New camera captures speed of light

[jagman]

Very Kool technology!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=EtsXgODHMWk

[Ilie Pandia]

Something is not making sense here but I can't quite put my finger of it..

Firstly... I thought the photon was more a theoretical thing and less something that can be captured on a camera... If the photon hits the sensor (in order to cause the image on the sensor) then the photon is obviously not in the bottle...

Secondly... as far as I understand, it the image on the sensors forms because the sensor detects incoming photons(/energy/radiation).

So I am not exactly sure what that camera sees, but from the clip they run a laser through a bottle then rotate that mirror and some light appears to move inside the bottle...

Also capturing "the speed of light" also has "some relativistic issues"

Did anyone actually understand what is going on there?

[Unified Serenity]

It sounds really kewl, but I am not a physics geek. I hear what you are saying Ilie. I would have liked to see it demonstrated beyond showing basaically how it worked to seeing the photoes of photons stopped and seeing what that looks like. Maybe I just don't understand it really.

[DeDukshyn]

Something is not making sense here but I can't quite put my finger of it..

Firstly... I thought the photon was more a theoretical thing and less something that can be captured on a camera... If the photon hits the sensor (in order to cause the image on the sensor) then the photon is obviously not in the bottle...

Secondly... as far as I understand, it the image on the sensors forms because the sensor detects incoming photons(/energy/radiation).

So I am not exactly sure what that camera sees, but from the clip they run a laser through a bottle then rotate that mirror and some light appears to move inside the bottle...

Also capturing "the speed of light" also has "some relativistic issues"

Did anyone actually understand what is going on there?

I think I did, and you need to see in HD to see it.

A laser will send the light particles in a perfect linear movement from its source, this is important. The camera is not capturing the "speed" of light, but more accurately the "movement" or "direction" of light. In the HD video I could see that it appeared the light particles ended up being drawn out as "beams" on the objects. Not that exciting to me, but I think he was saying if we expand on this technology we will be able to see better how light travels through things and bounces off things - such as would be nice to know in developing ultra sound technology (like what he was saying). Not terribly exciting at present stage but (in my opinion), maybe if they keep going with it.

[ThePythonicCow]

Something is not making sense here but I can't quite put my finger of it..

Firstly... I thought the photon was more a theoretical thing and less something that can be captured on a camera... If the photon hits the sensor (in order to cause the image on the sensor) then the photon is obviously not in the bottle...
This article made more sense to me: http://sfluxe.com/2011/12/18/mit-lab-creates-camera-that-captures-speed-of-light-digital-journal/

Imagine you have a scene with an apple (as shown here (http://web.media.mit.edu/~raskar/trillionfps/)) and you light up the scene with a laser that turns on very quickly and sharply. Imagine you also happen to take a picture of that scene, a few femtoseconds after turning on the laser. The scene would appear to only be partially lit, because the (many) photons of light coming from your laser would not have reached the "dark side of the apple" yet. Now keep flashing that laser on and off, and keep taking pictures, each with a slightly different delay. Then compose the resulting images into an animated gif, and it looks like the light (not one photon, but the rush of many photons) is washing over the scene.

[jagman]

Something is not making sense here but I can't quite put my finger of it..

Firstly... I thought the photon was more a theoretical thing and less something that can be captured on a camera... If the photon hits the sensor (in order to cause the image on the sensor) then the photon is obviously not in the bottle...

Secondly... as far as I understand, it the image on the sensors forms because the sensor detects incoming photons(/energy/radiation).

So I am not exactly sure what that camera sees, but from the clip they run a laser through a bottle then rotate that mirror and some light appears to move inside the bottle...

Also capturing "the speed of light" also has "some relativistic issues"

Did anyone actually understand what is going on there?

Ilie I found this on Coast website. And i'm not sure of the back story on this
video. But science geeks like myself love this stuff. I hope its real.

[DeDukshyn]

The only downfall with this is that the photons that appear to move across the scene are not the same photons from moment to moment. This is why a laser is used, because the photons are all traveling very straight, therefore the photons that are viewable from one moment can be replaced by different photons in the next. It's a bit of a camera trick. You can see that this is true because you cannot see the photons "bounce" off of things, but you can see the result of the direction the light is traveling. If it were possible to see the actual physics of the photons as they bounced around the scene - that would be way cooler! But still, after getting a better grip on how this works, it is more cool than I was initially giving it credit for.

I do some hobby 3D work and when running some of the advanced lighting simulation tools, you can sort of see how the photons are bounced around the scene as the radiosity is being calculated. Light physics fascinates me. ;)

Thanks for the extra link Paul!