High-speed digital video tracking system for generic applications

The value of high-speed imaging for making subjective assessments is widely recognized, but the inability to acquire useful data from image sequences in a timely fashion has severely limited the use of the technology. 4DVideo has created a foundation for a generic instrument that can capture kinematic data from high-speed images. The new system has been designed to acquire (1) two-dimensional trajectories of points; (2) three-dimensional kinematics of structures or linked rigid-bodies; and (3) morphological reconstructions of boundaries. The system has been designed to work with an unlimited number of cameras configured as nodes in a network, with each camera able to acquire images at 1000 frames per second (fps) or better, with a spatial resolution of 512 X 512 or better, and an 8-bit gray scale. However, less demanding configurations are anticipated. The critical technology is contained in the custom hardware that services the cameras. This hardware optimizes the amount of information stored, and maximizes the available bandwidth. The system identifies targets using an algorithm implemented in hardware. When complete, the system software will provide all of the functionality required to capture and process video data from multiple perspectives. Thereafter it will extract, edit and analyze the motions of finite targets and boundaries.