14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Samsung Electronics has announced the expansion of its portfolio of CMOS image sensors with the introduction of a new high-definition 1/4-inch, 1.2 Megapixel system-on-chip (SoC) imager, the S5K4AW. Designed specifically to be used in notebook and desktop computers, the company's new solution is meant to provide users with a real-time, high-definition video capture experience. According to the South Korean company, its new product can be used in areas such as business video conferencing, Internet video sharing, direct to web scanning, biometrics and security.
“The notebook and desktop PC market requires an image sensor solution specifically optimized for video,” said Dr. Yiwan Wong, vice president of marketing for Samsung Electronics’ System LSI Division. “For PC users, the main concern of an embedded camera is video, not still image capturing. We’re addressing this nuance with our new CMOS image sensor SoC that has been completely designed, and performance optimized, with high-definition and VGA video in mind.”
The decision of designing a 1.2MP solution, instead of the wider-spread 1.3MP product, has to do with the company's commitment to address the specific need of HD video applications. The S5K4AW has been developed to incorporate a technique dubbed binning in 2x2 pixel groups, which ultimately enables the 1.2MP resolution (1280x960 pixel format) solution to display standard VGA format, without requiring cropping. This basically translates into the elimination of the problem of losing the top and the bottom part of a scene.
In addition, the company claims that the same technology used to provide the standard VGA format has also been used to improve the imager's sensitivity to low light. When compared with the industry's traditional method of binning, Samsung's breakthrough in binning shows almost three times the sensitivity improvement, from 1.2x to nearly 3x. This feature could improve the video quality when dealing with poor illumination conditions.