Amid tough competition in the smartphone and mobile device market, cameras have become an important product differentiator. As a result, industry leaders must have a detailed and thorough approach to their products’ specifications, design, development, testing, and manufacture.
Cameras have also become more complex as image-quality technologies have advanced. Mobile device cameras are expected to offer high image quality capabilities in all aspects, including zoom, low-light modes, and artificial bokeh — while keeping costs down and the device compact. The introduction of multi-camera modules has resulted in additional requirements for precise calibration and tuning to ensure smooth transitions between sensors and lenses. Expertise in deploying computational imaging technologies is also a requirement for being competitive, as users increasingly expect magic in the form of AI-enhanced image processing to get the most from their phone cameras.
When it comes to cameras, what counts most is what consumers get from their devices in real life. A combination of factors, from optics and sensors to software, affects user experience. Our DXOMARK benchmarks provide a user-centered evaluation of the real-world performance of your cameras and lenses — an analysis that is critically helpful throughout the design and testing process. Specifically:
Analyzer is the complete hardware and software lab and measurement solution that consists of various modules you can use to perform a range of objective photo and video quality measurements, as well as perceptual analysis. Using Workflow Manager from Analyzer, you can even customize your workflows, thus increasing lab efficiency and output. Learn more.
Testing and Benchmarking: We provide benchmarking services that can help you compare the performance of various camera components and their impact on image quality before the design phase of camera development. Further, our consulting services can help you tune and optimize your device throughout the camera development cycle.
Cameras that move — such as those in drones and especially in-action cameras — require their own specialized strategies. It is no longer acceptable to repackage a standard camera. Users expect high-performance image stabilization even from rapidly moving cameras, and high-quality video even in quickly changing lighting and scene conditions. Quality video despite extreme motion is among the unique challenges facing drone camera designers. In addition to all the challenges facing the designers of mobile device cameras, drones and action cameras require particular attention to stabilization under extremely adverse conditions, especially when it comes to controlling judder. Users also expect drone and action cameras to feature a broad set of capabilities, including zoom and HDR, all in a light and small package at low cost. Moreover, computational imaging is now also required for competitive results — and this is particularly true in terms of consumer expectations of AI-enhanced image and video processing. Further, commercial drones also require measurement accuracy and reliability.
DXOMARK Solutions and Services
DXOMARK has more than a decade of experience in the drone and action camera market. We’ve helped dozens of mobile device and camera makers test and tune their products. We offer:
Testing and Benchmarking: We can help your team with its camera architecture and product design choices, as well as with creating vendor specifications, performance goals, and milestones. During the development process, in addition to progress reports, we can provide you with camera module benchmarks specific to drone cameras to help you select components with the right specifications to achieve your desired results. Moreover, we can provide detailed evaluation of moving camera systems from identifying weaknesses right up to ISP tuning advice.
Analyzer is the complete hardware and software lab and measurement solution that caters to component-level and system-level measurements. In particular, you can use Analyzer to evaluate camera color, texture, and contrast performance in HDR and extreme low-light conditions, along with video stabilization, which is a key component for these types of cameras. Moving cameras also need to perform well in wide-angle shots to avoid distortion and to have coherent and uniform performance all across the field. Analyzer not only helps you evaluate these image-quality attributes, but also tests automatic white balance, automatic exposure, and noise under challenging lighting scenarios simulated by our Automated Lighting System. Learn more.
Once limited to the now commonplace rear-view camera, cameras and computer vision have become essential design elements in many vehicles for a wide range of features, including bird’s-eye views, obstacle detection, driver monitoring, and even side-mirror replacement. Autonomous vehicles rely even more heavily on camera images to complement their lidar and radar sensors. All this means that having an effective and well-implemented camera strategy for your automotive development efforts is more important than ever. At DXOMARK, we focus on testing solutions and services to address the challenges specific to automotive applications. These include computer vision metrics, auto-exposure and HDR, and LED flickering (traffic lights, headlights, turning lights, city lights — all of which have their own frequencies). Our Display team, lab, and protocols, now in development, will be of special interest for improving the quality and safety of everything from automotive camera screens to dashboard readouts.
DXOMARK Solutions and Services
Our experience in designing complex test scenarios will help ensure that your solution works in real-world conditions and is ready for speedy qualification and certification. Specifically:
Testing and Benchmarking: We can help your team with its vehicular camera architecture and product design choices, as well as with creating vendor specifications, performance goals, and milestones. During the development process, in addition to progress reports, we can provide you with camera module benchmarks specific to automotive cameras to help you select components with the right specifications to achieve your desired results.
Further, we can perform a complete evaluation of your ADAS system to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Based on this analysis, our engineers can provide you with detailed ISP tuning advice to help improve your cameras. Further, we can evaluate the quantity and quality of your ADAS camera system’s output, which plays an important role in assessing specific Machine Vision use cases such as object recognition and detection.
Analyzer is the complete hardware and software lab and measurement solution that you can use for component-level and system-level measurements such as glass-to-glass and 360° surround view; for testing camera performance (color, texture, and contrast) in an HDR environment; and for performing dedicated Flickering tests. Analyzer’s in-depth video analysis includes assessing automatic white balance, automatic exposure, texture, noise, and stabilization under challenging lighting scenarios simulated by our Automated Lighting System (ALS). Learn more.
Camera makers face more competition than ever. The rapid rise of the smartphone as a popular tool for photos and videos has led manufacturers to invest more in phone camera imaging capabilities, bringing them increasingly close to the performance of traditional cameras and lenses. A successful response requires not just deep experience in standalone camera design, but an ability to incorporate some of the best ideas and technologies from other markets to create competitive products. Standalone cameras require both industry-leading image quality and an extensive and challenging set of user features. Increasing competition from new imaging platforms requires maintaining excellent image quality in smaller and lighter forms than ever before. Cameras are now also expected to provide extensive zoom capability without a noticeable reduction in image quality, along with improved low-light performance. Camera vendors also face the challenge of staying ahead of computational imaging features provided in smartphones by harnessing new, often AI-driven features that help “digitize the photographer.”
DXOMARK Solutions and Services
DXOMARK’s roots in camera development, design, and software engineering make us the ideal partner for optimizing the capacity of any digital camera or lens.
When it comes to cameras, what counts most is what consumers get from their device in real life. A combination of factors, from optics and sensors to software, impacts user experience. Our DXOMARK benchmarks provide a user-centered evaluation of the real-world performance of your cameras and lenses — an analysis that is critically helpful throughout the design and testing process. Specifically:
Testing and Benchmarking: We provide benchmarking services that can help you compare the performance of various camera components and their impact on image quality before the design phase of camera development. Further, our consulting services can help you tune and optimize your device throughout the camera development cycle. Learn more.
Analyzer is the complete hardware and software lab and measurement solution that consists of various modules you can use to perform various photo and video quality measurements, as well as perceptual analysis. Using Workflow Manager from Analyzer, you can even customize your workflows, thus increasing lab efficiency and output.
As surveillance systems advance from being simply passive observation windows to becoming active agents that incorporate such advanced technologies as facial recognition, parcel detection, and traffic flow management, they require increasingly advanced camera technology. Similarly, aerospace and defense applications are increasing their use of advanced camera-based capabilities that require specialized knowledge and experience. Extreme conditions combined with uncompromising video quality goals make surveillance camera design a unique challenge. Effective surveillance requires seeing all elements of a scene in lighting conditions that potentially range from complete darkness to bright daylight. In addition, they often need to handle intense back lighting. As a result, many surveillance applications require integrating multiple sensors, including near-IR and thermal sensors, with visible light cameras, as well as with multi-frame or other HDR solutions. With the growing popularity of automatic image analysis, surveillance cameras need to be optimized for both human and computer vision, including input to AI-based analysis systems. Given the large amount of data that cameras capture, the intelligent compression of the data stream without sacrificing important information is also key. Depending on circumstances, many surveillance systems also need to be able to support deployment in harsh conditions, including rain and snow.
DXOMARK Solutions and Services
Our experience in designing multi-camera systems for a variety of industries makes DXOMARK an ideal partner for your surveillance camera projects. Specifically, we offer:
Testing and Benchmarking: We can help your team with its camera architecture and product design choices, as well as with creating vendor specifications, performance goals, and milestones. We can assist in every stage of the development process, including the tuning and integration of your device; further, we can also compare prototypes and production units with those of competitors and against your own KPI milestones. We can provide in-depth evaluation of such various surveillance systems as indoor fixed-focus cameras and outdoor PTZ cameras, among others.
Analyzer is the complete hardware and software lab and measurement solution that caters to component-level and system-level measurements. In particular, you can use Analyzer to evaluate camera color, texture, and contrast performance in HDR and extreme low-light conditions. Given the environments in which they often operate, surveillance cameras must have good video stabilization, as they are susceptible to being swayed by the wind or shaken by heavy vehicular traffic (for example). Further, surveillance camera systems have to perform well in wide-angle shots to avoid distortion and to have coherent and uniform performance all across the field. Analyzer not only helps you evaluate these image quality attributes, but also tests automatic white balance, automatic exposure, noise, and stabilization under challenging lighting scenarios simulated by our Automated Lighting System. Learn more.
Wearables with cameras present unique challenges for product design and manufacturing. In addition to the challenges faced by other kinds of moving cameras, wearable cameras need to provide high-quality images using very-wide-angle lenses, typically with no user intervention or assistance. In addition, wearable cameras have to handle difficult scenes that can include controlling flare from extreme back lighting and judder from unpredictable actions. Users expect video output to feature smooth panning despite jerky or sporadic motions. In the case of AR/VR headset cameras, multiple cameras need to be calibrated and evaluated for their 3D performance, and often must have their output fused with output from other sensors on the device. 
“Cameras are everywhere now — smartphones, cars, drones, surveillance cameras. Each market needs excellent image quality, and you have to address the challenges of each type of camera and its uses.” —Hervé Macudzinski, Image Science Director
DXOMARK Solutions and Services
We have worked with makers of 180-degree, 360-degree, and AR/VR devices, and understand their unique challenges. Specific ways we can assist you with your project include:
Testing and Benchmarking: We can help your team with its camera architecture and product design choices, as well as with creating vendor specifications, performance goals, and milestones. During the development process, in addition to progress reports, we can provide you with camera module benchmarks specific to wearables to help you select components with the right specifications to achieve your desired results.
Analyzer is the complete hardware and software lab and measurement solution that you can use for component-level and system-level measurements, and particularly for evaluating camera performance for color, texture, and contrast under HDR and low-light conditions. Good stabilization is a key component in meeting users’ expectations of having smooth playback, and Analyzer’s in-depth video analysis includes assessing automatic white balance, automatic exposure, noise, flare, and stabilization under challenging lighting scenarios simulated by our Automated Lighting System. Wearables need to also perform well in wide-angle shots to avoid distortion and to have coherent and uniform performance all across the field. Analyzer not only helps you evaluate these image-quality attributes, but can also perform multi-camera parallax testing to ensure better device calibration. Learn more.
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