roots of i-BIQ in global smartphones.
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The roots of i-BIQ in global smartphones.
Image processing technology and embedded technology. The two dots formed a line and bore fruit.
Image processing technology and embedded technology. The two dots formed a line and bore fruit.
Brycen’s i-BIQ imaging technology has been adopted by one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers. This technology, which has achieved rapid results in the past few years, was actually the result of a combination of things that had been cultivated over the course of a history of twists and turns. In the first place, Brycen imaging is an image processing technology for camera modules including lenses, and is a technology that tunes each component such as a lens and sensor to maximize its performance. Currently, it is especially used in the smartphone field. The foundation of this project dates back to around 2000. Since its founding, Brycen has been entrusted with the development of various systems. The industry was wide-ranging, and there were also contracts related to imaging such as medical care and cameras. In the meantime, we developed our own image-related services. It is a service like SNS today. It was a service that allowed users to publish and exchange photos taken with PDAs on the Internet in partnership with a major electronics manufacturer, and had about 100,000 users. However, although it achieved some results, it did not become a service known throughout Japan. Around the same time, he was also working on Linter, an embedded database. At that time, the linter was used for mobile phone address books. It was adopted by a major carrier and seemed to be smooth sailing, but smartphones were on the rise. The embedded database, which was now necessary for a mobile phone, was no longer required, and the scale had to be reduced. However, this path would later lead to i-BIQ.
Skewering the vertically divided camera industry
Finding the light in software.
The turning point came in 2012, when lens manufacturers, camera module manufacturers, set manufacturers, and distributors in the camera industry were only thinking about pursuing the highest quality in their respective fields. It’s a world that’s siloed and just pursues catalog specs. Even if the performance of each camera was good, it was not fully utilized in the performance of the camera as a whole. That’s why we focused on AE (Auto Exposure) and AWB (Auto White Balance). Focusing on the potential of AE and AWB and the fact that there are no players in the world who can see the industry from a bird’s-eye view, Fujiki was convinced that in this field, he could solidify his position with the embedded technology he had cultivated in the field of image processing. In 2013, we started full-scale research and development. Among image processing, we will focus on smartphone cameras. In general, cameras are evolving day by day, and the number of pixels is also increasing. However, the image itself is not generally beautiful because the performance of each component is not utilized by each other. The hardware is controlled by software. That’s why software maker Brycen has the upper hand. However, there were many difficulties in development. There is no right answer for a beautiful image. If there are 10, there are 10 beauties. The beauty sought differed from device to device, and it took a lot of effort to adjust it.
Supporting Brycen’s reputation
Professionals from a wide range of fields have gathered.
One of the points that Brycen’s imaging is evaluated for is “efficient tuning in a short period of time”. It takes a certain amount of time to hear, define, and adjust the beauty required by smartphone manufacturers. In fact, it took 4-6 months to launch the project. However, i-BIQ has now realized a mechanism that can shorten image tuning to 1 to 2 months. Another thing that is evaluated is “advice on hardware from a software perspective”. In the case of smartphones, the hardware has already been decided when working on the software. However, in the case of Brycen, he also mentioned the hardware because he was thorough about what kind of image he wanted to make. For example, if you choose a sensor that has many problems in a short development period just because it is cheap, you may incur development costs later. We talk about the total cost, and sometimes we talk about changing hardware. This was something that I could propose because I was working on imaging in a horizontal manner. In order to realize the evaluation that we have received, it cannot be realized without considerable knowledge and technology in hardware. To this end, we are focusing on mid-career recruitment and increasing the number of members from manufacturers with skills in various fields. From 3 at the beginning of 2013, there are now 20 employees. A variety of wisdom, including tuning specialists, people from optical manufacturers, and people from the semiconductor field, are gathered at Brycen. As a result, i-BIQ has been adopted by one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturers..
The Future of Brycen Imaging..
The challenge continues..
What is the future of Brycen’s imaging? We would like to expand the range of our strengths from input technology, which is currently highly evaluated, to image recognition technology and output technology such as displays, and to solidify our cross-cutting skills in the imaging field. Take AI, for example. In the case of a system that combines images and AI, the heavier the image data, the slower the speed and the higher the cost. But AI doesn’t need all of the image’s data. In the future, it will be necessary to have a technology that can successfully select only the necessary part of the data and recognize it at a faster speed. The possibilities for imaging are numerous. In addition to incorporating the logistics and distribution solutions that Brycen is already working on into its own products, we would like to synergize with various products such as medical care and MR. In the past, Japan was an electronics-based and technology-oriented country. Innovation was taking place mainly in Japan. In recent years, it cannot be said that Japan is leading the world, but there is a desire to develop Brycen’s technology in many fields. Brycen’s challenge is far from over.


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