NCJ Number
194854
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 29 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2002 Pages: 120-122,124,126,127
Date Published
2002
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article describes the advantages of a scientific-grade cooled-chip digital camera over typical video and commercial digital cameras.
Abstract
Scientific-grade cooled-chip digital (CCD) camera technology is based on the same technology developed to record galaxies and take pictures on space missions. It is currently being used on satellites for its high sensitivity. Its low noise and low light capability are useful to astronomers, and scientists involved in biomedical imaging use the technology because it provides a wide dynamic range of color/gray levels and a high-resolution image. There are several other important advantages of a scientific-grade CCD camera over typical video and commercial digital cameras: (1) the CCD camera is not limited in areas of the spectrum as the far blue or ultraviolet; (2) it has a higher resolution; (3) it can improve the image over the normal capacity of the human eye; (4) it has readout noise levels as low as one electron per gain value; (5) it is perfect for fluorescent photography of latent fingerprints; (6) it can be used with digital imaging software packages to produce the best possible final images; and (7) the CCD image detector’s linear attributes offer an on-the-fly, quantifiable, distortion-free image. The article concludes that the potential for scientific cameras is limited only by current technology. Improving on the slow frame capture of the scientific-grade CCD camera, new cameras with progressive scan CCD imagers, developed for medical and biomedical imaging, can be readily adapted to the forensic arena.