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

  • Intersection monitoring from video using 3D reconstruction
    March 9, 2016
    Researchers Yuting Yang, Camillo Taylor and Daniel Lee have developed a system to turn surveillance cameras into traffic counters. Traffic information can be collected from existing inexpensive roadside cameras but extracting it often entails manual work or costly commercial software. Against this background the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) was looking for an efficient and user-friendly solution to extract traffic information from videos captured from road intersections.
  • Bespoke ITS is helping to reduced collisions on America’s rural roads
    October 22, 2014
    David Crawford cherrypicks conference and award highlights Almost 30% of all US citizens live in rural areas or very small communities, and 34 of the 50 states exceed this level in their own populations, with the proportions rising as high as 85%. And although rural routes carry only 35% of all traffic, the accidents that occur on them account for some 54% of all US road traffic accident deaths.
  • Computer technology increasingly aids traffic management
    February 3, 2012
    Alan Perrott, Tyco Fire & Integrated Solutions (UK) Ltd, looks at trends in CCTV technology for traffic surveillance applications
  • New technology revolution in urban traffic control?
    January 26, 2012
    Urban traffic control is a well-defined and practised art. Nevertheless, there are technologies here and on the horizon with the potential to revolutionise how we do things. By Gavin Jackman and Andrew Kirkham, TRL, and Jason Barnes. Distributed monitoring and control of urban traffic networks and flows is nothing new. PC-based Urban Traffic Control (UTC) is now well established and operating in many locations around the world. However, it is worth considering the effects of the huge growth in the use of sm