This year, IEDM had quite a lot of image sensor papers. Some of them talking about HDR and GS are briefly reviewed below:1.5µm dual conversion gain, backside illuminated image sensor using stacked pixel level connections with 13ke- full-well capacitance and 0.8e- noiseV. C. Venezia, A.

Melexis teases its 3rd generation ToF sensor to appear in 2019.

PRNewswire: WiLAN, a Quarterhill company, is "one of the most successful patent licensing companies in the world and helps companies unlock the value of intellectual property by managing and licensing their patent portfolios.

9th International Workshop on Semiconductor Pixel Detectors for Particles and Imaging, PIXEL2018, being held these days in Taipei, Taiwan, publishes Sensor Creations Stefan Lauxtermann presentation on deep depleted pixel challenges and rewards:

DeviceSpecifications reports a rumor that Sony is about to announce 1/1.8-inch 38MP sensor for smartphones.

CEA-Leti Pixcurve technology flyer promotes the technology:"Pixcurve is a proof of concept, introducing Leti’s latest curving technology for various optical components, such as visible imagers, µdisplays, bolometers and IR detectors.

MDPI Special Issue The International SPAD Sensor Workshop publishes "Background Light Rejection in SPAD-Based LiDAR Sensors by Adaptive Photon Coincidence Detection" paper by Maik Beer, Jan F.

IEEE Sensors Council publishes "A 128×1 Pixels, High Dynamic Range SPAD Imager in 0.18 µm CMOS Technology" presentation by Cheng Mao, Xiangshun Kong, Haowen Ma, Limin Zhang, Feng Yan, and Xiaofeng Bu from Nanjing University, China."SPAD imager is proposed to achieve high dynamic range image.

BusinessWire: CEA-Leti demonstrates its curved sensor technology, called Pixcurve, that requires fewer lens elements in digital cameras, shrinks camera size by half, and lowers costs – while improving image quality.

Occipital HW Leader Evan Fletcher did an interesting work on searching for an optimal CFA pattern among arbitrary large sized patterns in an unconstrained machine learning search.

Gpixel announces a 51MP, 8424 x 6032 resolution, 35 mm full-frame global shutter image sensor. The GMAX4651 is capable of capturing full resolution images at frame rates of up to 80 fps in standard 12-bit read out mode and 40 fps in dual gain HDR mode.

Arxiv.org paper "Event-Based Structured Light for Depth Reconstruction using Frequency Tagged Light Patterns" by T. Leroux, S.-H. Ieng, and R.

2018 was a strong year in the photography world with a lot of exciting new cameras, lenses and accessories.

Photoneo presentation at Vision Show in Stuttgart, Germany, on Nov.

SWIR Vision System presentation at Vision Show 2018 details on its lower than InGaAs cost sensor mentioned in my previous post:Thanks to TL for the pointer!

Fraunhofer presentation at the Vision Show held in Stuttgart, Germany, on Nov 6-8, 2018 offers a different approach to the data minimization in machine vision applications.

International Image Sensors Society calls for nominations for the 2019 Walter Kosonocky Award for significant advancement in solid-state image sensors.

Ecns, ChinaDaily: China's Alipay announces a major upgrade to its 'Smile to Pay' service, aiming to make its facial recognition process more accessible to merchants and customers. The new version, called Dragonfly, is claimed to be just one-tenth the size of a traditional POS terminal.

Lucid Vision presentations on Sony polarization sensors and ToF camera are published on Vimeo:

Mediatek unveils its high end P90 application processor for smartphones, aimed to compete with Qualcomm's SD 855.

9th International Workshop on Semiconductor Pixel Detectors for Particles and Imaging, PIXEL2018, being held these days in Taipei, Taiwan, publishes Sensor Creations Stefan Lauxtermann presentation on deep depleted pixel challenges and rewards:

The Nikon Z 50mm f1.8S is a standard prime lens for Nikon’s full-frame Z mirrorless cameras. A popular focal length for street photography and general-purpose use, it’s the third native Z lens to be released, but up against adapted rivals including Nikon’s own AF-S 50mm f1.8G.

The Verge, Independent, Seattle Times: AI Now Institute consisting of Microsoft, Google and New York University employees publishes "AI Now Report 2018" talking about dangers of facial recognition for society.

PRNewswire: SmartSens announces the latest addition, a 1/1.8-inch 4MP BSI SC4210, to its SmartClarity product line of security and surveillance products.

Thanks to Offline Dreams mentioned another machine learning CFA pattern optimization in the comment to my yesterday's post. "Deep Joint Design of Color Filter Arrays and Demosaicing" paper by Bernardo Henz, Eduardo S. L. Gastal, and Manuel M.

German 3D laser scanner maker Sick reveals that it's using a custom designed image sensor in its cameras:Thanks to TL for the pointer!

PhoneArena quotes WSJ and Korean media claiming that next year Samsung Galaxy 5G S10 smartphone is expected to have a rear ToF camera. Later in the year, Samsung A-series smartphones will feature ToF cameras too. Samsung ToF module suppliers are said to be SEMCO and Patron.

The Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8 is a short telephoto prime lens for Sony’s e-mount mirrorless cameras. It’s a perfect lens for portraits, weddings or events whether mounted on a full-frame or a cropped body and includes optical stabilisation.

SystemPlus publishes a teardown report of Orbbec face recognition solution in Oppo Find X smartphone:"Located in the Find X’s front side, around the speaker, the 3D system is packaged in one metal enclosure.

2018 was a strong year in the photography world with a lot of exciting new cameras, lenses and accessories.

DIY Photography quotes EOSHD that Sony is working on IMX435 stacked full-frame sensor that is able to shoot 8K 60fps video with 12b ADC resolution:

Woodside Capital Partners release November 2018 update of its "Autonomous Vehicles Technology Report.

ST presentation "Automotive In-cabin Sensing Solutions" by Nicolas Roux details the company's GS HDR sensor technology, including the dual ADCs and dual pixel memory:

Tom's Guide: ZTE Nubia X with dual display on the front and back eliminates the need in a front camera: the main rear camera is used for selfies too:GSM Arena reports that one of the largest smartphone manufacturers Vivo is about to roll out a similar model with no separate selfie camera - NEX 2:

The Nikon Z 50mm f1.8S is a standard prime lens for Nikon’s full-frame Z mirrorless cameras. A popular focal length for street photography and general-purpose use, it’s the third native Z lens to be released, but up against adapted rivals including Nikon’s own AF-S 50mm f1.8G.

MIPI Alliance releases MIPI I3C Basic v1.0, a subset of the MIPI I3C specification that bundles the most commonly needed I3C features for developers and other standards organizations. MIPI I3C Basic v1.

German startup K-Lens presents its lens extension that allows 3D depth image capture with a single lens and a sensor:

PRNewswire: The rumor about dual display Vivo phone that eliminates the need in front selfie camera has been officially confirmed."With an additional 5.

Gigajot files a form on completion of $4m fundrising. Not much more info has been revealed so far.

In the past, pixel dark current has been used for various purposes: identifying traps and defects (dark current spectroscopy), generating random numbers, measuring temperature, forensic picture analysis, random telegraph noise analysis, etc. One could think that nothing else can be in it.

IEEE Sensors Council video "NIR Sensors Based on Photolithographically Patterned PbS QD Photodiodes for CMOS Integration" by Epimitheas Georgitzikis, Pawel Malinowski, Luis Moreno Hagelsieb, Vladimir Pejovic, Griet Uytterhoeven, Stefano Guerrieri, Andreas Süss, Celso Cavaco, Konstantinos Chatzinis,...

PRNewswire: Pixon Imaging announces its new Extended Dynamic Range Architecture (ExDRA) - an software technique that improves low-light-level imaging in cell phone and other CMOS/CCD -based cameras.

Qualcomm announces its 5G-ready 7nm Snapdragon 855 platform featuring an enhanced imaging functionality:"Snapdragon 855 sets new standards for capturing stunning photos and videos.

Bloomberg reports that an oncoming Huawei smartphone possibly incorporate Sony ToF sensor:"The phone, code-named Princeton internally, will be announced this month and go on sale within a few weeks, according to one of the people who requested anonymity discussing private plans.

Toronto, Canada-based startup Sheba Microsystems promises MEMS-based AF, zoom, and OIS:Some demo videos are published in the company's Youtube channel.

After few months of presentations at different conferences and exhibitions, STMicroelectronics has officially unveiled two new automotive global shutter image sensors, the VG5661 and VG5761, aimed to driver monitoring.ST’s VG5661 and VG5761 are 1.6MP and 2.3MP automotive global shutter sensors.

Lucid Vision Labs presentation has some data on Sony polarization sensors:

Lucid Vision Labs presents the results of its ToF camera based on Sony-Softkinetic IMX556 BSI sensor:

Yole Developpement analyst Alexis Debray publishes an interview with Filip Geuens, CEO of LiDAR maker XenomatiX. Some interesting quotes:"We see 2 main categories in the market: global illumination LiDARs (also called flash LiDAR) and scanning-beam LiDAR.

ST presentation "Automotive In-cabin Sensing Solutions" by Nicolas Roux details the company's GS HDR sensor technology, including the dual ADCs and dual pixel memory: