Iris recognition on FPGA

[Altera_Forum]

Dear All, 

 Good day.  I want to implement iris circle detection algorithm. Once the iris circle is detected, the detected image will be compressed using jpeg2000 and sent to host using USB interface. project will use OV7725 image sensor. Once the algorithm is implemented on the fpga, i want to make custom hardware.  I want to use FPGA for this purpose. Kindly suggest me a suitable fpga development kit for the same or is there any other altera development kit that is better for above project, do suggest me.  BR, Abdul

[Altera_Forum]

I suggest you do the jpeg compression in a processor, not the FPGA itself. Also, best not use USB for coms. IP for this is very difficult to implement, and afaik there are no free IP cores out there. RS232 or maybe Ethernet would be more appropriate. 

 There are plenty of dev kits out there. What are your estimated resource and interfacing requirements?

[Altera_Forum]

Dear Tricky, 

 thanks for responding.   you mean to say soft core processor? My interface requiremet are as follows: OV7725 camera board interface and output interface(rs232/ethernet), i may require an sd ram to process atleast 30 fps. i would also like to include encytion and cryptography in future but not now.  what stops us from using jpeg compression inside fpga? any particular reason?  BR, Abdul

[Altera_Forum]

JPEG is very computationally expensive and is not really suited to FPGAs as it requires processing on memory buffers etc. This is much more suited to a processor rather than an FPGA. You could quite easily do it in a soft core processor, eg the NIOS.

[Altera_Forum]

I'd like to suggest the SoC chip for this. Run Linux on it and mass storage, USB, and Ethernet software are taken care of. Make sure to put in enough memory. The NEON SIMD instructions on the ARM cores look suitable for JPEG encoding. I'm no expert on that so do your homework. The DSPs in the FPGA might also work, but NEON is probably easier to get working. The ARM cores in an SoC run much faster than FPGA fabric as well.

[Altera_Forum]

i have altera DE1 board from terasic..is it good enough to start with? Also attaching the block diagram of the system have and please let me know if youthink any better way of  

    thanks, Abdul

[Altera_Forum]

The DE1 is a smaller board based on an older smaller cyclone II part. These can't run as fast as newer technology, and don't have as many resources as newer chips. Make sure you check your memory and resource requirements against what's available on that board. Your block diagram doesn't include enough details to tell if it will work on the DE1. In any case, it's up to you to decide to get a bigger board or design your project to fit what's available on the DE1.

[Altera_Forum]

Dear All, 

 thanks for reply.ing so far..but Altera devices has made me more confused..now which device to use for my project.   1>Only FPGA? 2>Only NIOS processor? 3>SOC FPGA+Processor? 4>DSP builder using simulink?  please consider below requirement for answerring above question.  Define your requirements in terms of things like:  •image size - 640 x 480  •frame rate - 30 fps  •bit depth - 8 bit gray scale (need to convert raw rgb to grey scale)  •acceptable latency - real time  •processing required - mainly segmentation for iris circle detection and then jpeg200 compression, and cryptography for security purpose  •unit cost - as low as possible but not more than 50$  •power consumption target - should be power on ethernet/usb  Br, Abdul   •how long you have to get this to market - 1 year

[Altera_Forum]

You won't be able to buy much of an FPGA alone for $50, I think the cheapest SoC is near that price for the chip alone, less camera, etc. I don't think you can do this with an FPGA solution at this price. Start thinking about webcams and (slow) software if $50 is your price point.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  You won't be able to buy much of an FPGA alone for $50, I think the cheapest SoC is near that price for the chip alone, less camera, etc. I don't think you can do this with an FPGA solution at this price. Start thinking about webcams and (slow) software if $50 is your price point.  --- Quote End ---  Ok.ignore price and please suggest me the what should i use for my project?>Only FPGA?2>Only NIOS processor?3>SOC FPGA+Processor?4>DSP builder using simulink?BR,Abdul

[Altera_Forum]

I suggest you get your system working at the algorithm in something like matlab/simulink or DSP builder. From here, if you architect it to easily port to an FPGA, you will get some idea of what system you need.

[Altera_Forum]

If you want to do an FPGA accelerated design, use the Altera tools to simulate and implement your algorithm it on various sizes of FPGA. Pick the smallest one that can fit what you need. That will give you your requirements. Pay attention to the compilation reports as they will tell you how man resources are used by each piece of your design. You may need to alter your design to make it fit.

[Altera_Forum]

There are several commercial IP cores that implement high-speed video detection algorithms in FPGA. A couple of examples are Xylon and Eutecus: 

http://www.logicbricks.com/products/logifdt.aspx  https://www.eutecus.com/prodserv/eutecus_mve_glossy_altera_v2.0_display.pdf  Thanks, Evgeni