Skip to main content

Solar cell technology cameras

A new camera range from Stemmer Imaging uses a sensor, based on solar cell technology, to allow imaging from scenes which simultaneously contain both very light and very dark areas. The company says this makes them ideally suited to use in environments with a very high dynamic range, or where there are strong and unpredictable brightness fluctuations. The new FX4 HDR (High Dynamic Range) sensor produces a logarithmic signal output. This enables fine differences in brightness to be imaged even in very bright
February 2, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The image shows a 40W light bulb, image on the left with a conventional CCD sensor and on the right with the FX4 HDR sensor
A new camera range from 822 Stemmer Imaging uses a sensor, based on solar cell technology, to allow imaging from scenes which simultaneously contain both very light and very dark areas. The company says this makes them ideally suited to use in environments with a very high dynamic range, or where there are strong and unpredictable brightness fluctuations. The new FX4 HDR (High Dynamic Range) sensor produces a logarithmic signal output. This enables fine differences in brightness to be imaged even in very bright scenes, without saturation.

 The FX4 HDR sensor features a patented pixel structure that provides a truly logarithmic output with effective suppression of fixed noise and gives a dynamic range of 120 db. According to Stemmer, this equates to a 1,000 times greater brightness ratio (ratio of the highest brightness value to the lowest brightness value that can be imaged in a scene) compared to conventional linear CCD sensors, which typically have a dynamic range of 60 db.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Theia develops innovative distortion-free ultra-wide-angle lenses
    October 26, 2022
    Today’s high-resolution cameras have many advantages if they have the right lens for the job. When that includes covering large areas or reducing cost by installing fewer cameras, you need a wide-angle lens. Fisheye style lenses with barrel distortion are routinely used to cover an ultra-wide field of view; however, they create a curved and distorted image which causes significant loss of resolution at the image edges. This presents a variety of issues for ITS applications such as difficulty in identification or recognition of objects and details.
  • Sony's polarisation image sensor with four-directional on-chip polariser
    October 25, 2018
    Sony Semiconductor Solutions has launched a polarisation image sensor: 3.45µm, 5.07M-Effective Pixel with four-directional polariser formed on the photodiode of the image sensor chip targeting the industrial equipment market. In addition to the brightness and colour, this image sensor can capture polarisation information which cannot be detected by normal image sensor. This polarisation sensor can expand various possibilities in the industrial field such as inspection when visualisation and sensing are
  • Germany's approach to adaptive traffic control
    February 3, 2012
    Jürgen Mück, Siemens AG, describes the three-level approach taken in Germany to adaptive network control
  • Righter shade of pale
    July 24, 2012
    Jon Tarleton, Quixote Transportation Technologies, Inc., talks about developments in mobile weather information gathering Quixote Transportation Technologies, Inc. (QTT) is promoting the greater use of mobile technologies to provide infill between fixed Road Weather Information System (RWIS) infrastructure. It is, the company says, a means of reducing the expense of providing comprehensive, network-wide coverage, particularly in geographic locations where the sheer number of centreline miles causes cost to