Sony announced here that it has developed a Digital Reality Creation Multifunction (DRC-MFv2) video controller chip that will boost image quality of standard and high-definition signals while enabling viewers to manipulate pictures with a variety of interactive applications.
Sony said the technology, which will be introduced soon in Japan in a line of digital television sets, will employ a feature called “Creation View” that will enable zooming, panning and tilting within a high-definition image frame without losing image quality. For high-resolution zooming, the system is said to create 36 pixels for each pixel of the original signal source.
Panning and tilting functions enable viewers to select the point of view of an image, in a fashion similar to a camera operator.
The technology was said to be an extension of the original “DRC” video processing technology that has been used for the up-conversion of standard-definition signals in Sony digital television sets and monitors.
The DRC-MFv2 will both re-create standard TV signals and various HD format signals to the 1,920-by-1,080 format, while boosting the quality of even high-definition video sources with greater gloss, textures and depth perception, Sony said.
The technology uses Sony’s proprietary algorithm that calculates optimal video output from the original source signal.
In addition to including the circuit in new television sets, Sony said it expects to offer DRC-MFv2 technology in “stand-alone applications,” to capitalize on the growing availability of HDTV programming.
