Technical Specifications
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Part IX. Technical Specifications
1. Technical
specifications for all Picolo products
1.1. Video
image
formats
The Picolo Tetra video capture boards acquire color or monochrome video images from composite interlaced video
signals. The NTSC and PAL color standards are supported. The monochrome video acquisition complies with the so-
called CCIR (625 lines) and EIA RS-170 (525 lines) standards.
Acquisition of full frame (two fields) or single field images is selectable.
1.2. Acquisition
Before PCI transfer to the PC, the acquired images can be scaled to any format smaller than the original one, down to
1/12. The downscaling process involves a sophisticated hardware device, performing an accurate interpolation in both
the horizontal and vertical direction. The image buffer for a downscaled image is smaller in size, and its transfer needs
less PCI bandwidth.
Moreover, any part of the incoming image can be retained for further PCI transfer, allowing to define region of interest.
All desirable adjustments can be applied to the images during acquisition, such as video contrast, brightness, color
saturation and hue (NTSC only).
1.3. Synchronization
A fully digital technique is used to synchronize the digitizer operation on the incoming video signal. This ensures a
stable and robust operation despite the varying video conditions.
A poor video signals issued by a low end VCR is robustly supported. When using high-quality video surveillance
cameras, the acquisition performance is exemplary, as demonstrated by a jitter figure in the nanosecond range.
1.4. Image
fidelity
All precautions have been taken in the Picolo Tetra to ensure an excellent fidelity of the grabbed bitmap in respect of
the original video signal. In particular, environmental conditions may induce common-mode noise in the signal issued
by distant cameras. Picolo Tetra has special circuitry to remove this defect, and this is highly appreciated in the video
surveillance applications.
