Research & Development World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Imaging system obtains 12 times more information than the human eye

By R&D Editors | October 3, 2014

Spectral information from the same image, as seen through a conventional three-color channel system (left) and through the new system developed at the University of Granada (36 color channels, right).Researchers at the University of Granada have designed a new imaging system capable of obtaining up to twelve times more color information than the human eye and conventional cameras, which implies a total of 36 color channels. This important scientific development will facilitate the easy capture of multispectral images in real time, and in the not too distant future it could also be used to develop new assisted vehicle driving systems, identify counterfeit bills and documents or obtain medical images much more accurate than current ones, among many other applications.

The scientists, from the Color Imaging Lab group at the Optics Department, University of Granada, have designed this new system using a new generation of sensors—which were developed at the Polytechnic University of Milan—in combination with a matrix of multispectral filters to improve their performance.

Color image sensors can be found in all common types of digital cameras and devices (reflex, automatic, webcams, cell phones, tablets, etc.) and they have an architecture that consists of a monochrome sensor (in black and white), covered with a layer of color filters (commonly, red, green and blue, also known as RGB). This architecture only extracts information from one of these three colours in each pixel within the image. To extract the information from the rest of colours in each pixel, it is necessary to apply algorithms which in most cases are among manufacturers’ best-kept secrets.

According to the principal investigator in this group, Miguel Ángel Martínez Domingo, “the new sensors developed at the Polytechnic University of Milan are called Transverse Field Detectors (TFD) and they are capable of extracting the full color information from each pixel in the image without the need for a layer of colour filter on them.

In order to do so, they take advantage of a physical phenomenon by virtue of which each photon penetrates at a different depth depending on its wavelength, i.e., its colour. In this way, by collecting these photons at different depths on the silice surface of the sensor, the different channels of color can be separated without the necessity of filters.”

New applications for the TFD

This particular advantage has already been put to good use in previous cases, such as the X3 of Foveon Inc (USA). However, what is new about TFD is the fact that, by applying a transversal electric field of varying and controlled intensity, “we can modulate the depth at which the photons in each color channel are collected. This offers the possibility of fine tuning the way in which these sensors turn the light they receive into electric signals”, according to the PI in this project.

He adds that these type of sensors can facilitate “numerous applications in very different fields of research.”

“Multispectral images open an endless series of possibilities within the most diverse fields of science: medical imaging, remote sensing, satellite images, military and defence technology, industrial applications, robotic vision, assisted or automatic driving, and a long etcetera of potential uses which attracts the increasing interest of ever more scientifics and engineers from different specialities. To study the way in which light interacts with our environment can give us very valuable information on its behaviour in a totally innocuous and noninvasive way.”

Combining transverse field detectors and color filter arrays to improve multispectral imaging systems

Source: Univ. of Granada

 

Related Articles Read More >

DNA microscope offers new 3D view of organisms from the inside out
A tale of two industries: How manufacturing and medical imaging experts can learn from each other
Dark energy camera captures the glittering galaxies of the Antlia Cluster
R&D 100 winner of the day: Automated digital slide scanner, MSP 320
rd newsletter
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, trends, and strategies in Research & Development.
RD 25 Power Index

R&D World Digital Issues

Fall 2024 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R&D magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE