How HiSilicon's Hi-Imprex Engine Has Reshaped the Viewing Landscape

[Shanghai, China, July 21, 2021] Displays serve as powerful windows to new visual worlds, and are chock-full of captivating, fast-changing technology. They appear in a number of contexts – from TVs, phones, and watches to electronic whiteboards and video walls, and the forms they take on – flat, foldable, bendable, and rotatable, have evolved over time.

HiSilicon has extensive experience with display technology, having demonstrated outstanding technical prowess in every facet, from video processing SoCs to display drivers. HiSilicon developed the Hi-Imprex Engine with the goal of reproducing our world in the same way we naturally perceive it, thanks to scene-based picture quality enhancements. The engine is capable of intelligently recognizing scenes, such as skies, greenery, and portraits, and applying scene-specific picture quality enhancements. The engine also stands out with regard to smart color and details processing, encompassing color saturation, definition, cleanness, contrast, and smoothness.

Brings Splendor to Light

The Hi-Imprex Engine accurately detects pixel-level light sources. Optimized high dynamic range (HDR) imaging ensures that both shadows and highlights are presented in a manner that is most comfortable to view, meaning that all details are clearly distinguishable and uncannily true-to-life. Dynamic Range Extend (DRE+) technology is leveraged to perform luminance remapping on details within high-dynamic regions. This results in optimized contrasts, and an authentic level of detail. The Hi-Imprex Engine also supports accurate, targeted local dimming for up to 20,000 zones. The key information in pictures is accurately expressed through the more refined zones. The deeper, darker, and richer imagery generated by the engine breathes life into whatever you're watching on the display.

Scene Recognition and Refinement

The Hi-Imprex Engine can identify the scene onscreen, including mountains, lakes, oceans, snow-capped mountains, clouds, and neon lights, and then applies optimized contrasts, textures, white balance, and saturation, based on what it has identified.

Intelligent Super Resolution to Restore Image Details

The Hi-Imprex Engine is backed by deep learning and intelligent super resolution (SR) algorithms. The deep learning algorithm analyzes the image, and corrects details on a pixel-by-pixel basis, to approach the effects of human vision. SR can accurately identify key image information and optimize image details, allowing for classic video content to be upscaled into UHD or even 8K on devices, for accelerated 8K deployment.

Enhanced Viewing Experience, with More Vibrant Colors

By drawing from content adaptive (CA) technology, the Hi-Imprex Engine is able to significantly boost the effectiveness of tone mapping and color mapping. Finely-textured imagery is more detailed in both bright and dark regions, and colors are much richer and more subtle across the board. HDR Vivid enhances color by 72% compared with traditional SDR images.

Brings out Your Best

The Hi-Imprex Engine employs a custom algorithm for intelligent skin tone detection. This algorithm enhances skin tone contrasts, to boost details contrasts in highlighted regions. In portraits, overlooked details can be captured at any moment – day or night, and from any conceivable distance.

Buttery Smooth Graphics, with 8K MEMC

The Hi-Imprex Engine supports up to 120 Hz motion compensation, which is ideal in cases where a split-second reaction can make the difference between victory and defeat. This resolves the longstanding issue of image jitter and motion blur caused by low frame rates in 4K/8K UHD images. In complex motion pictures, the MEMC function can quickly and accurately distinguish between moving and static irregular regions, identify small moving objects, and accurately process edges of motion regions and objects. It keeps the subject fluid while optimizing the halo of motion edge imperfections of the object with greater precision, and also maximizing the dynamic detail of every frame.

Intelligent Noise Reduction

The Hi-Imprex Engine performs two-dimensional noise reduction for objects. Notably, it detects common noise, such as contour lines of gradient areas, on an automatic basis, in addition to accurately obtaining pixel positions and reducing noise, to significantly enhance picture definition.

Thanks to the presence of multiple display technologies, the HiSilicon Hi-Imprex Engine is able to deliver substantially improved picture quality, resulting in a truly unprecedented viewing experience. This paradigm shift will inevitably accelerate technological innovation throughout the industry.