Researchers at TAU design tech to capture images of subjects in motion

Tel Aviv University representatives developed the image processing algorithms and completely designed the optical elements to create the new innovation.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
journalist photographer holding a camera (photo credit: PIXNIO)
journalist photographer holding a camera
(photo credit: PIXNIO)
Researchers at Tel Aviv University developed a process to photograph objects in motion, rendering clear, sharp images of the subject in focus without motion blur, the university announced on Tuesday.
"The term 'long exposure' always refers to the velocity of the photographed object", explains engineering PhD candidate Shay Elmalem, who led the research. "If you photograph a racing car, even an exposure of a tenth of a second could be too long, and if you're photographing a person walking, long exposure could be a second or longer.
"According to the conventional camera design approach, the lens is designed to produce the best possible image, i.e., the most similar to what the human eye sees, and thereafter digital image processing algorithms are applied to remove the optical distortions," Elmalem added. "However, as anyone with a camera in their phone knows, this isn't always effective; hence, it is still very difficult to photograph moving objects."
Elmalem and his colleagues developed the image processing algorithms and completely designed the optical elements to create the new innovation.
The tech accounts for the motion blur and encoded information cues within the raw image, which is then decoded using the algorithm to render a clear, sharp image. It also works off technology to restore the images colors, considering when an object moves all of the colors blend together, and actually correctly places the colors in place to render the image to look like a snapshot in time.
"In every split second of exposure, our lens generates a bit different image", Elmalem added. "Thus, the blur of a moving object will not be uniform, but rather change gradually with its movement."
"In order to understand where and how fast the object in the image is going, we use color. Thus, for example, a white ball suddenly thrown into the frame will be colored with different colors over the course of its movement, like passing light through a prism," Elmalem added. "According to these colors, our algorithm knows where the ball has been thrown from and at what velocity.
"It will thus know how to correct the blur. With a regular camera we'd see a white wake that would compromise the sharpness of the whole picture, whereas with our camera the final image will be a clear focused white ball."


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