Consumer IPC's pursuit of image quality and low power consumption is endless, and it requires chip manufacturers to drive innovation. Chip manufacturers can still innovate in many ways. Black light addresses the issue of image quality in extremely low-light conditions and is widely used in the industry market. "Black light," "low power consumption," and "AI" have become popular terms in the consumer IPC market this year.
Black Light: Black light ISPs have landed in the consumer market, and demand and technology are not issues. The key lies in cost sensitivity, requiring collaborative efforts throughout the industry chain. Each link, from sensors and lenses to main control chips and solution providers, needs to achieve a balance in performance and cost.
Low Power Consumption: Low power consumption products have seen the fastest growth in the consumer IPC sector in recent years, accounting for 10% to 15% of total shipments. This has expanded application scenarios, and with the continuous development of low power consumption technology, industry experts believe it has the potential to seize a share of the mainstream IPC market.
A new direction in low power consumption is AOV ultra-low power continuous imaging. This technology is based on the rapid start standby technology of ultra-low power memory, enabling 24/7 continuous recording. It addresses the drawback of traditional low power consumption solutions having no recording information during non-event-triggered periods. Simply put, during non-event-triggered times, power consumption is reduced by lowering the frame rate while maintaining continuous recording. Normal frame rates are restored when an event is triggered, making it closer to the functionality of regular IPCs.
AOV can meet the demand for 24/7 continuous recording, making it a great complement to current low power consumption products. The key to implementation is still in the cost, requiring chip manufacturers to lead upstream and downstream partners in finding a balance. From the perspective of application scenarios, the combination of black light ISPs and low power consumption AOV technology is best suited for meeting outdoor market demands. From a technical standpoint, overcoming power consumption challenges is crucial, and some companies are already using AI technology to achieve this balance.
AI: AI computing power is now a standard feature at the chip level, enabling better image quality, more diverse scenarios, and improved user experiences. Many chip manufacturers have clearly stated that AI computing power is standard across their entire product range. There are two paths for AI computing power:
1. Large model miniaturization, lightweighting for specific scenarios, solving most demands at the edge.
2. Edge-side with a small amount of computing power, addressing basic computing needs, and cloud-side large model for greater computing needs.
There is no clear superiority or inferiority between the two paths; it depends on suitability for different scenarios. In the consumer-level scene, considering factors like latency and cost, the edge-side + cloud-side solution may align more with the future trend of AI large model deployment.
