MIT creates a dustbin-sized camera - Capturing Speed of Light

London, Dec 19 (ANI): A super-fast camera, which is the size of a dustbin, is capable of capturing the speed of light, a new study including Indian origin researcher has revealed.

The camera can show a bullet-shaped pulse of light travelling from one end of a laboratory flask to another in a fraction of a second but Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said that it would take some time for the camera to be commercially available.

Researchers at MIT's 'blue-sky science' think tank envisage that super-fast photography could benefit mankind within 10 years and could even lead to hand-held medical scanners being used in hospitals.

"With our ultra-fast imaging we can actually analyse how the photons are travelling through the world," the Daily Mail quoted Ramesh Raskar, associate professor of media arts at the MIT Media Lab as telling The Sunday Times.

The camera, which captures images at one trillion exposes per second, can also produce 3D images, as it is competent of 'seeing' photons of light even inside objects.

The device was created by adapting a 'streaker tube' - used by chemists to scan and capture light. It can record the progress of light pulses through a flask of liquid.

"Watching this it looks like light in slow motion. It is so slow you can see the light itself move across the distance."

"This is the speed of light captured: there is nothing in the universe that moves faster, so we are at the physical limit of high-speed photography," Raskar added. (ANI)