In collaboration with PHYTEC, Norik Systems developed a custom video capture solution for Sony IMX327 and IMX462 image sensors, which are not natively supported on the i.MX 8M Plus platform. The project was built on the PHYTEC phyBOARD-Pollux i.MX 8M Plus embedded development board, with the main challenge being integration of these sensors into the i.MX 8MP ISP (Image Signal Processor) pipeline.
Starting Point
We based our work on PHYTEC’s BSP-Yocto-NXP-i.MX8MP-PD24.1.0 release. Our first step was enabling the upstream Sony IMX290 driver, which also covers IMX327/462 sensors. This required adding all necessary “glue” pieces:
- Device tree descriptions
- Camera-specific device tree overlays
The cameras interface over:
- MIPI-CSI for image data transfer
- I²C for camera configuration and control
ISI vs. ISP Pipelines
Since the i.MX8MP media pipeline is complex, we initially worked with the ISI (Image Sensor Interface) pipeline. ISI offers a more limited feature set but enabled us to quickly bring up the sensors and verify functionality. Using PHYTEC’s ISI helper scripts, we could set up the pipeline, view live video, and capture raw frames for analysis.
The ISI supports:
- Downscaling
- Color space conversion
- De-interlacing
- Cropping & rotation
- Alpha insertion
The ISP (Image Signal Processor), on the other hand, is far more advanced and intended for high-quality image processing. Key ISP features include:
- Black level compensation and bad pixel correction
- Demosaicing and lens shading correction
- Noise reduction and sharpening filters
- Gamma correction for display/sensor adaptation
- Chromatic aberration correction
- Automatic functions: auto white balance, auto exposure/gain control, and auto focus
ISP Integration Work
To fully leverage the ISP, additional integration was required at the kernel level. Instead of writing a new glue driver, we extended the existing Sony camera sensor driver with support for the ISP’s VVCAM interface.
This allows the ISP to:
- Initialize with the correct sensor capabilities.
- Issue requests during frame acquisition (e.g. exposure or white balance adjustments).
- Pass those requests via IOCTLs from the VVCAM framework down into the sensor driver.
- Apply changes directly through sensor registers in real time.
We also updated PHYTEC’s ISP helper scripts to support the new Sony sensors, making testing and evaluation straightforward.
Outcome
With these additions, customers can now:
- Use GStreamer pipelines for video capture
- Acquire raw frames for post-processing
- Configure ISP parameters via NXP’s VVEXT tool
This collaboration has resulted in a robust, flexible solution for integrating Sony IMX327/462 cameras on the PHYTEC i.MX8MP platform.