Applications
 

The human eye cannot see faster than 1/10 second. Even at 5 events per second, it is difficult to follow what is happening.

 

Slow motion/high-speed cameras can help you to:

  • Solve production problems -- many production lines run at less than optimum speed because of unsolved maintenance problems

  • Simplify adjustment and maintenance -- if you can see it, you will fix it sooner

  • Speed up production, reduce wastage, lower costs

Halve your wastage and you may save $ millions per year!

email: sales@slowmotion.com.au

 

The paragraphs below contain some application notes and example videos. Higher quality sample videos using more recent equipment can be found on this site under Sample Videos.

 

Manufacturing and Printing

High-speed digital cameras now provide for inexpensive troubleshooting of manufacturing machinery and printing processes. Our cameras permit quick, accurate diagnostics and adjustment of equipment, and are able to monitor intermittent trouble spots, continually storing recent images in a solid-state memory buffer. When an incident occurs, the unit can be stopped manually by an operator, or by an external trigger (contact closure or TTL). Automatic download software is also available

 

Video Clips - see also Sample Videos

Mining and Explosives

High-speed cameras can be mounted up to 2 kilometres back from a blast site or close in, enclosed in a safe housing, or can view an explosion through a sacrificial mirror. Detonator timings can be checked, as well as movement of the ore face, and the velocity of stemming ejections can be calculated.

 

Video Clips - see also Sample Videos

Sports

Athletes and coaches can perform detailed analysis of running style, kicking, throwing, bowling, golf swing, tennis strokes, tumble turns, et cetera. An image of the athlete’s style can be compared, side-by-side with that of an exemplary champion. For biomechanics research, camera images can be locked to simultaneous data input devices such as force plates.

 

Video Clips - see also Sample Videos

  • Swimming pool finish (MPEG1, file size 1.05 mb)

  • Golf bunker -- note how Sand Wedge passes below ball  (MPEG1, file size 295 kb)

  • Golf ball -- note incorrect club-to-ball contact (MPEG1, file size 44 kb)

  • Basket ball slam dunk (MPEG1, file size 684 kb)

  • Runner -- poor style causing lower back stress -- note unnatural "inline" placement of feet (MPEG1, file size 355 kb)

Research

Research can range from improving MIG welding or burning metals in several atmospheres of oxygen, to viewing the behaviour of blood corpuscles in an artificial heart pump; or studying the way crabs walk, or birds and insects fly. Many new areas of research open up when you can observe what is happening at high speeds. Displacement and velocity can be accurately measured, and it is also possible to observe what happens in the dark by using an infra-red strobe light.

 

Video Clips - see also Sample Videos

  • Retracting syringe -- note spillage of blood/serum mix with droplet falling from tip. Needle retracts in 6 milliseconds (MPEG1, file size 196 kb)

  • Human eye (lit by infra-red strobe) -- pupil responds to visible light; see reflection in eye of strobe and eye-light; note pupil "hunting" in the dark; reaction time can be calculated  (MPEG1, file size 173 kb)

Notes

Frame-rate versus shutter speed

 

Think of frame rate as the number of samples per second required to observe an action or process. We try to keep the frame rate as low as possible without compromising the observation. Blurring, on the other hand, is controlled by shutter speed. Again, we keep the shutter speed as slow as possible, but often have to shorten it because of image blurring.  A shutter speed of 1/1000 second is typical. Of course, shorter shutter speeds require more light. The golf examples to the right have shutter speeds of 1/2000 sec (above) and 1/16,000 sec (below).

 


Colour verses monochrome cameras


The typical PAL video camera exposes at 1/50 second, whereas the typical high-speed camera exposes at 1/1000 second or faster: thus sensitivity is a major issue for high-speed cameras. Colour cameras usually require 6 to 8 times more light than the equivalent monochrome camera, because the colour camera requires an infra-red exclusion filter behind the lens to balance image colour. Also, a colour AVI file is three times the size of the equivalent monochrome file.

Unless colour is essential to your analysis, a monochrome camera is usually recommended.