Apical's "Iridix" dynamic range technology

[Doug Kerr]

DPReview today carried an interesting interview with Michael Tusch, Managing Director of the British technology firm Apical:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09031801apical.asp

Apical's "Iridex" technology, evidently incorporated into a number of compact cameras, adaptively applies different response curves in different areas of an image to improve the perceived "dynamic range".

According to Tusch, this technology also appears in dSLRs from Sony and Olympus.

 

[Ken Tanaka]

Thank you for a heads-up to this interesting piece, Doug. Reading the article I couldn't resist smiling at the thought that most cameras are better than most of their owners. <g> It's a bit startling to see this technology automatically, and instantly, apply local tone curves to adjust contrast.

I am assuming that this post-processing can only take place with in-camera JPG files.

Browsing Apical's Web site is nearly as interesting as the article.

 

[Daniel Buck]

I've often wondered about getting sensors to have more range in the highlights. Some early DSLR cameras (Canon 1d?) had 'electronic shutters' I believe, that would help out during very short shutter speeds (like 1/2000th and above), instead of having the mechanical shutter do it that fast. Not sure if the current DSLR cameras have something like this or not.

But anyway, I've often wondered if during 1/2 of the exposure pixels that sense they have received more than X intensity of light, could shut off a little earlier (this would have to be ramped out, so that they don't all shut off at the same time, the brightest ones shut off first, then the next brightest, and so on so there is a curve to the shutoff). I'm guessing this isn't possible to shut off individual pixels at random like that, since the electronic shutter probably just shut off the entire chip. However, it sounds like it would be a cool idea, if it were possible

 

[Clayton Lofgren]

I am wondering why we can´t have it in ACR. Seems that if you have it in camera you are obligated to decide ahead of time- in pp you could look at with and without.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Dealing with dynamic range locally, globally are old stuff! Texas Instruments has been doing this for Kodak and HP since 2001. Their chips are very user programmable, have USB bus, all the video out capabilities and do the imaging adjustments. What's interesting is the potential for offering firmware that could be used by 3rd parties to upgrade the cameras. Not that sounds interesting for some kid programmer to whet his whistle!

We are already seeing multiple rapid electronic shutter shots and binning adjacent pixels in this years digicams. These have mass markets so there is support for the latest technology. The idea is to give a clear evenly exposed picture, no matter what.

That even exposure, however, may not be useful for artistic or professional work as one's design likely will call for interesting light distribution and we would like that to be as extreme as we designate.

Asher