2024/12/17 by Sumit Sharma, Sharma, Sumit, Girish Rongali +3 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Optical Sensing Technologies #CCD and CMOS Imaging Sensors #FOS: Electrical engineering #Image Processing Techniques and Applications #Image and Video Processing (eess.IV) #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.12942
openalex publication_date 2024/12/17 · openalex created_date 2024/12/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Traditional CMOS sensors suffer from restricted dynamic range and sub optimal performance under extreme lighting conditions. They are affected by electronic noise in low light conditions and pixel saturation while capturing high illumination. Recent High Dynamic Range (HDR) Imaging methods, often designed for CMOS Sensors, attempt to address these issues by fusing multiple exposures. However, they frequently introduce artifacts like ghosting and light flickering in dynamic scenarios and non-uniform signal-to-noise ratio in extreme dynamic range conditions. Recently, Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs), also known as Single Photon Camera (SPC) sensors, have surpassed CMOS sensors due to their capability to capture individual photons with high timing precision. Unlike traditional digital cameras that first convert light energy into analog electrical currents and then digitize them, SPAD sensors perform direct photon detection, making them less susceptible to extreme illumination conditions. Their distinctive non-linear response curve aids in capturing photons across both low-light and high-illumination environments, making them particularly effective for High Dynamic Range Imaging. Despite their advantages, images from SPAD Sensors are often noisy and visually unappealing. To address these challenges, we evaluate state-of-the-art architectures for converting monochromatic SPAD images into Color HDR images at various resolutions. Our evaluation involves both qualitative and quantitative assessments of these architectures, focusing on their effectiveness in each stage of the conversion process.