Sharp releases camera that can record images in color in the dark

Sharp has released its first camera that can capture images with color in the dark. Like other night cameras, the model works with infrared, but it analyzes the wavelength of the images it returns to reproduce colors.

The night camera from Sharp is intended as a security camera for companies, among others, and has the type number LZ0P420A. Sharp didn’t develop the technology; that comes from AIST, a branch of the Japanese company Nanolux, which already showed an earlier version in 2011. A camera with this technology should also have been released at the time, but it is unclear whether that has happened.

The company uses various, unspecified algorithms to convert the wavelengths returning to the camera into colors. According to Sharp, it is the first camera that can do that. Current security cameras have black and white images or monochrome images, such as with only shades of green. The color should make it easier to recognize objects.

The 940g camera can shoot images in a resolution of 1280×720 pixels at 30fps and has a 1/3″ sensor. Nanolux, the parent company of AIST, will sell the Sharp camera.