DIY High Speed Video Camera - Muybridge Style - Smarter Every Day 5

TL;DR

Destin builds a DIY high-speed imaging system by acoustically triggering a programmable pulse generator and assembling repeated-event photographs into a Muybridge-style sequence. The generator is programmable to 25-picosecond resolution, while the finished result has seven times the resolution of 1080p and costs a fraction of a commercial high-speed camera. Read on to see how the timing, image ordering, and ballistic-variance correction make the sequence work.

Transcript

Hey it's me, Destin. The idea, here at Smarter Every Day, is to make you smarter. I guess it was 1872, the governor of California tried to solve the age old question: When a horse runs, are all four of its hooves off the ground at any point in transit? Now, artists of the day liked to show images with the horses' feet up front and in back off the g... Read More

Key Insights

• 🚄 Eadweard Muybridge's work on high-speed photography revolutionized the way motion and movement were captured.
• 👻 The combination of a programmable pulse generator and a piezoelectric transducer allows for precise timing and high-resolution images.
• 🚄 Correcting for ballistic variance is necessary to maintain accuracy in representing high-speed events.

Questions & Answers

Q: How did Destin build a DIY high-speed video camera in the style of Eadweard Muybridge?

Destin connected a piezoelectric transducer to the trigger input of a programmable pulse generator and triggered the system acoustically. He captured a series of high-speed photographs of a repetitive event, corrected for ballistic variance, ordered the images by distance, and combined them into a video.

Q: How did Eadweard Muybridge photograph a running horse?

Muybridge placed strings along the horse’s path, with each string associated with a camera. As a rider took the horse through the strings, they acted as time-of-arrival switches that triggered a series of images.

Q: What question was Muybridge’s horse experiment designed to answer?

In 1872, the governor of California wanted to determine whether all four of a running horse’s hooves ever leave the ground at the same time. He commissioned Eadweard Muybridge to create a series of photographs while a horse was running.

Q: What equipment triggers the DIY high-speed photography setup?

The setup uses a programmable pulse generator from Quantum Composers with a piezoelectric transducer connected to its trigger input. An acoustic signal triggers the system, allowing a flash to occur after a programmed delay.

Q: How precise is the programmable pulse generator?

The pulse generator is programmable down to 25-picosecond resolution. Destin also demonstrates a flash occurring 1.8 seconds after the sound of his finger snap.

Q: Why are multiple photographs combined instead of using a commercial high-speed camera?

The method is designed for repetitive events and builds a video from a series of separately captured high-speed photographs. Destin says commercial high-speed cameras are very expensive, while this setup achieves the result at a fraction of the cost.

Q: Why does Destin correct for ballistic variance?

The sequence initially appears as the images were shot. Destin then corrects for ballistic variance and puts the images in order by distance to produce the finished video.

Q: How does the DIY result compare with 1080p resolution?

Destin says the completed repetitive-event system produces images at seven times the resolution of 1080p. He presents it as a way to combine simpler technologies to accomplish something that had been technologically out of reach.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The video explores the history of Eadweard Muybridge and his contributions to high-speed photography by capturing images of a running horse.

• The host demonstrates the use of a programmable pulse generator combined with a piezoelectric transducer to create high-speed photography images with 25 picosecond resolution.

• The video showcases the process of correcting for ballistic variance and arranging the images in distance to recreate the effect observed in Muybridge's work.