High Dynamic Range Imaging (Paperback)

Illumination is a crucial element in many applications, matching the luminance of the scene with the operational range of a camera. When luminance cannot be adequately controlled, a high dynamic range (HDR) imaging system may be necessary. These systems are being increasingly used in automotive on-board systems, road traffic monitoring, and other industrial, security, and military applications. This book provides readers with an intermediate discussion of HDR image sensors and techniques for industrial and non-industrial applications. It describes various sensor and pixel architectures capable of achieving HDR imaging, as well as software approaches to make high dynamic range images out of lower dynamic range sensors or image sets. Some methods for automatic control of exposure and dynamic range of image sensors are also introduced. This edition introduces CMOS pixel and image sensor design concepts and circuits.

Arnaud Darmont (1979 2018) held a degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Liège (Belgium, EU) oriented towards imaging science; he worked for over fifteen years in the field of imaging, HDR imaging, camera design, machine vision, and camera characterization. He authored several publications and patents in the field of HDR imaging, automotive on-board imaging, image processing applications, and camera test and characterization. After almost 7 years developing automotive HDR CMOS image sensors at Melexis, he founded Aphesa in 2008. Aphesa specialized in image sensor consulting, HDR imaging, custom camera design, custom image processing solutions, image sensor and camera characterization and benchmarking. Aphesa was one of the main contributors to the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA)1288 standard, and Darmont was a member of the EMVA1288 working group since almost the beginning of the standard. Aphesa merged with Deltatec in 2017, and Darmont served as business development manager and technical expert. Since December 2017, he was also the manager of standards at the EMVA, has launched new standards, and coordinated the international development of industrial imaging standards. He was a contributor to the IEEE P2020 automotive image quality standard and the IEEE P4001 hyperspectral imaging standard. He was an SPIE instructor since 2009 and provided image sensor and industrial imaging courses to companies since 2015.