Article by Shaun McConnaghy & Shauna Fowler Image by Zach Pezzillo High speed imaging is a way to show processes that pass too quickly for human vision to detect. It can also be a valuable tool with technical applications, it can be used to calculate acceleration and velocity. High speed imaging can be either video or with single exposures, each of which present a unique result. The techniques employed have a longer history than most people think. While there is no clear date when high speed imaging began, its first practical use came in 1878 when Eadweard Muybridge wanted to know whether or not horses have all four feet in the air when they gallop. Since then, numerous cameras and imaging systems have developed to capture action occurring in short spans of time. STUDENTS AND HIGH SPEED IMAGING At RIT, CIAS offers a high speed photography class to introduce students to both high speed still imaging and high speed video. The class provides students the opportunity to not only learn how to photograph high speed events, but also how to use high speed as a tool.

For instance, students learn how to calculate acceleration and velocity of moving objects, photographing everything from a bullet going through an object, to water droplets frozen mid-drip. The class focuses on the technical aspects of how to achieve such pictures and videos but also gives the students the opportunity to come up with creative new ideas to implement with high speed techniques. fish tank hood woodIn the fall of 2014, for the first time in the course’s history, students decided to backlight the ballistics project. fish tank pump melbourneWhile this took additional planning to execute since it hadn’t been done before, the results were impressive and unique compared to the pictures usually captured. nano fish tank marine

These students then decided to take this technique to the next level by implementing it into their final project: shooting a bullet through water. To capture such a brief action, the class worked to build a fish tank that would allow a bullet to pass through the side without shattering the glass. fish tank for sale medwayAfter thorough testing and pre-planning the class was able to perfect the technique while creating some amazing images.fish tank for sale in dunfermline Image by Matthew Cancel, Shauna Fowler, Norah Moran & Jordan Salkinfish tank for sale gumtree sydney PROFESSIONAL HIGH SPEED IMAGING High speed imaging is used today in a variety of professional fields. Many companies that use high speed imaging, use slow motion video for advertisements to exaggerate a movement or to highlight a part of a commercial.

Food and beverage industries use these tactics quite often to make their products more appealing. Automotive industries, on the other hand, use high speed video to showcase parts of or the whole vehicle. Recently, with the help of Robert Latorre and The Big Freeze, Toyota used a series of images taken almost instantaneously to capture the Corolla “like you’ve never seen it before”. The Big Freeze system uses still images to stop or slow down time while simultaneously rotating the frame in any direction desired. This freeze-frame effect has been used by many companies including Nissan, Hyundai, Famous Footwear, the NBA, NFL, and Nascar. GoPro has also taken this technique and applied it to their mobile cameras to capture sports action. One company, The Marmalade, has taken a new perspective on how to use advanced robotic technology to capture high speed video. The Marmalade is a German advertising company that does most everything in-house including filming, producing props, 3D animation, and testing new ideas.

In 2010, The Marmalade produced SPIKE, an eight-axes robot that can control a high speed camera with pinpoint accuracy using software that they built from scratch. While robots can cause interference with vibrations and present limitations, it seems that no matter where the camera is, it’s able to pan, tilt or orbit wherever needed while delivering a smooth and sharp video. This allows for the team to capture a high speed event in an entirely new way. With the rigidity and precision of a former car manufacturing robot, SPIKE can track objects while capturing video with almost any camera you can think of. Though the robot seems to get all of these attributes from the Stäubli RX160, most of it actually comes from the software.  The software, written in Objective-C, runs on OSX. This is where the brain of SPIKE comes from. This system has been used heavily by food and drink companies like McDonald’s, Pepsi, Audi, Mercedes and Ferrero Rocher. In addition to commercials, Hollywood has been looking into using this innovative high speed imaging solution to bring new perspectives to their films.

Image by  Jordan Salkin Stäubli RX160 industrial robot Manually finds camera positions Synchronisation of robot moves External programmable motors and triggers to help pull focus, drive turntables and linear movement The software controls SPIKE hardware in real time over Ethernet Custom C software controlled by OS X The Future of High Speed Imaging High speed Imaging gives us the ability to see processes and movement which are too quick for normal imaging methods. Videos and still images can be used both as a useful tool in the scientific world, and as a way to capture the beauty of something as simple as pouring a drink. The future of high speed is moving more and more to the advertising world with cases like SPIKE. Recently another innovation was made in the world of high speed video. A company called Brain Farm was able to use a large drone and attach a Phantom Flex 4K High Speed video camera, this was the first time high speed camera of this size has been used with a drone, showing that the boundaries and capabilities are constantly being pushed.