Shikino – Camera Modules & IP Core: The company Shikino High-Tech CO, Ltd. with headquarters in Uozo, Japan, began with the production of coating materials. In 1987, the development and production of printed circuit boards for testing semiconductors was launched and in the following year, IC layout design was also started. The company continued to develop from year to year and further production facilities were opened.
In 2004, the camera module division was created, which has developed into the main business to this day. In addition to hardware, the development of in-house image processing IP cores is also a primary focus.
In 20 years of continuous development, Shikino has expanded its range of camera modules. Cameras with rolling shutter and models that work with global shutter are available.
In order to offer the user as many options as possible, various lenses with different fields of view (FOV) are available for each camera model (e.g. 9 options for 1.4″ sensors).
The resolutions of the cameras currently cover a range from 0.3M pixels to 2.0M pixels.
Based on these 3 criteria, you can select the right camera for your application from an optical point of view – the interface for data transmission is still missing. Shikino can offer all common interfaces here as well
In addition to the camera modules mentioned above, Shikino also offers so-called intelligent cameras. These have the ability to process images beyond pure encoding on the camera itself. Optical distortion correction, counting 
and recognising objects, positioning/alignment based on camera images or the optimal reading of QR codes are just some of the applications that can be realized with these modules.
Shikino also offers an SDK for implementing your own application, using your own algorithms. Libraries for controlling the IOs, camera settings, image processing and generating overlay information can be used.
In addition to the development of camera modules, Shikino has developed its own IP cores for image processing. The in-house Shikino-LS offers high efficiency and performance for lossless encoding and 
decoding with a 16-bit width and processing of 1 sample per clock. Shikino also offers various IP cores which comply with the JPEG standard but offer some improvements over it. Depending on the application, different versions can be selected, e.g. with the KJN-EX core it is possible to process up to 32 samples per clock. This enables a very efficient implementation in FPGAs (e.g. 8k YUV422@200MHz, 96fps in only approx. 400k gates).
Shikino camera modules have been used successfully for many years in applications such as ATMs and POS terminals. In industry, their use ranges from optical inspection to security cameras and analysers. Medical devices such as ultrasound diagnosis stations are also equipped with Shikino camera modules.
This applications demonstrate the high quality and long-term availability of Shikino solutions.
If you do not find what you are looking for in the standard products mentioned above, Shikino can develop application-specific camera modules for you. Shikino’s 20 years of experience in camera hardware development and image processing algorithms enable you to outperform the competition in terms of performance and reliability.
Your next product integrates a camera? Are you interested in Shikino camera modules & IP core in detail? As your local Shikino contact, we will be happy to help you. Contact us directly by phone or send us your enquiry directly here