e-con Systems, a provider of embedded camera solutions, has announced the launch of Hyperyon, a new 2 MP ultra low light HDR USB UVC camera with built-in H.264/MJPEG compression based on the SONY STARVIS series 1/2.8” IMX290 CMOS image sensor. Hyperyon has excellent low-light performance, can work in nearly no-light conditions and features Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) using 3DOL which is ideal for UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and robotics applications in challenging lighting environments both indoors and outdoors.
“Named after the Greek God of Light, Hyperyon is e-con’s hyper low light camera and our first ever H.264 USB UVC camera with many advanced features all packaged in a single camera. The Hyperyon is an ideal camera for customers looking for cameras for challenging outdoor lighting conditions or extremely low light conditions, smart parking lot management, embedded vision, mining, digital microscopy, kiosks, video conferencing and many such applications,” said Mr. Ashok Babu, President of e-con Systems Inc.
Being a Socionext Camera Ecosystem Partner, e-con Systems has a close working relationship with Socionext and has leveraged the advanced features of the Socionext ISP (Image Signal Processor) for capturing high-quality images under low light conditions such as Three-Dimensional Noise Reduction (3DNR) and WDR technology. Hyperyon has been fine-tuned for achieving excellent image quality under various lighting conditions, including near darkness, with a combination of the IMX290 sensor and the Socionext ISP, which has a built-in HEVC encoder, allowing H.264-quality images to be transmitted at half bit-rate.
The IMX290 sensor used in Hyperyon is a SONY STARVIS Series 1/2.8” type image sensor with 2.13 million effective pixels. By bringing out the best low light performance of the Sony IMX290 sensor in combination with the Socionext ISP, the Hyperyon camera produces images in nearly absolute darkness conditions of 0.002 Lux. Hyperyon is also optimized for Near Infrared (NIR) making it suitable for NIR imaging. Combined with 3DOL HDR technology, Hyperyon is an ideal camera for 24/7 surveillance applications.
e-con Systems provides a sample Windows application (e-CAMView) and Linux application (QtCAM) which use the standard UVC protocol to access the camera controls. e-CAMView is a Windows Media Foundation based image viewer application which enables controls such as Digital Zoom (up to 16x), Exposure (auto and manual), White Balance (auto and manual), Gain, Sharpness Enhancement, Brightness, Contrast and various other controls. The extension unit enables controls for WDR (2DOL and 3DOL), De-Noise, High Conversion Gain/Low Conversion Gain (HCG/LCG), Bit Rate control for H264, Q-Factor control for MJPEG and GPIO header for expansion capability and more. The exposure time and noise reduction level can be adjusted manually. QtCAM is an Open source Linux camera software application which enables capturing and viewing video from devices supported by Linux UVC driver and works with any V4L2 compatible device.
