Specim

Specim IQ Portable Hyperspectral Camera

The Specim IQ Portable Hyperspectral Camera is a mobile hyperspectral imaging system. Specim IQ cameras perform hyperspectral measurements with camera functionalities tailored to your analysis requirements. The camera features a compact, lightweight body, IP class protection, a USB interface for data transfer and a built-in GPS to pin your measurement location to the recorded data. Specim IQ Studio software, included with the camera, allows you to define and tailor test specifications.

A hyperspectral camera, such as Specim IQ, is an imaging device that is used to collect an image with broad spectral information on each image pixel of the target. In comparison to a standard grayscale with single intensity information averaged over the whole wavelength band, or a color camera with red, green and blue region averaged intensities, a hyperspectral camera can sample the wavelength region of the camera with hundreds of spectral samples. The spectrum saved from the target with continuous and high wavelength sampling, can be used to detect the imaged material, or determine its physical and chemical properties.

The Specim IQ wavelength range is 400-1000 nm, and it is based on Specim’s push-broom technology, that is, line scan cameras. The system consists of a front lens, an imaging spectrograph and an image sensor. The system images one single line from the target with one snapshot captured on the system image sensor. The light from the target line is dispersed into a spectrum with the imaging optics, keeping the spatial information. In this way, one axis of the sensor (horizontal direction) is used for spatial distribution and the other (vertical axis) for spectral information from each imaged position. In other words, each column of the image contains a separate spectrum from a dedicated position along the imaged line. Furthermore, as the single image contains only information along one line, the full area of interest has to be imaged, scanned, line-by-line. The resulting hyperspectral image is a 3D data structure, datacube, where two dimensions are used for spatial information and one for spectral information.