DELIVERING VIDEO
STABILIZATION
Demand for better, more stable video spans a variety of
real-world applications. Johan Svensson explains how to meet
market expectations
Since the first mobile camera
was strapped to an adventurer’s
helmet, users have been
clamouring for video in motion. Today,
there are cameras integrated into
drones, body cameras worn by public
safety workers, and hundreds of
millions of multi-camera smartphones
capturing video on the go. And they
can all - naturally - suffer from the
shakes unless something’s done
about it.
Watching shaky video for long
periods of time can wear out a viewer
and even induce nausea. Depending
on the use case, important details
could be missed. It’s one thing if video
of a family reunion is a little shaky,
especially as you zoom in on happy
faces. While the technology exists to
stabilize such video in the smartphone
itself, there is certainly post-production
software that can smooth out
unwanted camera shakes. But it’s a
whole other thing if important content,
such as surveillance video from drones
or incident footage from bodycams,
shakes to the point it’s unreliable.
Imagine drones monitoring a rapidly
spreading wildfire. Compiling video
feeds from multiple drones can help
create a more complete picture of the
affected area and inform important
decisions about evacuations or the
deployment of fire-fighting resources.
But because of the nature of drones,
their video footage is particularly
prone to shakiness and video noise.
By addressing video stabilization in
drones, solution providers can also
add other important features, such as
object tracking, smart zooming, or the
ability to compose a single situational
picture from several video feeds.
When it comes to public safety of
surveillance, imagine a SWAT team
entering a building and being guided by
what a command centre “sees” from
the body cameras each team member
wears. Strong video stabilization and
other features, such as lighting and
lens correction, make it easier for
command centre staff to perceive the
situation from afar, identify danger
faster, and guide the SWAT team to a
positive outcome.
In short, great demand for video
from cameras in motion yields
demand for great, stable video. That’s
where advanced video stabilization
technology comes into play. To date,
innovation in video stabilization have
been driven largely by the smartphone
industry. The technology runs in
the background of most leading
smartphones, capitalizing on multiple
integrated cameras to create smooth,
sharp, and stable video. Similar
stabilization technology can also work
in other mobile camera platforms.
For companies developing new
camera-based products, there are
three main ways of achieving the
video stabilization that customers will
demand: develop a stabilizer in-house,
source greater stabilization through
hardware, or integrate software-based
video stabilization. Each has their pros
and cons.
Path 1: Develop in-house
For ultimate control over the video
stabilization function of a camera
product, companies can do it
themselves. This may allow them
to more fully customise a product’s
stabilization to match a very particular
use case. But it’s important to
understand that good stabilization
requires extensive development
resources, and that it’s not finished
when the product ships.
Of the three paths for video
stabilization, in-house development
may require the greatest capex
investment. It takes a team of
developers and often years of
work to design and produce video
stabilization that will meet market
expectations. Video stabilization
development presents unique
challenges. For instance, a common
Below: To date
video stabilization
has been driven by
the smart phone
industry
18 26 January 2021 www.newelectronics.co.uk
/www.newelectronics.co.uk