5 ms·

Camera made from 32k drinking straws takes pointillistic photographs

110 points by cdvonstinkpot 10y ago

theoh 10y ago
The article repeats the standard erroneous concept of "single point perspective", which it says is what a pinhole camera produces. "instead of producing an image from a single point perspective, as would a pinhole, its straw counterpart produces a multipoint perspective from an array." The traditional meaning of single point perspective is a drawing technique which uses a single vanishing point (rather than multiple vanishing points, one for each set of parallel lines in space). The technique of using straws will produce a parallel projection of some kind, depending on the design of the camera. It isn't a "multipoint perspective" just because it's a parallel projection. This is so basic.
dreamcompiler 10y ago
This is the way fiber optic lenses used to work: Take a bundle of a few thousand optical fibers and you have a flexible "lens" that can see around corners or into small holes. They're not used much any more because it's difficult to keep the bundle coherent on both ends, and tiny high-res TV cameras are dirt cheap now.
jacquesm 10y ago
Better link: http://strawcamera.com/cliff http://strawcamera.com/cliff
- ChuckMcM 10y ago
  Definitely the preferred link. I was trying to figure out if they were exposing film or not. One could imagine that you could build a photo transistor circuit into the end of every straw and make a digital camera version.
  - jacquesm 10y ago
    I realized it wasn't an article by anybody associated with or knowledgeable about the project when I saw the 22mm diameter straws mentioned when clearly they were much smaller than that. How about a scanning version? Couple two mirrors to speakers and hook up a photodiode to catch the reflected light. Though this is nicer in that it's all extremely simple materials and no 'high tech' involved. There's a certain charm in that.
    - ChuckMcM 10y ago
      I'm having a hard time visualizing how that would work. I presume this uses the long tubes as a way of isolating light from off axis "mixing" into the end result otherwise you would simply have 32K versions of the image. If you could uncover each straw individually then you could collect the light from that straw using a parabolic collector behind the 'exposer'. Using two sheets movable in the XY plane, one with a slot vertically and one with a slot horizontally you scan across the tubes individually. Those sheets would have to be nearly twice as wide and tall as the camera to allow full coverage though. Of course if you were going that route you could just attach a single straw to the XY movers and have it scan the scene.
      - jacquesm 10y ago
        > Of course if you were going that route you could just attach a single straw to the XY movers and have it scan the scene. That was what I was visualizing, the first mirror would have the straw attached. Making it rigid is quite a challenge.
averagewall 10y ago
It'd be great to see some photos with more depth. Not having perspective is going to make ordinary rectangular objects like walls and streets look weird. This would be like a zoom lens, except presumably all the pixels merge to a blur with greater distance.
xioxox 10y ago
Interesting. This is similar to how some X-ray and gamma ray detectors did work or work in astronomy. Because you can't focus with lenses, you use narrow tubes (collimators) to only gather the light from a certain region of the sky. Note that most x-ray telescopes use focusing Wolter optics nowadays, consisting of nested shells of reflective material. Collimating optics are also used to detect particles, I believe.
anotheryou 10y ago
mechanical version (single, moving straw): https://youtu.be/R4vjfVWVHGY?t=86 https://youtu.be/R4vjfVWVHGY?t=86
- vanderZwan 10y ago
  I was wondering if someone would post that work by Theo Jansen! The fun bit about these camera's is that if you make the straws tubes long enough, they have practically no perspective. With Jansen's paint machine, which is also 1:1 in scale, this once resulted in a group photoraph being photobombed by someone standing many, many meters behind the group but appearing on the photograph as if he's right next to everyone else.

110 points by cdvonstinkpot 10y ago

theoh 10y ago

The article repeats the standard erroneous concept of "single point perspective", which it says is what a pinhole camera produces. "instead of producing an image from a single point perspective, as would a pinhole, its straw counterpart produces a multipoint perspective from an array." The traditional meaning of single point perspective is a drawing technique which uses a single vanishing point (rather than multiple vanishing points, one for each set of parallel lines in space). The technique of using straws will produce a parallel projection of some kind, depending on the design of the camera. It isn't a "multipoint perspective" just because it's a parallel projection. This is so basic.

dreamcompiler 10y ago

This is the way fiber optic lenses used to work: Take a bundle of a few thousand optical fibers and you have a flexible "lens" that can see around corners or into small holes. They're not used much any more because it's difficult to keep the bundle coherent on both ends, and tiny high-res TV cameras are dirt cheap now.

jacquesm 10y ago

Better link: http://strawcamera.com/cliff http://strawcamera.com/cliff

ChuckMcM 10y ago
Definitely the preferred link. I was trying to figure out if they were exposing film or not. One could imagine that you could build a photo transistor circuit into the end of every straw and make a digital camera version.
- jacquesm 10y ago
  I realized it wasn't an article by anybody associated with or knowledgeable about the project when I saw the 22mm diameter straws mentioned when clearly they were much smaller than that. How about a scanning version? Couple two mirrors to speakers and hook up a photodiode to catch the reflected light. Though this is nicer in that it's all extremely simple materials and no 'high tech' involved. There's a certain charm in that.
  - ChuckMcM 10y ago
    I'm having a hard time visualizing how that would work. I presume this uses the long tubes as a way of isolating light from off axis "mixing" into the end result otherwise you would simply have 32K versions of the image. If you could uncover each straw individually then you could collect the light from that straw using a parabolic collector behind the 'exposer'. Using two sheets movable in the XY plane, one with a slot vertically and one with a slot horizontally you scan across the tubes individually. Those sheets would have to be nearly twice as wide and tall as the camera to allow full coverage though. Of course if you were going that route you could just attach a single straw to the XY movers and have it scan the scene.
    - jacquesm 10y ago
      > Of course if you were going that route you could just attach a single straw to the XY movers and have it scan the scene. That was what I was visualizing, the first mirror would have the straw attached. Making it rigid is quite a challenge.

averagewall 10y ago

It'd be great to see some photos with more depth. Not having perspective is going to make ordinary rectangular objects like walls and streets look weird. This would be like a zoom lens, except presumably all the pixels merge to a blur with greater distance.

xioxox 10y ago

Interesting. This is similar to how some X-ray and gamma ray detectors did work or work in astronomy. Because you can't focus with lenses, you use narrow tubes (collimators) to only gather the light from a certain region of the sky. Note that most x-ray telescopes use focusing Wolter optics nowadays, consisting of nested shells of reflective material. Collimating optics are also used to detect particles, I believe.

anotheryou 10y ago

mechanical version (single, moving straw): https://youtu.be/R4vjfVWVHGY?t=86 https://youtu.be/R4vjfVWVHGY?t=86

vanderZwan 10y ago
I was wondering if someone would post that work by Theo Jansen! The fun bit about these camera's is that if you make the straws tubes long enough, they have practically no perspective. With Jansen's paint machine, which is also 1:1 in scale, this once resulted in a group photoraph being photobombed by someone standing many, many meters behind the group but appearing on the photograph as if he's right next to everyone else.