Monitoring in lowlight conditions is an important part of video surveillance. In this regard, Dahua has announced its Full-color 2.0 technology to meet user requirements for color-capturing in extremely lowlight conditions.
Monitoring in lowlight conditions is an important part of video surveillance. However, doing so oftentimes results in the loss of important color information. In this regard,
Dahua Technology has announced its Full-color 2.0 technology to meet user requirements for color-capturing in lowlight conditions.
According to statistics by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the number of violent crimes committed by adults increases hourly from 6 a.m. and peaks at 9 p.m. Therefore it helps to have video surveillance in place to protect end user properties and assets. Capturing objects’ true color in the darkness of night, then, becomes critical.
“As we know, the dimming condition will affect the camera image quality, and lots of image details will blur. It will be difficult to extract correct information of the event quickly,” explains Eaden Xie, IPC Product Manager at Dahua Technology. “The color image will show more details of humans or vehicles, such as the color of human clothes and hats, and the exterior color of the vehicle or its plate. If color information can be captured, it means that more information can be obtained, which facilitates retrospection.”
Full-color 2.0
Dahua, a world-leading video-centric smart IoT solution and service provider, understands the importance of lowlight color capturing. It has launched cameras with the Full-color 2.0 technology, which ensures excellent video quality even in darkness.
“Dahua’s Full-color 2.0 series can be deployed in scenarios with lowlight conditions such as streets, parks and villas as it guarantees colorful monitoring 24/7. By helping users obtain color details of people and cars in dark environments, it improves retrieval efficiency and provides convenience for event evidence collection,” Xie said.
Different models
Dahua’s Full-color 2.0 series includes dual-lens, vari-focal and 4K cameras. Each has its unique characteristics and application scenarios. These models are discussed as follows.
Full-color 2.0 dual-lens
As its name suggests, the Full-color 2.0 dual-lens camera has a unique binocular design, which imitates the principle of human visual imaging by way of rod cells and cone cells – the former perceiving strong light, and the latter mainly perceiving color vision.
“The dual lenses collect the image information separately, which means one lens is collecting the brightness information, and the other lens is collecting the color information. Adopting Dahua's advanced dual-light fusion technology, two channels of images are matched at the pixel level to restore the real scene accurately，Besides, advanced AA (active alignment) process guarantees the central axis of the lens and the CMOS central axis overlap to ensure that the output of the image is the clearest,” Xie said.
Further, the camera has an F1.0 aperture that collects 2.5 times more light compared to the F1.6 aperture. Compared with a conventional 4MP camera, the Full-color 2.0 dual CMOS has 36 percent increase in brightness and is able to capture in minimum illumination of 0.0005 lux. The camera has less light pollution: in the default mode, only the infrared light needs to be turned on, and full-color image output can be realized without turning on the white light.
With these features, the Full-color 2.0 dual-lens camera is able to address users’ lowlight color-capturing needs, especially in certain sectors. “It is suitable for light-sensitive environments such as bars and parks, and provides non-perceptual color monitoring to enhance the immersive experience,” Xie said.
Full-color 2.0 vari-focal
The Full-color 2.0 vari-focal camera not only captures color well, it also has a 2.7-12mm motorized vari-focal lens which makes the camera suitable in many scenarios.
“For Full-color 2.0 vari-focal, its 2.7-12mm motorized lens suits narrow indoor space and wide outdoor scenarios. For indoor rooms, the camera is required to focus on the things inside the house, and the distance between the monitored area and camera is close. This requires the camera to use the short focal lens to focus. But for outdoors, the distance between monitored area and camera will be a litter far, so it needs a telephoto lens focus on the area,” Xie said. “If the customer wants to monitor outdoor areas, he can zoom the lens to focus on the area according to his needs, and this saves cost from buying multiple cameras with different lenses.”
Aside from that, the vari-focal camera has other features including face detection, people counting and AI search, which enables human/vehicle search through integration with Dahua 5-I/L NVR.
Full-color 2.0 4K
The Full-color 2.0 4K camera has an 8MP, 1/1.2" super large target surface CMOS image sensor. Compared with conventional 8MP camera sensors, the pixel size is increased by 110 percent, the brightness is increased by 42 percent, and the S/N ratio is increased by 400 percent.
“For the Full-color 2.0 4K camera, it can provide brighter and high-resolution color images at night. When it’s used at retail shops, it can provide detailed event video when there is an intruder, and the high-resolution image will provide clearer details of the intruder,” Xie said.
According to Xie, the Full-color 2.0 4K camera is also embedded with many AI functions, such as people counting, perimeter protection, heat map and AI schedule. “For example, the 4K camera can be installed on the ceiling close to the door inside the retail shop. Then the camera can count the people visiting the shop to help better manage the customer flow and do the perimeter protection for the door area at night,” he said.
As for the future, Xie says the user can expect more innovative and cutting-edge full-color solutions from Dahua. “Dahua always values technology innovation and improvement, and it will always invest in the research and development of new technology to make our products smarter and more usable,” Xie said. “For the Full-color series, we will continue to optimize full-color technology and explore new solutions, overcome more technical barriers and make better full-color products.”
See objects in their true color
Color is a key physical trait. The more clearly color is captured, the better the user can understand an event. In this sense, Dahua has successfully overcome color-capturing difficulties in lowlight environments. Its Full-color 2.0 dual-lens, 4K and vari-focal cameras all capture objects in their true color, regardless the time of the day. “In the future we can expect Dauha to continue to roll out innovative Full-color products to meet users’ lowlight color-capturing needs,” Xie said.