Mobile phones have created opportunities for new players in disciplines that have already achieved maturity in the PC world. Techniques suitable for PC applications, which have few constraints on memory and processing power, do not always migrate well to constrained environments on mobile devices. Imaging is a good example. There are many companies offering image manipulation packages for PCs; however few have been able to migrate their technology to mobile.

To deliver imaging features common on PCs to mobile devices requires new thinking and this is exactly what Scalado, a small Swedish company, has done. CAPS offers mobile device manufacturers an efficient, low memory solution to the challenge of processing JPG images. This technology has been quietly implemented in over 60 devices and now it is to be integrated into Symbian OS.

"Integration with Symbian OS is a significant development for us," says Mats. "It means handset vendors will be able to use our technology in their Symbian devices without the up front costs of integrating it into their platform."

In addition to the integration into Symbian OS, Scalado has also announced cooperation with UIQ. At first sight this might appear odd: If CAPS is integrated into Symbian OS would it not by default be available in UIQ? "The agreement with UIQ extends our integration into Symbian OS by taking our technology into the user interface," says Mats. "So UIQ has built an image editor and implemented Scalado technology below its JSR-234 APIs. Therefore, a UIQ licensee - who also licenses our technology - will get a number of additional user and developer features."

To deliver CAPS features in a device, manufacturers will need to enter into a licensing agreement with Scalado: the integration of CAPS into Symbian SDKs provides the APIs for development purposes only.

While the work being undertaken by UIQ will provide developers with a way to take advantage of Scalado technology through JSR-234, this is not a general feature of the integration of CAPS into Symbian OS. "Symbian will be adding a C++ wrapper to our C interface," says Mats. "But this will not be a public API. A device manufacturer will have to license CAPS from us to use these APIs, but it won't automatically make the APIs available to third party developers. At this stage we are focusing on OEMs and we have not yet discussed how we might make the API more widely available. If there is clearly an interest from third party developers, we will certainly look for ways in which they can be provided with the APIs."

The approach taken with UIQ is part of a wider strategy Scalado is implementing. With the core technology gaining a foothold in a wide range of mobile platforms, including Linux and Windows Mobile, Scalado is looking to address a wider portion of the value chain.

"We have progressed to the stage where integrating CAPS with any platform is not a significant technical challenge," says Mats. "The new challenge is to integrate CAPS into the user's imaging experience. So we are starting to move from being a pure imaging technology company, to look a lot more at the whole imaging experience,"

Scalado already has a number of feature modules that extend CAPS functionality, such as AutoRama. AutoRama application allows a user to create panoramic images by taking a series of photos that are then stitches into a panorama. Mats demonstrated this technology to SymbianOne at last year's Smartphone Show, and it was impressive.

There is another factor at play in Scalado's move towards user features, the need for device vendors to differentiate their devices. "We have been careful to develop our technology so that handset manufacturers with their own imaging applications can enhance them by using CAPS," says Mats. "But for those vendors who don't have an existing stable of imaging application our feature modules provide a way for them to quickly add imaging capabilities to a device. Similarly, as we expand the range of feature modules, vendors gain more opportunities for differentiating their devices by delivering different imaging feature sets."

This focus on user experience is also moving Scalado away from being a pure mobile device technology supplier. "One interesting application we are looking at is how to use our technology to implement fast photo browsing over the air," says Mats. "This is involving us in imaging technology components for the server side."

As well as extending into the user space Scalado is also extending its reach into the silicon that is at the heart of today's smartphones. This is exemplified by the recent announcement of SpeedView's integration with OmniVision's new 3-megapixel OV3640 CameraChip. This integration promises to greatly reduce shutter lag, a common criticism of the cameras on phones.

In the space of just a few years camera phones have gone from fussy VGA images to sharp images of 5 mega pixels and above. The need to process these images efficiently has driven interest in CAPS. However, the physical limitations imposed by the smartphone form factor are likely to constrain raw image growth. The emphasis in smartphone imaging technology will move towards enhancing imaging features. Scalado's growing emphasis on user experience positions it well to take advantage of smartphone manufacturers' continuing need to differentiate their products.

More information on Scalado, CAPS, and the feature modules can be found on www.scalado.com.