image processing on FPGA

[yupina-chan]

hi. i'm taking up bachelors degree in electronics engineering. for my undergrad thesis, i wil be implementing image processing in fpga. the set-up will be like this:
pc(input image) -> altera de2 -> pc (output)
i would like to ask, what is the best way to send the image from pc to fpga? i am thinking of usb-to-rs232 converter(laptop) to rs232 port(fpga). i have seen tutorials on communicating with the fpga serial port, through hyperterminal and c but only in sending characters and not images.

i was also advised to use ethernet in data transfer. i don't know where to start in making my program.

sending characters are different from sending images when it is used for image processing. that's what i think but i don't have a clue on how to send images pixel by pixel. can you give me sample codes for the pc side and links on tutorials on the fpga side. thank you in advance. i desperately need your suggestions. i'm a beginner on image processing.

 

[sreevenkjan]

how big is your image??how are you planning to read the number of pixels??

 

[TrickyDicky]

ethernet will require the ethernet IP core from altera. it is quite large. If you have to implement the cores yourself, you're best going for the RS232. Its just a transfer format, so you just write a C program on the PC to transfer the image data into the FPGA.

 

[yupina-chan]

ethernet will require the ethernet IP core from altera. it is quite large. If you have to implement the cores yourself, you're best going for the RS232. Its just a transfer format, so you just write a C program on the PC to transfer the image data into the FPGA.

my image is in jpeg format. i will convert it to bmp (advised to do so). for clarification, can i use hyperterminal for transfer(i am not good in programming)? can the fpga process bmp formats? my jpeg image dimension is 384x388 pixels and is 8kb.

 

[TrickyDicky]

jpeg is a compressed format, so unless you write an IP core to uncompress the image, bitmap will be far easier. An FPGA can process any data you want. An FPGA has access to the bit level, so what the data is is up to you. Its just a stream of bits.

 

[bsprajc]

You can use 'minicom' in linux to send you binary data via RS232. Use the SEND ASCII FILE... it works and it does not perform any translation on the data stream before sending it to the UART... I've used this to send uncompressed audio files to DE0-Nano.