QuickLogic’s new Visual Enhancement Engine (VEE) will enable next generation multimedia products.

In addition to providing high quality contrast optimization for a wide range of mobile consumer and prosumer devices, the VEE technology addresses the mobile industry’s need to provide consumers with a TV-quality viewing experience while extending battery life at the same time.

QuickLogic partnered with Apical Limited to design and develop the optimal blend of Apical algorithms with QuickLogic’s video enhancement algorithms and patented ViaLink programmable fabric for mobile and portable multimedia products. This delivered a power-efficient, yet flexible solution for the multitude of use cases, application and baseband processors and LCD displays.

QuickLogic’s Vice President of Solutions Marketing Brian Faith pointed out that multimedia capabilities have become the key selection criteria for mobile devices because they are core to the user experience.

He said in a statement that Apple’s (News - Alert) success with the iPhone has prompted the entire mobile device value chain into finding novel ways of enhancing the visual experience of the consumer. Mobile Liquid Crystal Displays provide only limited contrast, and easily washes out images in bright ambient light or with sunlight reflections. Although the traditional response to resolve this problem has been to increase the LCD backlight, that has a negative effect on battery life.

Faith explained in a statement that the VEE technology provides a best-in-class alternative to this approach, providing both visual enhancement and improved battery life at the same time for the use cases most critical to mobile products being launched now and in the coming years.

QuickLogic informs that the core of the VEE technology is based on the iridix algorithm licensed from Apical Limited. The solution has been developed by scientists from the ground up to model the methods that the human eye uses to adapt viewed scenes and images to changing ambient light conditions. VEE has the ability to intelligently re-map display data to enhance sub-regional variations. This improves the viewability of images and video without affecting on-screen graphics, which is especially important when consumers have a split-screen between web browsing and Mobile TV or YouTube (News - Alert) functionality.

Also, VEE allows a mobile device to provide a superior user experience in outdoor and bright ambient light environments without increasing the LCD backlight. This capability preserves precious battery life. VEE allows the mobile device to operate with a lower LCD backlight in indoor or low ambient light conditions at the same time maintaining the visual experience. The setting of the VEE architecture can be updated in real-time, adapting the algorithm as the ambient lighting conditions change.

Faith added that with VEE, they are expanding their portfolio to bring innovative solutions to market that solve relevant and time-critical user experience challenges that OEMs and ODMs are faced with today.

QuickLogic Corporation is the inventor and pioneer of innovative, customizable semiconductor solutions for mobile and portable electronics OEMs and ODMs. The company was recently in news for announcing its next-generation customer specific standard product (CSSP) platform: PolarPro II, which offers a compact, optimized I/O structure, increased responsiveness for its Very Low Power (VLP) mode, and greater embedded SRAM configurability, along with other additional features to reduce PCB space and system Bill-Of-Materials (BOM) costs.

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Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering call centers, CRM and information technology. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.