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A camera’s Dynamic Range (DR) is the range of tones in a scene that can be reproduced with adequate contrast and good Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Camera Dynamic Range is often limited by flare light, which is stray light in the image, primarily caused by reflections between lens elements. Flare light reduces DR by fogging images, i.e., washing out detail in dark areas. It is the primary reason that the Dynamic Range of cameras (which include lenses) is poorer than that of image sensors, which can be up to 150dB (30 million:1) for recent HDR (High Dynamic Range) sensors.
In the past two years we’ve learned that flare light in test chart images could, in theory, be mistaken for the image of the test chart, resulting in exaggerated Dynamic Range measurements. The situation became real in mid-2019, when we started seeing actual images where this happened. By studying these images we have developed techniques to guard against exaggerated SNR measurements caused by flare light. We describe these techniques here. (more…)
Our newsletter features our products, company news, educational image quality articles, Imatest events, and relevant industry articles. Subscribe to receive our newsletters in your inbox.
Imatest and Furonteer partnered in early 2019 to provide high throughput production machines for geometric calibration of single and multicamera devices.
A new Imatest software release is coming soon. Join our pilot program for early access to the new version in testing.
Imatest attended the P2020 meeting on May 13 and 14, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Paul Romancyzk, PhD., Senior Imaging Scientist, and Rob Sumner, Lead Engineer, represented Imatest. Paul co-led the discussion on Color Separation within the Image Quality for Machine Vision subgroup.
by Henry Koren, inspired by Paul Romanczyk, edited by Norman Koren
Not all MTF measurement systems will necessarily provide the same results. The quality of the test target can impact the measurements you obtain. Long distance tests are ideally performed at the hyperfocal distance, where there is enough depth of field to have acceptable focus at infinity. Long-range tests which exceed the available space within your lab or factory are the most challenging. A collimator or relay lens system can be used to produce virtual targets at a simulated distance. The measurements obtained through a collimator can diverge from measurements obtained from free-space test targets. This article will discuss how to cope with that.
Imatest will attend AutoSens in Detroit on May 14-16, 2019. AutoSens is a 3-day workshop, conference, and exhibition advancing the education for and development of vehicle perception technology. It brings together over a thousand minds in vehicle perception, ADAS, and autonomous vehicles twice a year—in Detroit, Michigan USA in May, and Brussels, Belgium in September. Each event includes conference sessions, discussions, collaborations, debates, networking, business meetings, interactive learning, autonomous driving demonstrations, and technology exhibition showcasing.
Imatest sent two engineers to the IEEE P2020 Automotive Imaging Quality face-to-face meeting in Dusseldorf, Germany this past February in 2019. The IEEE P2020 standard, which is still in development, aims to define KPIs and test procedures to address the many challenges relevant (and often unique) to automotive imaging.
The group hopes to publish the standard in the year 2020 (no relation to the standard’s identifying number) as a unifying guideline for developers of autonomous driving systems. Most driver-assist and autonomous-driving systems rely heavily on cameras despite the significant press other imaging modalities, such as LIDAR, have received. As Level 3, 4, and 5 autonomous vehicles start to come on the road in 2020 and beyond, it is vital that these systems have an agreed-upon set of rigorous performance metrics. (more…)
