104 What are the Advantages of High-Speed-Imaging?

While it is possible to use standard video equipment to record and analyze motion, there are limitations to this technology:

The sampling rate of 30 frames per second (for standard NTSC video) is too slow for most motion problems. Many high-speed activities occur within 100 milliseconds, 1/10 of a second. With standard 30 fps video we are only able to capture one image every 33 milliseconds. In an event that occurs within 100 milliseconds, standard video would provide a user with approximately three frames of information. With a high-speed system recording at 1,000fps, the user would be able to view 100 frames of that same event.

A motion sequence recorded at 30 frames per second and slowed down by a factor of ten allows us to view it at 3 frames per second. The resulting image is very "jerky" and therefore extremely difficult to analyze with any accuracy or in meaningful detail. This is extremely important when a critical understanding of motion is crucial to your success. See our common application section for a further understanding of motion capture analysis.

Continue to High-Speed University 105 - Technical Definitions of High-Speed Imaging?