Researchers have developed the world’s fastest camera. It can film five trillion images per second. That is, it can capture events as brief as 0.2 trillionths of a second.

This will therefore be of great use in capturing extremely rapid processes in physics, chemistry, biomedicine and biology that have not been photographed so far. For example, processes like turbulent combustion, explosions, chemical reactions, plasma flashes, and brain activity in animals.

Today’s high-speed cameras capture images sequentially one by one. The innovative algorithm used in the new technology allows capturing many coded images in a single picture. Then it arranges them into a video sequence.

The technology is called as Frequency Recognition Algorithm for Multiple Exposures (FRAME). Unlike flash cameras which use regular light, the new camera uses "coded" light flashes, as a form of encryption.

Each time when a coded light flash falls on the object, an image signal (response) is emitted by the object with the same exact coding. All the following light flashes will have different codes, and the image signals get captured in one single picture. Subsequently, these coded image signals are separated on the computer using an encryption key.

Content: www.sciencedaily.com