Spectral Edge today announced that it is enabling operators and set top box manufacturers to transform the TV viewing experience for the estimated 4% of the world’s population that suffers from colour-blindness.
Spectral Edge has successfully integrated its Eyeteq image enhancement technology with STMicroelectronics’ ‘Cannes’ set-top-box chipset, making it easily available to operators and service providers.
Available now for licence, Spectral Edge will demonstrate its Spectral Edge Eyeteq technology in STMicroelectronics’ private suite at IBC 2015 in Amsterdam between 11-15 September.
Eyeteq allows colour-blind viewers to better differentiate between colour combinations they struggle to see, such as red-green and pink-grey, allowing them to see image and video details they previously could not. As a result, colour blind viewers strongly prefer the processed output. Another benefit is that Eyeteq delivers this strong enhancement for colour-blind viewers with minimal impact on the picture seen by “colour normals” enabling everyone to watch and enjoy the same screen together. With Eyeteq enabled, content streamed to a set top box is enhanced on a frame by frame basis before being displayed on the TV screen.
Delivering a significantly enhanced viewing experience for those with colour blindness enables operators and service providers to differentiate themselves in competitive markets. For example, programmes which contain a large amount of red and green in their images, such as premium sports content, as well as motoring and nature programmes, are problematic for colour-blind viewers and thus benefit most from Eyeteq enhancement. Soon to be released independent research conducted for Spectral Edge shows a strong preference for Eyeteq versus untreated video amongst colour-blind viewers, and close to 100% acceptability ratings for all viewers.
“Over 250 million people around the world, including 8% of men, suffer some form of colour-deficient vision. This is a particular frustration when they want to watch TV with family and friends,” said Christopher Cytera, Managing Director, Spectral Edge. “The combination of our patented Eyeteq image enhancement technology and STMicroelectronics’ widely used set-top-box platforms provides the perfect solution, transforming the viewing experience while enabling operators to differentiate themselves and add new subscribers by delivering content to this large demographic group.”
By pre-integrating Eyeteq with ST’s chipset, the barriers to rolling out the technology are significantly reduced for operators. Eyeteq is licensed on a fixed fee, annual subscription basis, with operators receiving ongoing support and enhancements. Operators will therefore benefit from a royalty-free path to UltraHD in the future.
“Our collaboration with Spectral Edge demonstrates our commitment to innovation in the set-top-box market,” said Ismail Allalcha, Strategic & Ecosystem Marketing, Digital Product Group, STMicroelectronics. “ST’s leading-edge technology and its close cooperation with innovators like Spectral Edge allow operators and manufacturers to roll out transformative technology like Eyeteq quickly to their subscribers. We believe this solution will generate significant interest across the operator and set-top-box industries.”
ST’s ‘Cannes’ family of system-on-chips uses the leading ARM®-based application-processor architecture to provide powerful set-top-box and connected-client platforms. Featuring a dual-core SMP ARM application CPU delivering 7500 DMIPS, plus a quad-core GPU for true 3D graphics, Cannes supports integrated broadcast and broadband services, combined with the latest set-top-box middleware and broadband software solutions.
A demonstration app for Eyeteq on iOS or Android can be downloaded at: http://eyeteq.spectraledge.co.uk/try-it. To book a live demonstration of Eyeteq running on an ST-based set-top-box platform at IBC, please contact Christopher Cytera of Spectral Edge on [email protected].
