A camera capable of visualising the movement of light has been unveiled by a team of scientists in the US.
The equipment captures images at a rate of roughly a trillion frames per second - or about 40 billion times faster than a UK television camera.
Direct recording of light is impossible at that speed, so the camera takes millions of repeated scans to recreate each image.
The team said the technique could be used to understand ultrafast processes.
The process has been dubbed femto-photography and has been detailed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab's website.
There's nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera, said Andrea Velten, one of the researchers involved in the project.
Scan lines
To create the technique, the scientists adapted a streak tube - equipment used to take data readings from light pulses.
It works in a similar fashion to the way pictures are created on traditional television cathode ray tubes, scanning one thin horizontal line at a time.
Since each image is only equivalent to one scan line on the television set, many hundred scans had to be taken to create a single frame.
The scientists did this by repeating each shot, angling the camera's view with mirrors to record a different scan line of the object.
As a result, the technique is only suitable for capturing an event that can be recreated exactly the same way multiple times.
Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16163931
The equipment captures images at a rate of roughly a trillion frames per second - or about 40 billion times faster than a UK television camera.
Direct recording of light is impossible at that speed, so the camera takes millions of repeated scans to recreate each image.
The team said the technique could be used to understand ultrafast processes.
The process has been dubbed femto-photography and has been detailed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab's website.
There's nothing in the universe that looks fast to this camera, said Andrea Velten, one of the researchers involved in the project.
Scan lines
To create the technique, the scientists adapted a streak tube - equipment used to take data readings from light pulses.
It works in a similar fashion to the way pictures are created on traditional television cathode ray tubes, scanning one thin horizontal line at a time.
Since each image is only equivalent to one scan line on the television set, many hundred scans had to be taken to create a single frame.
The scientists did this by repeating each shot, angling the camera's view with mirrors to record a different scan line of the object.
As a result, the technique is only suitable for capturing an event that can be recreated exactly the same way multiple times.
Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16163931
