Overcoming automotive imaging challenges

Traditionally, camera selection criteria primarily revolved around resolution, sensitivity, and frame rate. However, High Dynamic Range (HDR) has quickly grown to become a crucial factor. It rings especially true for automotive applications that tend to operate in environments with fluctuating and challenging lighting conditions.

HDR technology can improve the ability of these applications to capture details across a wide range of light intensities. Thus, they can capture clear images in scenarios where lighting can change rapidly or when simultaneously capturing well-lit and shadowed areas is required.

In this blog, you will gain expert insights into how e-con Systems’ latest release, STURDeCAM34, leverages its 140db dynamic range to empower automotive applications to overcome imaging challenges across scenarios.

Why STURDeCAM34’s 140db dynamic range is integral to automotive applications

e-con Systems’ STURDeCAM34’s 140db dynamic range enables automotive applications to get clear images under rapidly changing light conditions. Its extended dynamic range allows the application to capture high-quality visuals in both low-light and brightly-lit environments, ensuring consistent image clarity regardless of the lighting scenario. It can be useful in scenarios like transitioning from tunnels to open roads or driving at dawn and dusk, where lighting conditions can shift suddenly.

STURDeCAM34’s wide dynamic range also enables the automotive application to capture a broad spectrum of light intensities while maintaining detail in both bright and shadowed areas. Standard cameras may struggle to handle these contrasts.

Still, with this camera, object detection and recognition systems, which are key components in applications like Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and agricultural vehicles, can operate with greater accuracy.

How STURDeCAM34’s 140db dynamic range helps navigate in tough imaging scenarios

Tunnel and overpass transitions

When a vehicle moves from the darkness of a tunnel or under an overpass into bright daylight, the rapid change in lighting can overwhelm standard cameras. e-con Systems’ STURDeCAM34’s 140db dynamic range smoothens such transitions by capturing details across a wide range of light intensities in a single frame.

It prevents the camera from losing critical information during abrupt lighting changes so that the vehicle’s ADAS systems maintain accurate object detection and lane recognition, even when moving between drastically different light conditions.

Night and low-light urban driving

Driving at night or in low-light urban areas can be very challenging when headlights or streetlights only illuminate parts of the scene. e-con Systems’ STURDeCAM34 addresses this with its extended dynamic range, which enhances visibility in both dark and illuminated areas, revealing details that would be lost in standard cameras.

This camera ensures that pedestrians, road markings, and vehicles are captured clearly by improving image clarity in dimly lit conditions.

Sun glare and bright sunlight driving

Glare from bright sunlight, particularly in the early morning or late afternoon, can create visibility issues for both drivers and cameras. e-con Systems’ STURDeCAM34’s 140db dynamic range helps reduce the impact of sun glare by balancing the light levels in high-contrast scenes.

So, the camera is able to capture detailed images for the ADAS to detect objects, road signs, and lane markings accurately even under intense sunlight. The result? It improves the vehicle’s ability to respond to sudden obstacles or changes in the driving environment.

Flickering LEDs and flashing lights

Many automotive environments deal with LED lights, such as traffic signals, brake lights, and emergency vehicle lights, which can flicker at high frequencies. Standard cameras struggle to capture these lights consistently, leading to image artifacts or missing visual information.

e-con Systems’ STURDeCAM34 minimises these issues with LED flicker mitigation capabilities, providing clear, flicker-free images of these lights. Hence, traffic signals and vehicle lights are detected and processed correctly, enhancing the reliability of the vehicle’s ADAS, particularly in urban settings with frequent artificial lighting.

Mixed lighting and high-contrast driving

Undoubtedly, driving through areas with varying light conditions (alternating sunlight and shadow or reflections from wet roads) can hinder automotive applications. STURDeCAM34’s high dynamic range captures these mixed lighting conditions within a single frame, balancing the exposure to prevent overexposure in bright areas and underexposure in shadows.

It leads to better clarity across high-contrast scenes so that ADAS systems can accurately detect objects and navigate complex driving environments.

e-con Systems’ STURDeCAM34 – a 3MP IP69K HDR camera for automotive applications

Since 2003, e-con Systems has been designing, developing, and manufacturing OEM cameras. Recently, it has launched STURDeCAM34, the World’s First 140dB HDR GMSL2 Camera with Hot Plug support built to meet the demands of automotive applications. It comes with 140dB HDR that ensures superior image clarity in challenging lighting conditions and reduces the impact of LED flicker. e-con systems’ exclusive ISP tuning for automotive conditions further enhances the image quality, allowing customisation to meet the specific needs of diverse applications.

Furthermore, STURDeCAM34’s GMSL interface seamlessly supports varied connections, enabling real-time data transmission and quick decision-making across automotive systems. This cameras is capable of connecting up to 8 cameras to the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin platform using the GMSL2 interface, delivering high-performance multi-camera setups. It has also been rigorously tested for electromagnetic and environmental compliance, and its IP69K rating guarantees resistance to dust, water, shock, vibration and extreme temperatures.

STURDeCAM34 has multiple application use cases, including automotive, autonomous vehicles, delivery robots, agriculture vehicles, and heavy, construction, and off-road vehicles.