Embedded Linux On a High Speed Camera

destructor writes: "Linuxdevices has an interesting article on a High Speed Gated Intensified Camera that "combines a fast gated micro-channel plate (MCP) image intensifier, a CMOS image sensor, and an embedded computer based on an Axis Communications ETRAX RISC processor running Embedded Linux." The camera (Elphel Model 303) itself is network operable and can be used for capturing images of explosions, lightning bolts, etc. Link found via. megarad.com."

Comments

Too limited!

[QuickFox]

The camera [...] can be used for capturing images of explosions, lightning bolts, etc.

Wouldn't it be better to make a camera that can be used for ordinary pictures?

Give a man a fish and he eats for one day. Teach him how to fish, and though he'll eat for a lifetime, he'll call you a miser for not giving him your fish.

Blinded Me with Science

[Alien54]

As usual, Linux/unix/*nix/etc are found where important research are found. This is very encouraging for the future.

Just for the educational point:

What is a "gated intensified camera"?

This term refers to a class of ultra-fast cameras, with exposure times in the nanosecond range. "Intensified" comes from image intensifiers -- vacuum tubes similar to those for the nigh-vision devices. "Gated" means those tubes (in contrast to night-vision applications) are used as shutters by applying fast electrical pulses to the control electrodes.

The neat thing is that the camera is operating as a webserver:

I have always disliked trying to find out why my company's systems were not working our customers' sites -- had my hardware really failed, or had they just updated some (seemingly unrelated) software on their computers which were running a popular OS? - - - This last issue unambiguously told me the camera should run a web server. Internet technologies are the best de-facto "common denominator" for the different computers and operating systems.

The world's fastest webcam! amazing! ;-)

Re:pr0n?

[servasius_jr]

What precise effect will this play on the online pr0n industry?

That depends on how many people are turned on by explosions and lightning bolts.

High Speed Photography

[oldzoot]

High speed photography is a usefull tool for studying physical phenomena. If using a linux system lowers the cost and increases the availability of a usefull tool, that is a good thing. There are already lots of digital cameras which can take "ordinary" photographs, and there is increasing linux support for those also ( gphoto and gimp for example ). I think that any time an open source tool makes a genuine contribution to society, science or the advancement of ducks, it is a good thing. One concern however is that high speed cameras were initially developed in support of the development of nuclear weapons. Will this tool enhance the proliferation of such devices ?

I worry.

[xxSOUL_EATERxx]

This camera is unquestionably an exciting use of embedded Linux. Few things rival the coolness factor of a panoramic lightning storm color photo spread. But I worry.

...what's next?

I think back to the film Real Genius probably the high point of Val Kilmer's acting career. In the film, the character of Hollyfield, a madman who lives in a closet, is described as "a gifted scientist, until he found out the government was using one of his inventions to kill people " (emphasis mine).

With that thought, the chilling possibility arises: if Linux can be used for good, like in cameras, how long before it is used for evil? How will Slashdot report on the first embedded-linux-using guided atomic bomb?This is something the needs to be seriously considered now. The Linux community cannot afford to wait until embedded Linux is used in torture devices by some fascist regime before confronting the possibilities of using Linux for evil.

A "Linux Bill of Rights" should be drawn up, roundly condemning the use of Linux for destructive, sexist, racist, or environmentally degrading practices. So much progress has been made through Linux. This great OS, the product of strong, free geeks, must not be allowed to become a tool for evil. The voices of the Linux community must be heard: rememer the lesson of Real Genius!

Cool. See through haze, silt

[AJWM]

Neat. In addition to the obvious high-speed photography applications, a system like this coupled with a similarly short duration flash system could make a vision system capable of seeing through some kinds of particle clouds. Might be more applicable underwater, where the particles are bigger.

Basically, the problem in low-visibility situations like that is that the particles near you scatter so much of your light back at you that you can't see the stuff further away. If you send out a 10 ns pulse of light and don't open the shutter until it has had time to go out some distance (say 100 ns for 100 feet, divided by whatever the refractive index of water is), then you only see the light that has bounced off whatever is 100 feet away (well, mod multiple reflections from silt particles).

Won't work in really thick clouds, of course, but it has possibilities. (Consider, for example, driving in a snowstorm at night -- you don't need or want the snow immediately in front of the headlights lit up.)