Visualizing video at the speed of light — one trillion frames per second on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2011–2025.
demo · evergreen
MIT Media Lab shows an imaging system capturing a trillion frames per second, fast enough to film light pulses travelling through objects in slow motion.
HN cites it as the original and still-wow reference whenever newer ultra-high-speed light imaging comes up.
“I think you are gonna love this”
9 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
Since you are finding about femto-photo today, I think you are gonna love this: [link] ▶ this video By the way. Femto laser are somewhat common nowadays. They are used in eye surgery and microscopy. I even seem papers talking about using them in finger print scanners! See Optical coherence tomography for more info.
in “Exporting Data from Old Gear Through LCD Sniffing” · View on HN
The original MIT video from 2011: "Visualizing video at the speed of light — one trillion frames per second" ▶ this video (project site: [link] ) He mentions this as the inspiration in his previous video ( [link] ).
in “A laser pointer at 2B FPS [video]” · View on HN
"Visualizing video at the speed of light — one trillion frames per second" (2011; MIT) ▶ this video "Single-shot real-time femtosecond imaging of temporal focusing" (2018) [link] "Filming the Speed of Light at 10 Trillion FPS" (2019; The Slow Mo Guys) [link]
in “Man Builds Two Billion FPS Camera That Records at the Speed of Light” · View on HN
It's an apples-to-oranges comparison, but I'm reminded of the ~10^12 fps (1.7 ps exposures) demonstrated in work at MIT[0], which was for a completely different application. [0] [link] EDIT: Video with explanation. ▶ this video
in “Los Alamos is capturing images of explosions at 7 millionths of a second” · View on HN
Photons certainly appear to have a real physical location with 1e9 FPS imaging capabilities: "Visualizing video at the speed of light — one trillion frames per second" (2012) ▶ this video But is there an identity function for a photon(s), and is "time-polarization" necessary for defining an identity function for photons?
in “'Strange metals' point to a whole new way to understand electricity” · View on HN
For those curious, here is prior art from 12 years ago, capturing light in a coke bottle with a single streak camera. ▶ this video [link] I remember when this dropped and where I was when I watched it and read the paper. One of the coolest things I'd ever seen. This seems like a great extension of the work. I'm okay with trading accuracy for crude usefulness as a model. Making this interactive and putting it in the hands of curious minds is the next step.
in “U of T computational imaging researchers harness AI to fly with light in motion” · View on HN
> There's zero purpose for having a bottle with any label. Light interacts quite differently with the label than the material of the bottle. We get to observe scattering, diffusion, color... y'know, science stuff. It is rather interesting that the first video (from 12 years ago) used a blank red label instead. (See how it differs in from the rest of the bottle? I particularly like how it obscures the pulse itself and highlights the wavefront on the surface.) ▶ this video
in “U of T computational imaging researchers harness AI to fly with light in motion” · View on HN
It's quite realistic, here's the same thing without AI: ▶ this video I still share your concern, however, particularly because they seem to be avoid moving the camera without time moving as well. I was expecting bullet-time!
in “U of T computational imaging researchers harness AI to fly with light in motion” · View on HN
The relevant video from MIT Media Lab is here: ▶ this video > MIT researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion exposures per second. That's fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of light traveling through objects. > [link]
in “Trillion-frame-per-second video” · View on HN