Adaptive infrared lighting in video surveillance applications

Uri Guterman, Product and Marketing Director at Hanwha Techwin Europe, provides a brief description of the improvement infrared lighting offers to the effectiveness of a video surveillance system.

Video surveillance cameras need light to capture high-quality images 24 hours of the day. In the past this meant that additional lighting had to be installed to ensure that equipment could operate effectively in low light and night conditions. The cost of doing so would be prohibitive if civil works were required for wiring.

Light pollution could also be a problem for local authorities over complaints related to impact on residential areas. As is often the case, technology came to the rescue in the form of infrared lighting (Go).

Unlike our eyes, that can only detect white light between 400 And 700 nanometers (Approximately.) wavelength, IR light from 850 nanometers can help cameras capture high-quality monochrome images in what for humans constitutes total darkness.

The first generations of IR illuminators were incandescent IR lights, they were expensive and consumed a lot of energy, in addition to having a very limited lifespan. More recently, the cameras have been equipped with infrared LED illuminators that are much more energy efficient and reliable.

With infrared light emitted invisibly into the human eye, these allow control room operators to send security guards to the site or report suspicious activity to police, without intruders realizing that they have been detected.

Adaptive infrared lighting

The breakthrough in terms of lighting, that allows cameras to capture clear, sharp images at night, comes from the development of adaptive infrared lighting. This, as his name suggests, calibrates the angle of the camera's infrared LEDs to match the zoom level and, in this way, infrared lighting can be concentrated on objects up to a distance of 200 Meters.

Cameras with adaptive IR lighting introduced by manufacturers such as Hanwha Techwin, use three sets of IR LeDs that are calibrated to ensure that nearby objects, located half-distance or far away, such as people and vehicle license plates, sufficiently enlightened.

In doing so, provide a highly efficient and energy-efficient form and an eco-friendly way to ensure that video surveillance cameras can function to the fullest of their capabilities, regardless of lighting conditions.

Uri Guterman

Product and Marketing Director Hanwha Techwin Europe
 

 

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