Give you a brief introduction: What are the characteristics of optical lenses in different application fields

Nowadays, with the development of AI technology, more and more innovative application products need to be assisted by machine vision. In this process, the premise for AI to play an effective role is to let smart devices see and see clearly, and optical lenses play an important role that cannot be ignored.

In the industry application of AI, the application of the security industry is the most common. With the deepening of security AI technology in product applications, security lenses, as a key component of surveillance cameras, are also facing necessary technological upgrades.

From the development trend of video surveillance system, the technology upgrade route of security lens mainly has the following aspects:

① Reliability and lens cost

The security monitoring system has high requirements for high temperature resistance of the lens, and its reliability is also mainly reflected in this. Because the surveillance lens needs to work in harsh weather conditions, its ability to withstand high temperatures is very important. A good surveillance lens needs to be able to maintain focus at high temperatures and without image distortion, usually tested in the range of 60-70 degrees Celsius. At the same time, the market is now tending to the use of glass and plastic composite lenses (that is, the use of aspherical plastic lenses and glass combination), which can improve the resolution and make the cost more reasonable.

② Resolution and bandwidth cost

Compared with other camera lenses, surveillance lenses generally have less high resolution requirements. The current mainstream resolution is still 1080P (=2MP), with a market share of about 72% in 2020. Because bandwidth costs are still an important part of current systems, upgrading resolution will also increase the construction and operating costs of the system. Therefore, the progress of 4K upgrades in the future will not be too fast.

③ From prime focus to high zoom

Security monitoring lenses are mainly divided into two types of fixed focus lens and zoom lens, the current mainstream or fixed focus lens, but zoom lens market share in recent years has grown rapidly. In general, a 3x zoom is enough to meet the requirements of general use, but if you need to monitor more distance, you need a higher zoom lens to achieve.

④ Large aperture to solve low-light environment applications

Security monitoring lenses usually need to be used in low-light environments, and the requirements for a large aperture of the lens will be higher than the requirements of the mobile phone lens. Although the problem can be solved by using infrared imaging at night, this method can only provide black and white video, so a large aperture with highly sensitive RGB CMOS is the best way to solve the low light environment. At present, the mainstream security camera lenses on the market have been enough to meet the needs of indoor and daytime outdoor environments, while also for the night environment has developed starlight (F 1.6) and black light (F 0.98) large aperture lenses to better meet the needs of users.

Nowadays, the application of electronic technology is more and more extensive, and the optical lens, as the "eye" of the machine, is also constantly upgraded, and it has also expanded and extended many application fields. In addition to the application of several mainstream business markets (security, vehicle, mobile phone), optical lenses have also become an important component of many emerging terminal electronic products, such as AI recognition, smart home, laser projection, virtual reality, projection video, etc. For different electronic devices, optical lenses will be different in terms of performance and technical standards.

Lens characteristics for different application areas

① Video equipment lens

Video equipment realizes online video conferencing and live education services through the lens, which is the product of the online work demand promoted by the epidemic in recent years. Due to the relatively fixed and single use environment, the requirements of this type of lens in the design standard are also relatively simple, mainly to meet the basic application needs of large viewing Angle, low distortion, high definition and zoom. In recent years, with the increasing application of cross-regional collaboration, remote training and other fields, the production of video equipment is also increasing.

② Drone lens

The popularity of drones is also driving the development of related industries, such as consumer drone equipment. This kind of equipment usually requires users to operate outdoors, so it has high requirements for lens design, such as long distance, wide viewing Angle, and against complex environments. The drone camera lens has the functions of fog penetration, noise reduction, wide dynamic, automatic day and night conversion and spherical privacy area shielding. The UAV lens needs to consider the complex flight environment, and the lens needs to freely switch shooting modes according to the line of sight environment. Therefore, in order to improve the versatility of the lens, it needs to be used with the zoom lens to meet the needs of fast switching between high-altitude wide-angle shooting and close-up capture.

③ Smart home lens

Smart home devices enter the market with optical lenses, which commonly include home cameras, smart cat eyes, visual doorbells and vacuum cleaners. These devices are known for their flexibility and compact size and adaptability to black-and-white all-weather work, so high pixels, large aperture, low distortion and high cost performance have also become the basic standards for the development and production of smart home lenses. At the same time, high definition shooting, low light night vision and wide depth of field are essential features of these products.

④ Handheld camera lens

Lightweight and portable handheld smart cameras are emerging with the development of the live streaming industry. This type of camera has basic standard requirements for high-definition, anti-shake, and no distortion. In addition, in order to pursue a better live broadcast effect, it needs functions such as color restoration effect, WYSIWYG shooting and ultra-wide dynamic adaptation to meet the all-weather shooting of life scenes.

At present, the main business market of optical lenses is still car, security, mobile phone applications, but with the increasing diversification of the public lifestyle, some segments of the optical lens market is also continuing to develop, such as focusing on visual technology and art of projectors, AR equipment and other emerging products, but also to the public work and life to bring different experiences and feelings.