Infrared camera is still on the road to be solved

With the development of the society and the industry, the security industry has received increasing attention from the country and society. The infrared camera has received extensive attention and developed rapidly since its birth, and its market share has been increasing year by year. In particular, people’s increasing monitoring and security awareness has prompted the rapid emergence of the civilian security market. Infrared cameras have occupied the market with lightning speed. In addition, the launch of some large-scale projects in recent years has also helped the development of the infrared camera market. Promote the role.

Classification of Infrared Cameras Currently, there are many kinds of infrared cameras on the market. If divided by infrared light sources, there are LED infrared cameras, halogen infrared cameras, LED array infrared cameras, and laser infrared cameras.

Infrared camera market conditions According to industry sources, infrared camera sales in 2010 accounted for 60% of the front-end camera market. In recent years, the international giants such as Sony and Samsung have also been unable to bear the loneliness and competed to launch new infrared camera products, making great efforts to enter the Chinese infrared market. At present, there is a gap of about 30% between the prices of international big brands and domestic products.

In the domestic market, mainstream domestic brands of infrared cameras include Haikang, Lerong, Zhongtong, Sanchen, and pilots, while mainstream foreign brands include Samsung and Sony.

Infrared camera manufacturer distribution According to "China Public Safety" statistics, domestic production and sales of infrared cameras are mainly concentrated in South China, with Shenzhen and Guangzhou as the center; East China, with Hangzhou and Shanghai as the center; Tianjin and Beijing as the center. North China. Among them, 70% are in South China, 8% in East China, 10% in North China, and 12% in other regions.

Infrared camera technology trends As a monitoring front-end device, the development of infrared cameras can not bypass the eternal theme of security monitoring: network, high-definition, intelligent. At the same time, there will be the following trends:

1, video surveillance to the outdoor development, outdoor surveillance to the development of night vision, the development direction of night vision based on infrared, this trend has become the development trend of the camera industry.

2. With the development of optoelectronics, microelectronics, microcomputers and digital video technologies, the security industry has evolved from traditional simple analog to highly integrated miniaturization, digitization, networking, and intelligence.

3. Laser night vision technology is one of the ways to achieve long-range night vision monitoring, because the laser has high brightness, good coherence, good monochromaticity, good directivity, long service life, and the CCD's sensitivity to the wavelength is greater than that of the LED. The characteristics of the laser determines that the laser can shine a greater distance, and the light intensity is much stronger than conventional light sources.

Market arrogance Array infrared camera Shenzhen Market Pilot Digital Technology Co., Ltd. market personnel said that traditional LED infrared light has been widely used due to its low price, occupying 95% of the current market. However, its shortcomings such as fast light decay, short life, and low power are the main reasons for dissatisfaction with LED infrared cameras.

With the development of infrared technology, past technological bottlenecks are also making breakthroughs: heat dissipation problems, service life problems, effective conversion of infrared light, and advanced product design concepts are all making breakthroughs. Array-based infrared cameras are aimed at solving LED problems. The new infrared technology was born out of the flaws.

Array-type infrared camera refers to the infrared LED core is LED IR Array. LED Array refers to a light emitting diode array, which is an efficient and long-lived infrared night vision device. Different from the traditional LED infrared lamp, the outstanding feature of the array infrared lamp is long service life, no significant attenuation of light in 2 to 3 years, even light, fine quality, and high resolution. The night vision image of the array camera is bright, Little, no vignetting, no even dark corners of the image, largely solves the flashlight effect of the picture, can significantly improve the night vision effect of the camera, and at the same time greatly reduce the volume of the digital video file, saving the hard disk recorder space.

The main advantages of array infrared cameras:

High Brightness. The array infrared camera has extremely high luminous efficiency and luminous intensity. The photoelectric conversion efficiency is about 25% higher than that of the ordinary infrared LED camera, and the efficiency can reach 45%. The energy consumption is greatly reduced, the illumination distance is increased, and the brightness is about a single LED. 100 times.

small volume. Array Infrared uses highly integrated advanced packaging technology. An array of infrared chips with dozens of wafers is encapsulated. The only advantage of the size of the fingernail covers is that the small size of the chip is advantageous for ease of use.

long life. The biggest advantage of the array infrared camera is to solve the problem of heat dissipation of the LED light source. The array infrared technology ensures a good working condition of the CCD, and its service life is 9 times that of the ordinary LED infrared camera.

efficient. Determined by the characteristics of the semiconductor itself, its luminous efficiency and heat dissipation performance is a virtuous circle. The better the heat dissipation performance, the lower the operating temperature and the lower the operating temperature can better guarantee the luminous efficiency. On the contrary, it is a vicious cycle of falling into a constant decline in efficiency.

Light evenly. Each ordinary infrared LED has a spherical surface in front of it, which is a separate optical design to change the size of the spot. When multiple infrared LEDs are combined around the camera lens, the emitted light is composed of a plurality of light spots overlapping, the overlapping part of the brightness will be particularly high, and at the same time form a circle, that is, "flashlight effect", the night vision screen effect of course It is uneven. The array infrared camera is equivalent to a large point light source. Through special optical design, the light is evenly irradiated to the monitored object, and the brightness of the middle and the surrounding of the obtained monitoring image is the same.

Several problems in the development of the infrared camera market 1. The proliferation of hand-workshops has led to overall market price declines and confusion, and the overall decline in product quality.

Due to the low production threshold of infrared cameras and the proliferation of manual workshops, quality has become empty talk. Due to the low price of hand-workshops, the impact on some regular manufacturers caused the market share of regular manufacturers to gradually decrease. Due to pressure from competition, some regular manufacturers can only compress costs. Simultaneously, under the pressure of manufacturers, each raw material supplier can only gradually shrink the quality of materials. As a result, the overall quality of products is declining, and the entire market is in a heated state. The vicious price competition.

2. The product system is simple and the products are homogenized.

Since almost 2006, there have been few new products appearing on infrared cameras. The products of various manufacturers are still products of 2006. If the products produced by different manufacturers are not labeled, it is difficult to distinguish the two products from the appearance alone. difference. In fact, during this time, there are companies that are updating their product lines. However, it takes a long time for a new product to go from R&D to the market. Due to the price fluctuation in the infrared camera market, a new product is just created. It will be hit by price when it is first available, and the new products developed in recent years are mostly single-function and have no special highlights, which makes promotion difficult.

3. The industry mechanism is not perfect, and the infrared night vision market is developing slowly.

The current infrared night vision market is quite confusing, mainly because the industry lacks a unified standard specification. For example, the irradiation distance of infrared lamps is often the highlight of various companies' propaganda, and they are not the same. The actual exposure distance is measured under what conditions. At that time, the ambient illumination is how the picture quality is presented. How can we not know it?

In addition, the detection standards are not sound enough. At present, the only authority in China for the quality inspection of infrared cameras is the product quality supervision, inspection, and testing center of the Ministry of Public Security's security and alarm system. The standard used by the center for detecting cameras is the GB/T15865-1995 camera ( "PAL/SECAM/NTSC measurement method", each test is only for the resolution, anti-voltage capability, brightness, signal to noise ratio and other parameters of conventional cameras. It does not involve the infrared camera and its infrared lamp power, launch distance, Night vision effects and other relevant indicators of the test. Actually, the center did not go to test, but so far, there is not yet a standard for infrared cameras. Based on this situation, some hands-on workshops will be produced indiscriminately to disrupt the market.

Resolving the problem of lack of standards has become the focus of common concern among enterprises. Therefore, domestic companies must continue to lead the infrared market, and they must work together with relevant government departments to formulate industry standards and promote the development of the domestic infrared night vision market.

Engineering Discussions Infrared Cameras Since infrared cameras have the night vision, concealment, and affordable advantages, they have always been favored by users. However, infrared cameras have a common problem - they have a short service life, which in turn allows engineers to love and hate.

Yu Shiping of Shenzhen Jindi Building Engineering Co., Ltd. stated that as an engineering company, the stability of its performance is most concerned with infrared cameras. Since some of the electric energy consumed by infrared lamp lamps is converted into effective light energy, the other part is converted into heat energy. When too much heat is generated and no proper cooling measures are taken, the internal temperature rise will be too high, which will lead to excessive aging of the lamp and a rapid decrease in the irradiation distance. Some manufacturers, lacking a healthy business philosophy, unilaterally pursue performance at the time of delivery, neglecting the service life of the product, and desperately pursuing brightness and distance without solving the problem of excessive heat generation and temperature rise. The life expectancy drops rapidly.

He said that when customers purchase infrared cameras, they not only require inexpensive products, good after-sales service, long service life, but also require a full range of functions and high-quality video effects. Among them, the demand for high-quality video effects from infrared cameras is increasing. Nowadays, the requirements of customers are not only seen but also clear.

Zeng Siyuan, manager of the engineering department of Dongguan Chuangyan Technology Co., Ltd., stated that the increase in customer demand has driven the majority of infrared camera manufacturers to constantly innovate and improve from the technical level so that they can meet the market demand. From the current market point of view, infrared camera manufacturers to meet market demand, but also need to address the following difficulties:

1. After installing the infrared lamp, it is necessary to re-set the circuit and aging; pay attention to manual issues, pay attention to the problem of infrared light spotlight; this requires the installation personnel have a considerable sense of responsibility and patience;

2. The built-in camera must have a minimum illumination of 0.1 Lux, otherwise it is prone to snowflake; this requires the manufacturer to have the necessary investment and determination to deal with it seriously;

3, long-range infrared camera lamp power is relatively large, generally use built-in high quality transformers and fans 220V power supply camera;

4, to use high-quality infrared light, to prevent the excessive power of the infrared lamp dazzling or whitening phenomenon; leading to the image is not clear or gray sense of monsterhood; pay attention to the infrared light angle and distance at the same time, pay attention to its life; market On many factories, the use of inferior infrared lamps, in order to increase the brightness, the working power of the infrared light artificially increased very much, resulting in less than a few days, the infrared light is broken and can not work;

5, to prevent astigmatism and excessive collection of light, astigmatism is prone to white, and the collection of light is prone to flashlight phenomenon.

Conclusion With the improvement of market and user requirements, the domestic infrared camera market will become more and more mature. In the past, infrared cameras with their own infrared cameras and their own camera modules will become smaller and smaller. Following customer needs is the key to the continued development of infrared camera manufacturers in the future. At the same time, domestic companies need to work together with relevant departments and industry organizations to launch industry standards as soon as possible so that they can go further in the market and promote the development of the infrared camera industry.