Spectral Sensor Can ID Paint Swatches

March 15, 2023

Using one of ams OSRAM’s six-channel spectral sensors, a company created a handheld spectrometer that can ID paint color names from a number of paint manufacturers.

William G. Wong

Related To: Electronic Design

This video appeared in Electronic Design and has been published here with permission.

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ams OSRAM is big into imaging and sensors. Jim Archibald, Senior Engineering Manager, showed me the company's new compact color sensor (see video above). The demo utilizes Variable's Color Muse, which contains a six-channel ams OSRAM spectral sensor (see figure).

The Variable Color Muse IoT device (right) contains an ams OSRAM color sensor that communicates the color it sees to a smartphone app (center).

The Color Muse smartphone application collects colors detected by the sensor and matches them to photos. Such a tool can be very handy for everyone from professional painters to graphic designers to interior decorators.

The ams OSRAM AS7262 is a smart six-channel, consumer-grade visible spectrum (VIS) sensor. It handles visible wavelengths from approximately 430 to 670 nm with full-width half-max (FWHM) of 40 nm. The chip includes an integrated LED driver with programmable current for electronic shutter applications.

The system, which integrates Gaussian filters into standard CMOS silicon via nano-optic deposited interference filter technology, comes in a LGA package that provides a built-in aperture to control the light entering the sensor array.

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About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.>

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I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence.