Many recent Windows (on ARM and x86) laptops have replaced the standard UVC USB camera module with a raw MIPI camera-sensor using a CSI receiver and ISP in the CPU to process the raw data into an image.

Both the hw interface of the ISP as well as the image processing algorithms used are often considered a trade secret by CPU vendors. This makes supporting these cameras under Linux a big challenge and so far these cameras are not supported.

Both Linaro and Red Hat have identified this as a problem. Linaro has started a project to add a SoftwareISP component to libcamera to allow these cameras to work without needing proprietary software and Red Hat has joined Linaro in working on this.

These exact same problems with MIPI cameras are also seen in embedded and automotive uses and the new SoftISP is also targeting these.

This talk will present and demo the current state of the SoftwareISP as well as present future plans.

We hope there will be plenty of community feedback, so we will leave ample time for questions and discussions at the end.