Quick as a bullet

Roberto Saracco December 9, 2014 Blog 158 Views

A Kickstarter project is seeking funding to create the fastest camera flash, able to create a light flash of just 2 millionth of a second. A speed that makes it possible to freeze a bullet in the photo, see the photo taken with this system.
The project is developed by Vela Labs and is using LEDs as illuminator. A prototype version is available, and it has been used to take the photo shown here.
Of course what you also need is a very fast trigger, that works in the microseconds rather than milliseconds as we are used today. And Vela Labs is providing that too, at a cost of 2$ (whilst the flash is likely to be offered at a cost comparable to the one of a good digital camera flash, in the order of 400$).
Notice that the trigger is for the flash, not for the shutter! At this level of speeds you cannot think of activating a the shutter. What you do is to open the shutter and then use the flash to illuminate the sensor with the object reflected light. And this, in turns, require that you take the photo in an ambient that is completely dark so that no light, but the one produced by the flash, can hit the sensor.

About Roberto Saracco

Roberto Saracco fell in love with technology and its implications long time ago. His background is in math and computer science. Until April 2017 he led the EIT Digital Italian Node and then was head of the Industrial Doctoral School of EIT Digital up to September 2018. Previously, up to December 2011 he was the Director of the Telecom Italia Future Centre in Venice, looking at the interplay of technology evolution, economics and society. At the turn of the century he led a World Bank-Infodev project to stimulate entrepreneurship in Latin America. He is a senior member of IEEE where he leads the New Initiative Committee and co-chairs the Digital Reality Initiative. He is a member of the IEEE in 2050 Ad Hoc Committee. He teaches a Master course on Technology Forecasting and Market impact at the University of Trento. He has published over 100 papers in journals and magazines and 14 books.

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