News/Press

What it does: MotionDSP Inc. sells software that sharpens blurry video recordings or brightens dimly-lit ones. The company’s software enhances video by combining consecutive frames together. It is used by various government agencies — including the Secret Service — and large media consumers who want to enhance their videos.

By Om Malik. MotionDSP, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup that drew cheers from the crowds when they presented at our Mobilize LaunchPad event, today announced that graphics chipmaker Nvidia will use their video enhancement technology on its CUDA architecture. The company, as part of its LaunchPad presentation, had announced that it was working on a home PC version of its video enhancement technology, likely to be available early in the first quarter of 2009.

I can see clearly now the grain has gone. NVIDIA has just announced a "strategic partnership" with video software application firm Motion DSP, in which it has also bought a stake.

Motion DSP makes software that fixes video, allowing users to make videos from cell phones, still cameras, camcorders, or the Interwibble significantly less shoddy-looking using video enhancement and reconstruction technology.

Carmel is a consumer-oriented PC application that can enhance digital video footage. It works by gathering data over many frames to "rebuild" information missing or damaged on any given frame. For example, to "fix" one frame, Carmel might have to investigate 5 to 10 frames before and after. Users can select how many frames the data gathering happens on. This is how performance will be tweaked.

We all take lousy, grainy, and jerky videos. And then we upload them to YouTube to torture our friends with the poor video quality. But MotionDSP has a “video restoration” technology that can fix all that. And that’s why Nvidia is announcing today that it has taken a stake in MotionDSP. The amount isn’t being disclosed.

“Our first-ever NVIDIA Emerging Companies Summit provides a unique and exciting venue for our attendees to meet some of the most relevant and creative companies, and people, who are passionate about visual computing and the GPU,” said Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development at NVIDIA. “Our goal is for the summit to serve as a catalyst for innovation and business opportunities throughout the visual and high-performance computing ecosystems.”
Emerging companies scheduled to participate include Acceleware, Cooliris, Elemental Technologies, Emergent Game Technologies, MotionDSP, NaturalMotion, Right Hemisphere, and more.

Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development at Nvidia, said his company has invested in a variety of applications companies that exploit Nvidia’s chips and its new CUDA programming environment. Emerging companies scheduled to participate include Acceleware, Cooliris, Elemental Technologies, Emergent Game Technologies, MotionDSP, NaturalMotion, and Right Hemisphere.

MotionDSP (DEMOfall 07) today added a premium service that for $2 allows users to download back to their computers high-resolution versions of the videos using FixMyMovie's automatic enhancement technology.

FixMyMovie, the company that does just what it says, has finally gotten around to launching its premium service. I first blogged about it coming back in April, and it's gone live for everyone this afternoon.

MotionDSP has introduced a new video forensics software it calls Ikena Reveal that works quickly on standard computer software, and with automated algorithms that make it easier for more security professionals to use (subscription required)