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Sony Develops New Camera for Taking Images in Dark

Sony Corp developed three types of network cameras capable of shooting subjects in an environment with an illuminance of zero lux.

The company will start to release the cameras Sept 12, 2014, in series. When the illuminance of the environment is low, the cameras automatically irradiate infrared light and take a black-and-white picture with a range of about 30m. Also, they have a function to automatically emit light from a white LED lamp after detecting the movement of a subject and take a color picture with a range of about 5m.

They can be used for a wide range of applications night and day including the monitoring of parking lots, open spaces and railroads/crossings and disaster monitoring at rivers, etc.

As an image sensor, Sony employed a backside-illuminated CMOS sensor, which enables to easily improve dynamic range. The lowest illuminance of a subject is 0.05 lux. Thus, the sensitivity of the new cameras is 10 times higher than that of the previous products using backside-illuminated CMOS sensors (the lowest illuminance of a subject: 0.5 lux).

Moreover, the cameras synthesize two images taken at different shutter speeds for the same frame and, therefore, can take images by preventing blown out highlights and crushed blacks.

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20140905/374504/