Japanese camera shows all visible colors
updated 12:20 pm EST, Thu December 24, 2009
PaPaLab camera has human eye-like sensitivity
Japan-based PaPaLaB Co Ltd, a venture firm that specializes in image processing and optical measurement technologies, has shown off a unique industrial digital camera. The 10.5-megapixel YC-3300 is unique in that it can see all visible color gamuts, matching the sensitivity of the human eye. Called a full-visible-color-gamut camera, uses for the camera will include digital archiving and medical shots, where even slight variations from the original shot can pose trouble.
The president of PaPaLaB, Makoto Kato, says the YC-3300 is the first camera of its kind that simple and small enough for practical uses, as a large camera system that relies on multiband technology can achieve similar results. Kato goes on to say the YC-3300 was tested and found that the color difference between the image and real object is less than 1.
The YC-3300 relies on a three-band color-matching function from Shimodaira Laboratory at Shizuoka University. The school then developed a color filter that is compatible with the three bands.
Besides the greater color performance, the camera sports special signal processing technologies to account for errors in the performance of the filter that were designed by PaPaLab.
The YC-3300 is based on an existing industrial DSLR with improvements to the color filter and signal processing unit; it therefore costs the equivalent of about $140,500. PaPaLab is considering offering a version for less than half of this price by making certain compromises, such as reducing the pixel count. [via Tech-On]
