Contrast Enhancement; Contrast Mode; Figure 27: Contrast Enhancement Mapping 16-Bit To 8-Bit - Teledyne FLIR A68 Series User Manual

Contrast Enhancement

The native output of the FLIR A68/A38 series sensor is 16-bits. The contrast
enhancement mechanism is implemented when the pixel output is 8-bits. Contrast
enhancement maps the 16-bit image to 8-bits to output high quality, well-contrasted
images, regardless of the temperature differences found in the scene.
Note: For GigE Vision digital output, the camera output pixel format can
be set to either 16 or 8-bits (monochrome or YUYV). 16-bit output is FPN
corrected but does not use any contrast enhancement features.

Contrast Mode

The Contrast Mode
4 contrast modes are available:
• Dynamic Adaptive
• Fixed Adaptive
• Static (Fixed Range of Sensor Pixel Values)
• Static (Fixed Range of Scene Temperature)
For all contrast modes, values that fall outside the mapped range are rendered as 0 or
255.
Adaptive modes analyze the 16-bit image to determine the average pixel value and
then use this value to determine the DN values to map to 8-bits. Recommended
contrast values for most applications is between 100 and 150. When contrast is set to
the maximum value (255), the image is nearly binarized (pixels above the average
value in the 16-bit image set to 255 and those below the average value set to 0).
FLIR A68/A38 Series IR Camera User's Manual
(contrastMode
Values mapped to 0
0

Figure 27: Contrast Enhancement Mapping 16-Bit to 8-bit

feature) determines how the contrast is performed.
16-bit Histogram
Range of pixels
to map to 8-bits
0
Values mapped to 255
65535
255
Features and Configuration Options • 67