Sony develop new 4-colour CCD technology

Sony are developing a new CCD with 4-colour (Red R, Green G, Blue B + Emerald E) filters, together with a new image processor corresponding to the 4-colour filter. By this technology, Sony say the colour reproduction error is halved compared to their conventional 3-primary-colour filter CCD and, expression of images closer to the natural sight perception of the human eye is achieved under various shooting conditions.

Conventional digital still cameras mainly use 3-primary-colour filter CCD, and the colours are recorded by the intensity of each of the 3 colours, Red(R), Green(G) and Blue(B), corresponding to the colour reproduction characteristics of the colour TV or monitors. However, the characteristics of these CCD filters are different from those of the human visual system. colour differences therefore emerge compared to natural human sight, resulting in different colour reproduction.

In the 4-colour filter CCD, a filter with the Emerald (E) colour is added to the conventional 3-colour RGB filter, in order to reduce the colour reproduction errors and to record natural images closer to the natural sight perception of the human eye. As a result, the characteristics of the CCD colour filter become much closer to those of the human visual system, achieving dramatic reduction in the colour reproduction error.

In addition to the development of the 4 colour filter, a new image processor corresponding to the 4-colour filter has been developed. With this processor, each of the signals captured by the 4 colours is processed to produce ideal 3 colours close to the natural sight perception the human eye by a matrix calculation. Also, in addition to functioning with 30% less power consumption, by the efficient processor management, functions such as high-speed image shooting and high-speed playback are realized, as well as enhancing the of overall basic functions of digital still cameras.

New image processor

By the combination of the 4 colour filter CCD and the new processor, colour reproduction errors have been minimized by half, and the reproduction of blue-green and red colours has been particularly enhanced.
Sony plans to integrate the newly developed 4 colour filter CCD and the new image processor into the new digital cameras which will be introduced in the near future. This unique Sony original technology will offer the capability to shoot images with enhanced reality.

Photo produced by conventional technology

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