ipa: raspberrypi: Rate-limit the controller algorithms

The controller algorithms currently run on every frame provided to the
IPA by the pipeline handler. This may be undesirable for very fast fps
operating modes where it could significantly increase the computation
cycles (per unit time) without providing any significant changes to the
IQ parameters. The added latencies could also cause dropped frames.

Pass the FrameBuffer timestamp to the IPA through the controls. This
timestamp will be used to rate-limit the controller algorithms to run
with a minimum inter-frame time given by a compile time constant,
currently set to 16.66ms. On startup, we don't rate-limit the algorithms
until after the number of frames required for convergence.

Signed-off-by: Naushir Patuck <naush@raspberrypi.com>
Reviewed-by: David Plowman <david.plowman@raspberrypi.com>
Reviewed-by: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>
Signed-off-by: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>

1 files changed, 5 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/libcamera/pipeline/raspberrypi/raspberrypi.cpp b/src/libcamera/pipeline/raspberrypi/raspberrypi.cpp
index 82ae0482..6fbdba04 100644
--- a/src/libcamera/pipeline/raspberrypi/raspberrypi.cpp
+++ b/src/libcamera/pipeline/raspberrypi/raspberrypi.cpp
@@ -1433,6 +1433,11 @@ void RPiCameraData::unicamBufferDequeue(FrameBuffer *buffer)
 		 * DelayedControl and queue them along with the frame buffer.
 		 */
 		ControlList ctrl = delayedCtrls_->get(buffer->metadata().sequence);
+		/*
+		 * Add the frame timestamp to the ControlList for the IPA to use
+		 * as it does not receive the FrameBuffer object.
+		 */
+		ctrl.set(controls::SensorTimestamp, buffer->metadata().timestamp);
 		bayerQueue_.push({ buffer, std::move(ctrl) });
 	} else {
 		embeddedQueue_.push(buffer);