Researchers reveal the camera of the future
A UK research team has developed new technology that allows a high-resolution still image to be captured alongside very high-speed video, a revolutionary technique that could be used in the future in both science and industry. The research is published in the journal Nature Methods. The University of Oxford team developed the new technique by combining standard technologies found in ordinary cameras and digital film projectors. The result is a tool that will be able to transform current scientific imaging techniques and can provide both high-speed video and high-resolution still images from the same camera and at a reasonable price. The technology could be useful in many sectors including closed-circuit television (CCTV) and sports photography and in fact is already receiving interest from the scientific imaging sector, where it is necessary to capture extremely high-quality still images that correspond to very high-speed video. Currently this is an expensive and difficult undertaking. Dr Peter Kohl, from the University of Oxford, a co-author of the study, said, 'Anyone who has ever tried to take photographs or video of a high-speed scene, such as football or motor racing, even with a fairly decent digital SLR [single lens reflex], will know that it is very difficult to get a sharp image because the movement causes blurring. We have the same problem in science, where we may miss really vital information like very rapid changes in intensity of light from fluorescent molecules that tell us about what is happening inside a cell. 'Dr Gil Bub from my team came up with a really great idea to bring together high-resolution still images and high-speed video footage, at the same time and on the same camera chip. The sort of cameras researchers would normally need to get similar high-speed footage can set you back tens of thousands of pounds, but Dr Bub's invention does so at a fraction of this cost.' The technique divides the camera's pixels into groups that then are allowed to take part in the bigger picture very quickly in controlled succession during the time normally required to take a single ordinary photograph. For example, if 16 pixel patterns are used and then each of them are sequentially exposed for one-sixteenth of the time that the camera shutter remains open, then there will be 16 time points at which evenly distributed parts of the image will be captured by the different pixel groups. You would then have two choices; you could view all 16 groups together as a usual high-resolution still image or you could play the 16 sub-images one after the other to generate a high-speed film. 'What's new about this is that the picture and video are captured at the same time on the same sensor,' said Dr Bub. 'This is done by allowing the camera's pixels to act as if they were part of tens, or even hundreds of individual cameras taking pictures in rapid succession during a single normal exposure. The trick is that the pattern of pixel exposures keeps the high resolution content of the overall image, which can then be used as is, to form a regular hi-res picture, or be decoded into a high-speed movie.' The new technique may soon be on the market. Dr Mark Pitter from the University of Nottingham is working on compressing the technology into an all-in-one sensor that could be inserted into normal cameras. Dr Pitter said, 'The use of a custom-built solid state sensor will allow us to design compact and simple cameras, microscopes and other optical devices that further reduce the cost and effort needed for this exciting technique. This will make it useful for a far wider range of applications such as consumer cameras, security systems or manufacturing control.'
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