A Wide Dynamic Range CMOS pixel with a user definable response for surveillance applications.
Speaker: Steve Collins
When: 2009-11-16 14:00:00
Venue: 78-420
Host: Brian Lovell
Abstract:We can effortless image and then recognise objects within arbitrary scenes. This means that it is easy to underestimate the problems that need to be solved in order to create an artificial system with the same abilities. The most obvious challenge for a system that has to image scenes with uncontrolled illumination sources is that the intra-scene dynamic range can be as large as six decades (120dB). Interest from the automotive industry means that cameras that can deal with this problem have recently reached the market. However this only creates a further problem, in particular the need to display these images on devices with a dynamic range of less that 256. A new pixel with a wide input dynamic range and a user controllable response will be described that can efficiently solve both the image acquisition and display problems. This means that it is now possible to address a more subtle problem; in particular the effect of changes in the spectrum of the illumination source on the apparent colour of objects. Results will be presented that suggest that when a scene is illuminated by daylight it should be possible to create a system that extracts useful ‘colour’ information from surfaces within a scene.
Biography:: Steve Collins received the B.Sc. degree in theoretical physics from the University of York in 1982 and the Ph.D degree from the University of Warwick in 1986. From 1985 until 1997, he worked within the Defence Research Agency on various topics including the origins of 1/f noise in MOSFETs, imaging sensors and analogue information processing. Since 1997 he has been on the faculty of the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, where he has continued his interest in CMOS imaging sensors.
Type:
Contact: