On image sensor dynamic range utilized by security cameras

The dynamic range is an important quantity used to describe an image sensor. Wide/High/Extended dynamic range is often brought forward as an important feature to compare one device to another. The dynamic range of an image sensor is normally given as a single number, which is often insufficient since a single number will not fully describe the dynamic capabilities of the sensor. A camera is ideally based on a sensor that can cope with the dynamic range of the scene. Otherwise it has to sacrifice some part of the available data. For a security camera the latter may be critical since important objects might be hidden in the sacrificed part of the scene. In this paper we compare the dynamic capabilities of some image sensors utilizing a visual tool. The comparison is based on the use case, common in surveillance, where low contrast objects may appear in any part of a scene that through its uneven illumination, span a high dynamic range. The investigation is based on real sensor data that has been measured in our lab and a synthetic test scene is used to mimic the low contrast objects. With this technique it is possible to compare sensors with different intrinsic dynamic properties as well as some capture techniques used to create an effect of increased dynamic range