October 18, 2011 -- Altera Corp. has announced the first FPGA-based full-HD 1080p/ 30fps video analytics on a Cyclone IV FPGA. Altera's single-chip solution provides a new level of video analytics performance, combining exceptionally high throughput (60Mpixels/s) with pixel precision detail not possible with traditional digital signal processing (DSP)-based approaches.

The solution includes Eutecus, Inc.'s Multicore Video Analytics Engine (MVE) intellectual property (IP), which performs the analytics functions in the FPGA. Because this solution can be easily integrated into HD Internet protocol cameras, it is ideal for a variety of applications, including traffic surveillance that monitors accident detection, vehicle counting, lane-exit detection, stopped traffic, red-light violations and vehicles moving in the wrong direction.

The performance allows the user to track dozens of user-defined rules. For example, the user can define rules, configure alerts and remotely update rules for events they want detected, such as a person entering a room or a restricted area in an airport terminal or a building entrance. Video analytics offers surveillance customers the ability to monitor videos automatically, eliminating the need for a person to scan hours of footage to detect and determine specified events.

Altera's Cyclone IV FPGAs offer video analytics designers greater flexibility to customize their applications with Eutecus' MVE IP. The IP combines massively parallel algorithms and specialized coprocessors with multiple Altera Nios II cores integrated into a Cyclone IV FPGA. It also comes with a software GUI that lets designers customize the event-detection parameters and rules for their specific applications. Eutecus' IP includes a robust application programming interface (API) that allows customers to interface with their own video management systems or develop their own custom GUI.

Altera also offers a single-vendor source model for the video analytics solution. The IP and FPGA can be purchased directly from Altera, which simplifies the development of a video surveillance system significantly. The purchasing model eliminates the need to work with multiple vendors for licensing fees, NRE charges, or royalties.