Thomas Ayers

Pixim, Inc., a provider of image sensors and processors for enterprise security cameras, has newly appointed Thomas Ayers to the position of vice president of engineering to spearhead Pixim’s next generation of video image capture solutions and meet needs and challenges of growing security markets. SecurityWorld INT’L has met with Thomas Ayers to talk about his biggest challenge as the new VP of engineering for Pixim.

By Sunny Kim

What is your biggest challenge as Pixims VP of engineering?

As Pixim’s vice president of engineering, my biggest challenge is my biggest opportunity -- to maximize the potential of Pixim’s engineering team.  Pixim has a very mature engineering team with deep imaging experience and a lot of bright ideas.  Pixim has already demonstrated the capability to change the industry with the development of dramatic new technology such as the Digital Pixel System (DPS), Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) technology.  My challenge is to accelerate the pace of deployment of products from Pixim that further raise the bar in the industry.

What kind of technology challenges does Pixim face?

Pixim leads the industry in advanced mixed-signal semiconductors that are setting new standards for image quality, dynamic range, and color accuracy.  This is an ongoing technological challenge as we continue to develop advanced semiconductor technologies and enhance existing product capabilities.  Adding to this challenge is the need to address the fundamental movement in the industry toward digital video technology.

Pixim understands and is well positioned to respond to the security industry’s move from analogue to digital IP-based cameras.  Pixim’s engineering team has an advanced understanding of digital imaging technology and digital video networking.  Although IP is a small percentage of the market now, we expect it to expand rapidly because it enables higher-resolution cameras with advanced control and analytics features.  This move requires entirely new technologies that need to be embraced by manufacturers as well as distributors and installers.  Pixim’s philosophy of providing a complete platform that simplifies and enables the rapid adoption of complex technologies will help spur the adoption of digital high-resolution security cameras.

What are Pixims strengths in the image sensor market?  How are you building on these advantages?

Pixim’s main strength in the market is a deeper understanding of the physics of imaging and image science, and all the sensor, VLSI, and software expertise that goes into doing world-class image capture.  This has enabled Pixim to drastically improve image quality, bringing WDR to image sensors.  Pixims DPS WDR technology gives these sensors nearly equal dynamic range as the human eye, while retaining the color accuracy of the human visual system.  Pixim does not see the human eye as the limit of what image sensors should be constrained to.  We are actively working on new technologies and platforms that expand image sensor capabilities beyond what the human eye can achieve.  In the end, the goal is simply to retain the key visual information in the image regardless of lighting conditions and to make this information available in a format that is friendly to machine vision, compression, and analytics algorithms, as well as to people.  Pixim already excels in this with higher compression, better color accuracy, and lower noise levels than competing technologies.  These advantages are important in applications ranging from storage of compressed digital video to facial recognition, feature detection, and automatic identification of license plates and other markings.  In short, Im very proud to be working with a company that introduced and sets the standard for WDR -- a company that never rests on its past successes and is always making improvements.  Pixim has a lot of exciting ideas to deliver to the market place.

Sunny Kim is Editor of SecurityWorld INTL.  Send your comments to kbs@infothe.com.

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