Lab

Digital Chronophotography

Project developed by Heino Boekhout that experiments with digital chronophotography, recording several phases of movement into a single image using the open source programming software Processing and a webcam or a set of jpg images.

The duration of recording (or 'shutter time') can be endless when used in a dark or light setting, but is limited when it's used in a changing setting like outside. For instance the third image below is a light recording from 5:50 in the evening when it was dark until 07:50 in the next morning when the sun arose.

The digital chronophotograpy experiments make usage of the programming software Processing and a set of recorded images or live images from a (web)camera. The result contains either the light or dark movement from a fixed viewpoint.

Digital Chronophotography could be used as a generic tool for tracking movement like for instance sports, traffic and security. It would however be interesting if it would track movement in full color instead of only light and dark movement. Other improvements could include the calculation of an histogram, alpha adding, fading of pixels in a certain time, tolerance of colours and usage of tracking of a certain colour or set of colours.

10 minutes recording of dark movement (from 07:50am to 08:00am), view from Eikstraat 2, The Hague.
10 minutes recording of dark movement (from 07:50am to 08:00am), view from Eikstraat 2, The Hague.
6 hours recording of light movement (from 5:50pm to 11:50pm), view from Eikstraat 2, The Hague.
6 hours recording of light movement (from 5:50pm to 11:50pm), view from Eikstraat 2, The Hague.
14 hours recording of light movement (from 5:50pm to 07:50am), view from Eikstraat 2, The Hague.
14 hours recording of light movement (from 5:50pm to 07:50am), view from Eikstraat 2, The Hague.
A few seconds of light movement from videoframes of Sigur Rós' Heima trailer (© EMI Records Ltd)
A few seconds of light movement from videoframes of Sigur Rós' Heima trailer (© EMI Records Ltd)
A few seconds of dark movement from videoframes of the Running the Sahara trailer (© Independent Producers Alliance)
A few seconds of dark movement from videoframes of the Running the Sahara trailer (© Independent Producers Alliance)

More images can be found here.

Download source code

Download the Processing source code:

Instructions are written in the source.

History

In the 19th century the frenchman Étiene-Jules Marey developed the technique that resulted in chronophotography, an application of science (the study of movement) and art (photography). Chronophotography was the precursor to cinematography and was later used by photochronographers like Eadward Muybridge and Ottomar Anschütz.