102 What is High-Speed Imaging?

High-Speed Imaging is a tool that can help you understand your unique motion analysis applications. Whether your work involves product design, research, machinery maintenance / preventive maintenance, or biomechanics; High-Speed Imaging equipment can become one of the most important tools at your disposal. The world moves much too quickly to catch it all with our own eyes. That is why High-Speed Imaging plays such an important role in machine development, product line speed-up, trouble-shooting / maintenance, equipment set-up, and changeovers.

High-Speed Imaging is simply the technique of recording an event at a high frame rate and playing the acquired images back at a much slower rate. Thus slowing down the event so you can better observe what is actually going on.

If we use High-Speed Camera and Vdieo Imaging equipment instead of standard video equipment to capture motion sequences at hundreds or thousands of frames per second, we can see the detail that occurs within that high-speed event. At 500 frames per second, we get nearly 17 images for every one that would be captured by standard (30 fps) video. And at 3,000 frames per second, we have 100 images for each standard video frame. With High-Speed Imaging, we are able to view important high-speed camera applications in a manner that allows for a meaningful analysis of that high-speed event. And if we capture a motion sequence at 500 fps and view it at 30 fps, we see a smooth, continuous motion. High-Speed Imaging offers a better understanding of the actual motion we are studying. With High-Speed Imaging, problems and complex high-speed imaging applications can now be seen and ultimately solved.

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