For most of us, high-speed image capture, say 120 or
240 frames per second, is enough to get a good look at stuff
happening in the blink of an eye -- like a water droplet hitting the
ground or a Bichon Frisé snagging his favorite ball.
For faster subjects, industrial-strength high-speed cameras can grab tens of thousands of frames per second (or more). But when your rapidly moving target is light itself, you're going to need something a bit quicker -- to the tune of 100 billion fps, according to Nature.
Using a technique called "compressed ultrafast photography" (CUP), researchers at Washington University in St. Louis can track light as it travels and interacts with objects. It's a new spin on the streak camera method, where a sensor moves along with the light to record its motion.
Previous streak camera setups have been limited to narrow, one-dimensional views, but the CUP technique allows for two-dimensional image capture. One example video shows a laser pulse sauntering by and reflecting off a mirror in a few tens of picoseconds (trillionths of a second).
So far, researchers have used the technique to explore a handful of phenomena, including how light reflects and refracts, as well as how photons behave when transitioning from one medium to another (e.g., from air to a resin). Nature reports the CUP technique could be used in the development of so-called invisibility cloaks that work by bending light around an object.
So while it may not be the absolute fastest high-speed camera system currently out there, perhaps someday it'll help us get a bit closer to realizing those Star Trek/Harry Potter dreams.
For faster subjects, industrial-strength high-speed cameras can grab tens of thousands of frames per second (or more). But when your rapidly moving target is light itself, you're going to need something a bit quicker -- to the tune of 100 billion fps, according to Nature.
Using a technique called "compressed ultrafast photography" (CUP), researchers at Washington University in St. Louis can track light as it travels and interacts with objects. It's a new spin on the streak camera method, where a sensor moves along with the light to record its motion.
Previous streak camera setups have been limited to narrow, one-dimensional views, but the CUP technique allows for two-dimensional image capture. One example video shows a laser pulse sauntering by and reflecting off a mirror in a few tens of picoseconds (trillionths of a second).
So far, researchers have used the technique to explore a handful of phenomena, including how light reflects and refracts, as well as how photons behave when transitioning from one medium to another (e.g., from air to a resin). Nature reports the CUP technique could be used in the development of so-called invisibility cloaks that work by bending light around an object.
So while it may not be the absolute fastest high-speed camera system currently out there, perhaps someday it'll help us get a bit closer to realizing those Star Trek/Harry Potter dreams.
About Anna Harris:
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.
Follow Anna Harris On
Anna Harris working as web content writer and a strategist for a major IT firm specialized in various mobile application development services for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other operating systems.
Follow Anna Harris On
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment