Laser pulse shooting through a bottle and visualized at a trillion frames per second

We have built an imaging solution that allows us to visualize propagation of light at an effective rate of one trillion frames per second. Direct recording of light at such a frame rate with sufficient brightness is nearly impossible. We use an indirect 'stroboscopic' method that combines millions of repeated measurements by careful scanning in time and viewpoints.

The device has been developed by the MIT Media Lab's Camera Culture group in collaboration with Bawendi Lab in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. A laser pulse that lasts less than one trillionth of a second is used as a flash and the light returning from the scene is collected by a camera at a rate equivalent to roughly 1 trillion frames per second. However, due to very short exposure times (roughly one trillionth of a second) and a narrow field of view of the camera, the video is captured over several minutes by repeated and periodic sampling.

For more info visit http://raskar.info/trillionfps
http://femtophoto.info
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/science/speed-of-light-lingers-in-face-of-m...
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/trillion-fps-camera-1213.html

Music: "Rising" by Kevin MacLeod (http://music.incompetech.com/royaltyfree2/Rising.mp3)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Raskar
• Velten
• Camera Culture
• Looking around corners
• Femto Photography

[chodaboy51500]

@patchinko69 I hope you are intentionally being moronic. But just in case...

These are not second long samples, they are about a nano second, which is how long it takes light to travel about a foot (see how that works?). So divide your numbers by one billion (the number of nanoseconds in one second) and that is how much data is actually required.

If they were a full second then you'd be watching the light travel to the moon, and the full video would take about 40 years to watch.

[starofcctv94]

I want to see light going through a prism!

[muffin8or]

@TheAlebandro

It's a very short laser beam. When you 'see' the beam of light you are seeing the light reflected off particles in the air. So a very short beam of light is fired through the bottle, is reflected off particles, and refracts a bit through the bottle creating a lovely light show. :)

[LeoMRogers]

@TheAlebandro by the time the light hits the camera, the pulse will have moved on through the bottle, but this won't affect the image the camera sees, it just means the camera is recording it a fraction of a second after it happened.

[LeoMRogers]

@AlexSrspb I think what you are describing is due to the changning shape of the bottle. But if it isnt that, then i have no idea.

[AlexSrspb]

@LeoMRogers Look closely at 45 seconds. How can the light to pass different distances: from the middle of the bottle to the bottom of it; (reflection from the bottom) and from the middle of the bottle: (reflection from the water) and then sync to get into the lens of the camera?

The light (beam) moves from left to right. This is a short pulse. This is not a continuous emission of light, means - reflection beam can not be "longer" than the pulse beam.

(Sorry for my english)

[TheAlebandro]

I don't really understand how this works. To see the "ball" of light moving, doesn't that light have to travel into the bottle, and then be scattered, and travel all the way to the camera? Since the camera is farther away than the length of the bottle, how does this work?

[LordDevilman666]

wow. that is just so cool Einstein would have a hard on...... wow LIGHT MOVING

[LordDevilman666]

i really don't think anyone really understands what this video is. wow i waited my whole life to see this. i allways wondered what light really looked like. and here it is. all i can say is wow .. please watch. its amazing

[PerfectChaosZeta]

@enablado Naw dude, you aren't reading the description right. It's a trillion FPS, but filmed a whole bunch of times times, then using measurement software and what not they take frames from the many, many recordings made at 1 trill fps and compile it into a 60 (or less) FPS video that's 3 minutes long.

[TunioMir]

why are the colours so off?

[LeoMRogers]

@AlexSrspb if i understand your question, i think its that as the light is scattered by the water (the only reason it is visible from the side) some of it is reflected off the side of the bottle. Either that or something to do with the way the light hits the camera lens.