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

  • Polarisation is glaringly obvious, says Sony
    December 3, 2018
    Glare from the sun is a factor in a large number of road accidents – many of them fatal. But there is a solution at hand: using polarisation can mitigate the effect of glare and improve ITS camera enforcement, explains Stephane Clauss The effect of glare on driver safety has been well documented. A 2013 UK study by the country’s largest driver organisation, the AA, calculated sun glare was a contributing cause in almost 3,000 road accidents in 2012 alone. This represented one in 33 accidents on Britain’s
  • Lidar: recipes for success
    March 28, 2022
    Lidar is being deployed all over the world - and you can even read a cookbook on the subject...
  • Predicting the future for video camera systems
    March 12, 2012
    Jo Versavel, Managing Director of Traficon, talks about near-term trends in video camera systems. Jo Versavel starts by making one thing clear: long-term forecasts as to what the future holds for video-based traffic monitoring are to all intents and purposes meaningless. The state of the art is developing so fast that in reality it's impossible to say where we'll be in 10 years' time, says the Managing Director of Traficon. In his opinion making firm predictions even five years out is too ambitious, whereas
  • US ITS sector needs strategic leadership
    January 31, 2012
    The US is losing its advantage in the ITS sector because of a lack of strategic leadership, according to a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Here, Stephen Ezell, one of the report's authors, talks to ITS International about what can be done to remedy the situation. A new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Explaining International IT Leadership: Intelligent Transportation Systems, makes for sobering reading within the US ITS community.