Panoramic webcams are now widely sought after in the security market. Compared with traditional surveillance cameras, panoramic cameras may be the best choice for indoor video surveillance, especially when 360 degree dead angle monitoring is required in the monitoring area.
If the traditional dome camera or integrated gun machine is used, a surveillance camera needs to be installed in every corner of the room. One panoramic camera can be used as several panoramic cameras, which greatly saves installation and maintenance costs. This is why panoramic cameras are so expensive.
The panoramic camera is not just as simple as using the fish eye lens. The panoramic camera only obtains the panoramic image through the fish eye lens, then processes the image through an advanced image processor, and outputs the image suitable for human eyes to watch. This process is called Dewarp.
At present, most webcams use panoramic cameras with single fisheye lens and Dewarp technology, which is relatively easy to realize.
In addition, there is also a panoramic camera using multi lens+image splicing technology, which can be composed of original images of multiple lenses, and can also show 360 ° bowl shaped panorama through PTZ projection. The user can quickly select any monitoring angle through the mouse, and can control the rotation, enlargement and reduction of the monitoring image to achieve no dead angle monitoring.
Where is the panoramic camera suitable for installation?
In addition to the room entrances, lobbies, reception rooms and other areas that we often think of, panoramic cameras can also be installed on the ceiling of the corridor to monitor corridor traffic.
In addition, panoramic camera is also suitable for installation in relatively open areas, such as airport supermarket, terminal, parking lot, etc.
What factors should be considered when selecting panoramic surveillance cameras?
1. Resolution
For all surveillance cameras, camera module resolution is the most important consideration. Although the panoramic camera image can reach 4K ultra-high definition, it does not mean that the image quality is very high. Because the full image needs to be corrected, whether better details can be obtained after correction depends on the maximum resolution supported by the panoramic camera. It is generally recommended to select a panoramic camera module with more than 4 million pixels.
2. Fish eye lens
This seems to have nothing to do with the user. If the panoramic camera uses a single lens, then the lens is generally 180 degrees fish eye or 360 degrees fish eye lens with a focal length of 1.4-1.8mm. The lens plays a very important role in camera imaging.
When selecting lens, millions of high-definition lens matched with image sensor should be selected. Different from ordinary lens imaging, the edge image quality of fish eye lens will be reduced when imaging. The multi lens panoramic surveillance camera uses the ordinary 2.8mm or 3.6mm lens for imaging, so the imaging quality of each area in the image can be guaranteed.
3. Wide dynamic/3D noise reduction and other auxiliary imaging technologies
Because the panoramic surveillance camera is often installed on the ceiling of the indoor hall, the camera must be able to shoot high-quality images under the changing light conditions such as backlight or strong light. When selecting a panoramic camera, the user should consider whether the camera has the bandwidth dynamic function and 3D digital noise reduction function, so that the surveillance camera can still shoot high-quality, noise free and clear images even under high contrast and dark lighting conditions.
As for the installation, in order to obtain the best monitoring performance and the best shooting angle, the panoramic camera should be installed on the ceiling with a minimum height of more than 3 meters and there should be no obstacles blocking the line of sight. Generally, the panoramic surveillance camera is designed for global monitoring. Don’t think about replacing PTZ camera with panoramic surveillance camera.