Meet the “motion microscope,” a video-processing tool that plays up tiny changes in motion and color impossible to see with the naked eye. Video researcher Michael Rubinstein plays us clip after jaw-dropping clip showing how this tech can track an individual’s pulse and heartbeat simply from a piece of footage. Watch him re-create a conversation by amplifying the movements from sound waves bouncing off a bag of chips. The wow-inspiring and sinister applications of this tech you have to see to believe.
«A menudo, la gente entiende la toma de una foto como la captura de un instante, pero la fotografía convencional se muestra incapaz de hacerlo. Sólo preserva uno de sus ángulos, enfoques o perspectivas luminosas. Si eres fotógrafo profesional, tal vez seas capaz de capturar las mejores partes de ese momento. Si eres como yo, probablemente no.«
Lytro Camera
Habla Ben Horowitz, inversor de una de las start-ups tecnológicas más prometedoras que haya engendrado Silicon Valley. Nada más saber sobre ella tuve la imperiosa necesidad de darla a conocer, de compartir lo que pudiese suponer una auténtica revolución en el ámbito de la fotografía amateur.
Lytro (la compañía en cuestión) se encuentra desarrollando una nueva tipología de cámara capaz de captar más de un plano luminoso. Un sólo disparo, desde un sólo dispositivo, nos permite capturar todo el campo de luz en torno a la escena fotografiada. Todo destello, sea cual sea su dirección o ubicación, queda reflejado en la imagen resultante.
La utilidad que pueda tener tal avance, por el que se lleva investigando desde mediados de los 90 en la Universidad de Standford (que dispuso 100 cámaras en una habitación para conseguir lo que Lytro con la suya) os quedará a las claras en cuanto jugueteéis un instante con la siguiente fotografía:
Watching a particularly beautiful movie of the sun helps show how the lines between science and art can sometimes blur. But there is more to the connection between the two disciplines: science and art techniques are often quite similar, indeed one may inform the other or be improved based on lessons from the other arena. One such case is a technique known as a «gradient filter» — recognizable to many people as an option available on a photo-editing program. Gradients are, in fact, a mathematical description that highlights the places of greatest physical change in space.
A gradient filter, in turn, enhances places of contrast, making them all the more obviously different, a useful tool when adjusting photos. Scientists, too, use gradient filters to enhance contrast, using them to accentuate fine structures that might otherwise be lost in the background noise. On the sun, for example, scientists wish to study a phenomenon known as coronal loops, which are giant arcs of solar material constrained to travel along that particular path by the magnetic fields in the sun’s atmosphere. Observations of the loops, which can be more or less tangled and complex during different phases of the sun’s 11-year activity cycle, can help researchers understand what’s happening with the sun’s complex magnetic fields, fields that can also power great eruptions on the sun such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections.
The images here show an unfiltered image from the sun next to one that has been processed using a gradient filter. Note how the coronal loops are sharp and defined, making them all the more easy to study. On the other hand, gradients also make great art. Watch the movie to see how the sharp loops on the sun next to the more fuzzy areas in the lower solar atmosphere provide a dazzling show.
This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?11112
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