Full-colour AI low-light camera

Issue 1 2021 Surveillance

As AI technology is increasingly applied in the security industry, intelligent video analytics has become a sought-after surveillance feature for a variety of scenarios, especially outdoor scenes or environments with extreme low-light conditions.

To satisfy users’ intelligent analysis needs for different targets under low-light conditions, Dahua Technology has launched its new full-colour AI Solution. The new system’s AI algorithm combines its full-colour performance improvements with high-accuracy detection, target recognition and efficient AI search functionalities.


Full-colour camera vs. IR camera.

Although the industry has adopted infrared (IR) technology to provide high-quality images in dark environments, the black-and-white images captured by traditional IR cameras cannot fully display detailed information of targets, such as clothing colour, vehicle attributes, etc., making it difficult to collect relevant visual evidence. Also, when integrated with AI, its limitations in colour extraction often lead to low detection accuracy. For instance, when a person in a black outfit hides behind a tree, an IR camera cannot effectively distinguish the monitored target from the background. In addition, IR light can cause overexposure of targets, which can cause missing details for target recognition.

Making up for the inadequacies of general IR cameras, the Dahua full-colour AI Solution is equipped with different full-colour technologies to capture clear colour images even in low-light conditions. It offers vivid image effects similar to daytime surveillance scenes under low illumination and total darkness, significantly facilitating the camera’s AI intelligent processing performance.

Compared to traditional IR night vision, the Dahua full-colour AI Solution includes more spectral information collection capabilities, resulting in clearer, more vivid and more complete details of extracted features for comparison. For face recognition, comparing the colour images stored in the image library with the black-and-white image of the IR camera produces low matching accuracy.

When compared with the colour images captured by the full-colour cameras at night, it provides high algorithm compatibility and high matching accuracy. In addition, its large-aperture lens and high-sensitivity image sensor improve its ability to sense visible light and detect distant targets. When there are only a few visible light sources such as street lights in the scene, the Dahua full-colour camera can still capture good quality images with its powerful low-light capability.

Featuring excellent image effects, the Dahua full-colour AI Solution can provide face recognition and licence plate recognition even at night. In places prone to crime, such as parks or dark alleys, this solution can effectively extract colour characteristics as well as details of people and vehicles in the scene, achieving detection/recognition of the targets.


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