MotionDSP Launches Military Grade Video Enhancement

MotionDSP uses military grade video enhancement technology to improve the quality of low-grade footage from devices like mobile phones. The technology compares every frame in a video to find and replace missing pixels. We profiled the company in August and today they have launched their first product. Called Ikena, the offering is a B2B deal aimed at websites hosting consumer generated video content. The company offered a brief period of free public beta use, but that period is over now.

If you start seeing the quality of mobile shot video on the web improving, don’t assume it’s an improvement on the phone side. MostionDSP’s resolution enhancement could become an industry standard for video sharing sites. You can see the quality of the video enhancement on the company’s sample page or on the MotionDSP user page on YouTube. The difference isn’t huge, but when consumers had a choice between the two I think the demand will be clear.

MotionDSP began in 1998 as a US military funded project at UC Santa Cruz. Its first product provides real time enhancement (meaning a one-minute video will take one minute to enhance) using a system of 3 dual core servers. Those systems start at $30,000 but most large companies will want to buy them in bulk.

A company representative told me that future products could include chips to perform the resolution enhancement on phones or laptops. Anything that can run its algorithm is a potential platform, they said. They have taken about $500,000 in angel funding and are expecting to close Series A funding before end of year, probably in November.