Chapter 2: Tools

Overview

Even though this book has a narrow focus, it calls for a wide array of tools, some hardware (DSP development boards) but mostly software. It is the author's strong belief that the development of embedded algorithms should proceed from a high-level vantage point down to the low-level environment, in a series of distinct, clearly defined milestones. The risk in jumping headlong into the embedded environment is getting bogged down in countless details and the inevitable unforeseen engineering challenges that may or may not be directly related to the algorithm. Embedded development is hard, and some may claim much harder than coding a web application, GUI application, Java program, or most other software intended to run on a desktop machine. Embedded developers are much closer to the hardware, and usually have fewer computing resources available at their disposal. The saving grace is that the programs typically running on an embedded DSP system are of a much smaller footprint than a desktop or server application. Nevertheless, when you are that much closer to the hardware there are many, many issues that must be taken into account and hence the development strategy put forth in this book start with the background, prototype whatever operation needs to be implemented, and slowly but surely work your way down to the DSP.

Although this description of embedded image processing development may appear to be characterized by fire and brimstone, in reality the overall situation has gotten much better over the years. Ease of...