Image and video processing using graphics hardware

Abstract

Graphic Processing Units have during the recent years evolved into inexpensive high-performance many-core computing units. Earlier being accessible only by graphic APIs, new hardware architectures and programming tools have made it possible to program these devices using arbitrary data types and standard languages like C. This thesis investigates the development process and performance of image and video processing algorithms on graphic processing units, regardless of vendors. The tool used for programming the graphic processing units is OpenCL, a rela- tively new specification for heterogenous computing. Two image algorithms are investigated, bilateral filter and histogram. In addition, an attempt have been tried to make a template-based solution for generation and auto-optimalization of device code, but this approach seemed to have some shortcomings to be usable enough at this time.