Researchers working at the University of Washington have just developed a camera that captures an astonishing 100 billion frames per second, making it by and far the worlds fastest.
This camera is a huge breakthrough in the world of technology, as most receive only ultra-speed messaging techniques can only reach around 10 million frames per second. These techniques are also limited by electronic readout speed and on-chip storage. Economic Times reports that researchers at the University of Washington used a technique called compressed ultrafast photograph (CUP) to make movies of the images. This was done by utilizing single laser shots of four different elements; laser pulse reflection, refraction, faster-than light propagation of non-information, and photon racing in two media.
This fascinating technology (CUP) works by photographing an object with a specialty camera lens. This lens channels photons through a tube-like structure to a small apparatus known as a digital micro-mirror device (DMD). This device is no bigger than a dime, and hosts 1 million micro-mirrors. These mirrors encode the image before reflecting the photons to a beam splitter. The microbes are then converted into electrons, and sheared by two electrodes. This converts time to space before the electrodes apply a voltage that ramps from high to low, which ensures the electrons will arrive at different times and land on different vertical positions. Everything is then stored on a charge-coupled device (CCD). This amazing process occurs in just 5 nanoseconds, and helps create a device that could be instrumental in the future of technology.
Researchers hope that the camera will one day help high-powered microscopes and telescopes better capture the world. However, the device also has many current applications as well. One of these is in the world of biomedicine due to its ability to detect diseases as well as reflect cellular environmental conditions like oxygen pressure. In addition, scientists have also postulated on using the camera to help astronomers track different celestial bodies. Not only that, but it could also advance forensics research by being able to more accurately reproduce bullet pathways.
