Virtual Factory - Product Development

Software Design

The VisionMOS team has extensive experience in the development of many levels of software to complete any project. We have completed development of embedded systems running real-time operating systems, to PC tools operating on industry standard interfaces. Mobile consumer and multimedia products are our specialty. We have experience with most popular process and hardware architectures including Arm, Motorola, Texas Instruments DSP, Tensilica, and others.

Driver Development

The VisionMOS team has worked with a wide variety of interfaces, and developed custom drivers for them. These drivers are often integrated into some larger operating system, for use by higher level functions. Just some of the drivers that we have worked on:

Color LCD panels
Secure Digital (SD) media
IDE hard disk drive
CMOS image sensor
Audio codec
Video decoder
Compact Flash (CF) media
Ethernet TCP/IP

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

The VisionMOS software expertise in graphics extends to both PC and embedded applications. We have created our own graphics suite as well as used those provided by Mentor Nucleus, GNU tools and Microsoft. The GUI is more than a collection of graphic displays, but also extends to user interface devices (buttons, display handlers and controllers) and an operational state machine. These developments are often created so that the end user might continue to service and modify them after completion of the initial product.

Codecs

The heart of many mobile products is the availability of codecs for audio, video, still images and communication support. We have extensive experience in all areas including MP3 audio, MPEG video, and JPEG still images. In many cases, these algorithms have also been extensively modified to take advantage of specific hardware architectural features as performance is a significant element to their market success.

VisionMOS also has extensive experience in image sensor color science and color management of image sensors. This includes automatic white balance, gamma correction, optical artifact correction, automatic exposure control, and color interpolation. The VisionMOS team has supplied color imaging software to a number of consumer level cameras and products, and we have a number of patents and patents pending in this technology.

Application Integration

The VisionMOS team offers a complete solution to software development. We can work at the lowest levels to provide support to unique hardware and codec, develop communications and control software, as well provide graphical and other user interfaces and control state machines. What brings all of these elements together is the integration and validation of the final application. The team provides a rigorous object oriented testing approach, and a multi-developer build process to ensure quality of the completed software system. The end application is then tested against the original requirements specification to validate functionality.

Applications across multiple platforms are also completed by the comprehensive work of the team. Where the application is embedded based, network based or from a PC - cross platform development is a regular feature we support. Typical platforms could include PC based, microcontroller based, or embedded DSP. The goal of these varied applications would be to enable cross platform communications and functionality with a matched set of software. Typical interfaces would include USB, TCP/IP, and RS-232 communication.

PC applications and Test Tools Development

VisionMOS also has extensive experience in development of applications specifically to support the needs of system testing and special test equipment. These applications include development of high speed data capture interfaces, data and image processing, and automated analysis. Typical applications include the user interface and GUI to allow for quick evaluation of needed parameters. In particular capability in image evaluation is a specialty, with variable filters, post processing and metrics available in from our previously developed capabilities.

FPGA Coding

The VisionMOS team also supports coding of VHDL based FPGA systems, and we have extensive experience in development of Xilinx and Altera based platforms. We use industry standard tool sets to create new applications, or validate existing interface standards using variable timing and communications protocols. Our experience includes development of volume products using FPGAs as well as special test equipment to support communications and imaging applications. We offer contract services that enable specific customer needs designed to the customer specification, or capabilities of rapid prototyping as part of a larger development process.