120dB Lens for HDR Sensors

September 19, 2014

Jennifer Shuttleworth

Sunex NoGhost 120-dB lenses are the first and only lenses designed, optimized, and tested for use in cameras using high dynamic range (HDR) image sensors, claims the company. With the increased dynamic range for HDR image sensors today, standard lenses, which were developed at a time when the typical dynamic range for an image sensor was 60-80 dB, have image artifacts collectively called stray light that reduce the image quality when used with HDR imagers. Cameras already used in automotive advanced driver assistance systems—particularly semi-automated or active safety functions—use machine vision to process scene information. Stray light in the optics, especially ghosts, can mislead the algorithms and obscure the true scene information, leading to reduced functionality and possibly unsafe modes. Viewing applications currently in development such as camera monitoring systems (sometimes called wing mirror replacement, or electronic mirror) will require cameras with HDR sensors.