Enciris 4K Latency-Free Overlay Features Explained

Innovation for Capture Cards and Camera Components

Gaillac, France – 3^rd April 2024 – The latest generation of Enciris 4K capture cards and camera products all include a loop-through HDMI output with a whole batch of flexible overlay features embedded ready to use. Overlay is provided on all of the Enciris Lautrec 4Kp60 LT-300 capture cards as well as the CV-4X family of 4Kp60 camera products. In this article, we discuss the features and consider some use cases within the medical domain.

What is overlay?

Overlay provides the ability to combine and mix video images; with either other video images or with text and/or drawn shapes created within the Enciris API.
This mixing is also accompanied by transparency information.
Overlay combined with loop-through provides a useful feature set for a variety of different application areas.

What is a loop-through output?

Loop-through is a video output that mirrors one of the selected incoming video signals.
On the LT-300 family, there is one HDMI loop-through output with up to 4 select-able video inputs, dependent on the card option.
With the Enciris 4Kp60 Camera products there are 5 loop-through outputs (1 HDMI and 4 SDI) and one camera input.

In an operating theater environment loop-through is useful because depending on the procedure; sometimes it is easier for the surgeon to see what he is doing through a monitor rather than using a microscope or endoscope directly. It is also extremely useful for the other staff to be able view the operation live so they are prepared to be able to assist in the process.

The latency between input and output needs to be minimized such that the Surgeon or Doctor can judge his or her movements. With Enciris 4K products the combined loop-through and overlay delay is less than 4 lines of video, and hence we refer to this as latency-free because there is no perceivable input/output difference. 4K quality (up to 4096 x 2160 pixels) is preferred since this delivers sharper more detailed imagery with 60 Hz refresh rate providing more natural movement, allowing better real-time feedback.

What can Overlay be used for?

Display of Patient Data

At the beginning and also during an exploratory or surgical procedure, it is useful for the Surgeon or Doctor to be able to review the patient information, conveniently overlayed on the incoming video image.

Patient information can be seamlessly integrated and overlayed to appear on the screen inside the operating theatre, clinic, or medical facility.

OR Integration

The information displayed on the overlay can be of any format including for example, outputs from heart-rate or other monitoring equipment etc. Mixed images or output data with text etc. etc.

This renders the Enciris 4K products ideal as components as part of an Operating Room (OR) Integration.

Monitoring information or icons can be placed at the extremities of the picture so they do not interfere with the live video feed.

Summary

All Enciris 4K products include an embedded overlay function on the loop-through output. This can be used to mix different data(s) or video with the incoming video feed(s) with zero latency on the incoming video streams which can be useful in a variety of different medical and OR Integration use cases.

In our next article, we will be discussing loop-through overlay for AI applications. Please subscribe now to our Linked-In feed, and click Follow to be able to see our regular updates.

Click here to see the original press release.

About Enciris

Enciris Products are Engineered and built in France. The Enciris story started in 2006 with a vision to make a range of accessible high performance video capture products using the latest, state-of-the-art technology.

The company has evolved to become a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance video processing hardware for OEMs, system integrators, embedded systems, and professional users. Enciris provides solutions for customers to add Ultra HD 4K/Full HD camera technology, video acquisition, hardware compression, video routing, video format conversion, video overlay, video streaming and storage capabilities.

We design both off-the-shelf and customized solutions for Long Term Availability (LTA) and ultra-high reliability.

www.enciris.com

Enciris is an ISO9001:2015 company.