FRAME: If we were saying that high-speed cameras that collect 100.000 images per second are obsolete?
A research team at the University of Lund, Sweden, has developed a camera that can shoot photos at a speed of five trillion images per second, or a frame per 0,2 trillionths of a second.
The new camera will be able to record incredibly fast procedures that are going on in various research laboratories in chemistry, physics, biology, and biomedicine, which have so far not been shot on film.
In order to present the new FRAME technology, researchers successfully filmed how the light travels (a group of photons) at a distance corresponding to the thickness of a paper.
Up to now, high-speed cameras recorded images one by one in a sequence. The new technology uses an innovative algorithm that records many coded images in one image. It then classifies them into a video sequence.
The camera is intended to be used initially by researchers who want to get a better picture of the many extremely fast processes that occur in nature. According to the researchers: "in the long run, the technology can be used by industry and others."
For the researchers themselves, the biggest benefit of this technology is not that they managed to break a new one speed record, but that they are able to film how specific substances change in the same process.
"Today, the only way to depict such rapid events is to photograph still images of a process. Then you should try to repeat the same experiments to get enough still images which can later be edited into a movie. The problem with this approach is that it is very unlikely that the process will be the same if you repeat the experiment," say researchers Elias Kristensson and Andreas Ehn.
Researchers call the new FRAME - Frequency Recognition Algorithm for Multiple Exposures.
A normal one camera με φλας χρησιμοποιεί κανονικό φως, αλλά σε αυτή την περίπτωση οι ερευνητές χρησιμοποιούν “κωδικοποιημένες” φωτεινές αναλαμπές, σαν μια μορφή κρυπτογράφησης. Κάθε φορά που ένα κωδικοποιημένο φλας (φως) χτυπά το αντικείμενο – για παράδειγμα, μια χημική αντίδραση σε μια φλόγα καύσης – το αντικείμενο εκπέμπει ένα σήμα εικόνας (απόκριση) με την ίδια ακριβώς κωδικοποίηση. Έτσι η κάθε κίνηση έχει διαφορετικούς κωδικούς και τα σήματα εικόνας καταγράφονται σε μία μόνο φωτογραφία. Αυτά τα σήματα κωδικοποιημένης εικόνας διαχωρίζονται στη συνέχεια χρησιμοποιώντας ένα κλειδί κρυπτογράφησης από κάποιον computer.
A German company has already developed a prototype of this technology, which means that over two years it will be used by more scientists.
FRAME - Frequency Recognition Algorithm for Multiple Exposures PDF
Contact:
Elias Kristensson, combustion physics researcher, + 46 46 222 47 56, 46 73 369, elias.kristensson@forbrf.lth.se
Andreas Ehn, combustion physics researcher, + 46 46 222 39 28, andreas.ehn@forbrf.lth.se
