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

  • Videalert provides full time enforcement with part time workload
    March 19, 2014
    Videalert says its algorithms on automated enforcement can reduce the workload on staff while providing an effective deterrent to offenders. Colin Sowman reports. While members of the public may believe that the enforcement of parking regulations, bus lanes and box junctions has no practical benefit and is purely a money-making operation, for many authorities the opposite is true. Enforcement is a loss-making but vital exercise as illegally parked vehicles create obstructions and dangers leading to gridl
  • Bristol’s buses trial CycleEye detection system
    July 7, 2017
    Fusion Processing’s Jim Hutchinson looks at a two-year trial of the company’s cyclist detection system. Is cycling in a city dangerous? Well, that depends where you are and how you view statistics. Malmö is far more bike-friendly than Mumbai and the risk can either be perceived as small - one death per 29 million miles cycled in the UK in 2013 - or large - that equated to 109 deaths in the same year. Whatever your personal take on the data, the effect of these accidents can be felt indirectly too. News of c
  • Hikvision’s wind/solar solution offers ‘off grid’ vision
    August 20, 2019
    Getting vision tech to ‘off-grid’ areas is a challenge - but Hikvision has come up with an answer in China, while also handling some rather more conventional smart cities work in Germany
  • Traffic lights: There’s a better way ..
    July 9, 2014
    .. say researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who have developed a means of computing optimal timings for city stoplights that they say can significantly reduce drivers’ average travel times. Existing software for timing traffic signals has several limitations, says Carolina Osorio, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at MIT and lead author of a forthcoming paper in the journal Transportation Science that describes the new system, based on a study of traffic