“FotoNation’s passion, breakthroughs and proven track record of computer vision products were key ingredients in our decision to partner with them in these rapidly growing markets.”

JOSE, Calif.--FotoNation Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tessera Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSRA) and the leading provider of computational imaging solutions for mobile devices and digital still cameras, and Socionext Inc., a new leader in advanced System-on-Chip design technology, are pleased to announce their close collaboration to bring next-generation computational imaging to the surveillance, robotics and drone markets.

With the newest evolution of Socionext's Milbeaut image processors, the M8M (MB86S27), the strategic partnership of Socionext and FotoNation is enhanced through Socionext's utilization of FotoNation's latest generation Advanced Hardware for Image Processing (AHIP) system, a unique approach to computer vision and image processing. The latest generation of AHIP achieves outstanding video image stabilization, smart geometric correction for large field of view lenses, face detection and recognition, and tracking results that go beyond previous performance levels, and these features align to optimize the system requirements for cameras. Significant advances include:

* High-accuracy, high-speed face and eye detection
* Next-generation facial recognition
* Unparalleled ability to select multiple areas of interest and obtain simultaneous, high quality, undistorted images and videos
* Increased distance-to-subject performance
* Increased detection angle precision
* Wide-angle lens support
* Native motion detection

"Socionext's image processing capabilities make them the perfect partner to integrate these ground breaking technologies for the growing surveillance, robotic and drone camera markets," said Petronel Bigioi, senior vice president and general manager at FotoNation. "Working with Socionext to deploy our imaging technologies across various markets is one of our top priorities. We are confident that the unmatched performance of FotoNation's AHIP, coupled with the outstanding performance and image quality of the Milbeaut architecture, will raise the bar for imaging solutions."

"By offering the best combination of low power and high performance for imaging chipsets, we are providing significant technological advances for the surveillance, robotic and drone markets," said Mitsugu Naito, corporate vice president at Socionext. "FotoNation's passion, breakthroughs and proven track record of computer vision products were key ingredients in our decision to partner with them in these rapidly growing markets."