[Theora] FPGA implementation in the camera

[Andrey Filippov]

> Wow, what a great product! I had no idea such hardware was commercially
> available. I'll buy one if you get theora working. :)
Thanks for the nice words!
As of today I have just one 333 camera to play with - more will be
available in a month or so. And I think I'll be able to give away several
to hack into when more hardware will be ready.
>
> Any plans for a 3 ccd version?
>
Not really. I hope there will be more fast and high-resolution sensors
available.
>> 1 - Legal stuff. Is it legal to implement VP3-related coding
>> algorithms in FPGA? Or do the licenses to use the related patents
>> apply to the software only?
>
> That was certainly the intent. From-scratch implementations are may be
> something of a gray area in that the patent grant we have in writing
> refers only to modifications of the original VP3 source code. To be sure
> you can at least base some of your work on the refernce source.
In my current (model 313) camera, where FPGA generates nerly complete JFIF
data (less header) I used a tiny portion of actual C reference code - it
is building quantization tables from JPEG "quality" value (then they were
downloaded to FPGA that took it from there). Will something like this be
enough :-) ?
>
> The text of the grant is online at http://theora.org/svn.html, among
> other places.
I'll look into it, but IANAL of course, so I just hoped somebody already
went through it.
>
>> 2 - Where is the best place to find the documentation on the formats
>> and required algorithms (not the source code of the software
>> implementation)?
>
> As j indicated, the spec is your best option here. Please let us know if
> you find any discrepancies/bugs/unclear sections.

Thank you both - my printer is already busy with that 206 pages PDF.

>
> Good luck, and keep us posted!

Sure I will.

Andrey
>
>  -r
>