e-con Systems Announces Camera Solution for Gumstix® OMAP35xx Overo™ Series of Computer on Module

Online, December 11, 2009 (Newswire.com) - e-con Systems Inc., a leading Camera solutions company based out of St Louis, USA and Chennai, India has unveiled the e-CAM32_OMAP_GSTIX, the 3.2 Megapixel autofocus Gumstix Overo camera board. The camera module embedded on the e-CAM32_OMAP_GSTIX is based on Omnivision's OV3640 CMOS image sensor.

"We feel that with the Overo Computer on module in combination with the camera board from e-con, customers could achieve prototyping with many image processing applications like barcode scanning, facial recognition, text processing, etc as well as Video streaming applications. To speed up the time to market, we offer services around the camera on OMAP ISP pipeline tuning, camera testing, driver development and performance optimizations on operating systems such as WinCE, Windows Mobile and Linux" said Ashok Babu, President, e-con Systems.

The e-CAM32_OMAP_GSTIX connects to the Gumstix Overo Computer on module via a 27 pin flex connector. It interfaces to all the four variants of the Gumstix Overo such as the Earth COM (OMAP3503), Overo Air COM (OMAP3503), Overo Water COM (OMAP3530) and Overo Fire COM (OMAP3530), via this flex connector. Mechanically, the Overo camera board has the same dimension as that of the Overo computer on modules and can be screwed to the Overo Computer on module there by providing mechanical stability.

"Gumstix is very pleased to add e-con Systems as a provider of value-added products built on our Overo(tm) computer-on-module series", said Dr. W. Gordon Kruberg, president and founder of Gumstix, Inc. "The e-CAM32 camera board, which attaches to the 27-pin connector on the top of any Overo COM, puts a 3.2 Megapixel camera into the next generation of tiny products for video capture, surveillance and monitoring."

On the backend side, the e-CAM32_OMAP_GSTIX connects to the 8 bit parallel interface of the OMAP 35x processor and hence leverages the 130Mhz pixel clock that the OMAP35x processor can support. This enables higher frame rates to be achieved with higher resolutions and this is very useful for image processing applications.

"With its camera solutions for TI OMAP3530, e-con is filling the vacuum in our OMAP3530 eco-system. Now, our customers can make use of the TI DSP core inside the OMAP3530 for various image processing and video encoding applications in handheld devices by adapting the e-con's Camera solutions in their products. With the ready-to-use camera solutions from e-con, we are confident that customers will usher OMAP3530 to innovative portable video and image processing applications, leveraging the high-performance, low-power ARM CortexA8+DSP cores of the OMAP3530." said Praveen Ganapathy, Director - Business Development, Texas Instruments India

The company said they would have the future versions of the e-CAM32_OMAP_GSTIX to support LED flash to enable capture under low light conditions. The OV3640 sensor used in the e-CAM32_OMAP_GSTIX is ideal for handheld devices with its features like support for autofocus and anti-shake.

"e-con System's camera hardware and software expertise has delivered a highly compelling camera solution that is based on our 3-megapixel sensor," commented Robbert Emery, business development manager at OmniVision. "The combination of OmniVision's OV3640 image sensor with TI's DSP core in the OMAP3530 enables the e-CAM32_OMAP_GSTIX to deliver high-performance imaging functions, including JPEG compression, image stabilization and autofocus, for consumer and industrial handheld applications."

Along with the camera board, e-con provides V4L2 Linux camera drivers with full source code. The e-CAM32_OMAP_GSTIX is priced at USD 99. For more information on the Gumstix camera board and volume pricing, please visit http://www.e-consystems.com/omapovero.asp or write to [email protected]. Earlier this year, the company had announced support of a camera board for the Texas Instruments OMAP EVM board using the same sensor.