problem with Femto camera as evidence

[trevorjohnson83]

After disappointment finding out the way they film light moving CANNOT provide evidence either way of the aether because of the way the images are one pixel at a time and reconstructed, I set off to invent my own high speed camera from some loose ideas I had before.

could light coming through a pixelated solar panel like screen be used in conjunction with a gate that has different settings to record at high speeds?

can you restate in simple terms how this high speed camera might work?

ChatGPT said:​

Here’s a simple, plain-language version of the idea you’re brainstorming — no jargon, no complex optics:

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SIMPLE EXPLANATION​

How a super–high-speed camera could work using a pixelated screen + a fast gate​

Think of it in three steps:

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1. The pixel screen acts like millions of tiny “buckets”​

Imagine a solar-panel-like grid with millions of tiny squares.

Each square is like a bucket that catches a bit of light.

But instead of making electricity like a real solar panel, each square simply detects when light hits it.

So you have:

• Many buckets
• All spread across a big surface
• Each capable of detecting light separately

This gives you a full “image” instantly — without scanning.

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2. The ultra-fast gate decides WHEN each bucket is allowed to catch light​

Now imagine you put a gate in front of the whole grid.

This gate can:

• Open very briefly
• Then close again
• Then open again at a different time
• All in tiny, tiny time slices (trillionths of a second)

Each time the gate opens, the buckets collect light only from that instant.

So each “gate opening” becomes a frame.

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3. Put all the frames together → you get a movie of incredibly fast events​

Because:

• All pixels see the scene at once
• The gate lets them see for only a tiny instant
• You repeat this many times
• Each opening is a frame
• You stack the frames → a movie

This would let you “film” things that happen extremely fast, like:

• A light pulse moving through space
• Laser beams in different arms of an interferometer
• Shock waves
• Electrical sparks

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SUPER SIMPLE SUMMARY​

✔ A pixel grid = many tiny light detectors​

✔ A gate = opens for an extremely short moment​

✔ Each open moment = one frame​

✔ Stack frames together = ultra-slow-motion video​

This avoids the big flaw of the AlphaPhoenix camera you saw:
No scanning. Everything is captured at once.

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OPTIONAL ENHANCEMENT (still simple)​

To get even higher speeds:

• You could change the gate timing slightly each time
• So frame 1 sees the start of the event
• Frame 2 sees a tiny bit later
• Frame 3 sees the next tiny bit
• Etc.

Over many repeated shots, you build a full timeline.

This is already how many real ultrafast cameras work — but your idea adds the pixelated panel approach.

 

[trevorjohnson83]

I understand the bucket concept I think, but am unclear on the gate idea, are you using vibrations from quartz to slice the bucket strength into binary?

ChatGPT said:​

Great question — and no, the gate idea does not need to use quartz vibrations or convert anything into binary. Let me explain it in simple terms so it clicks.

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​

Think of the gate like a shutter in front of the buckets (pixels).

• When the gate is open, the buckets can “catch” light.
• When the gate is closed, the buckets cannot catch light.

That’s it.

It’s like a camera shutter that opens for an extremely tiny moment.

---

​

What makes this gate different from a normal shutter is:

✔ It opens and closes​

Faster than any mechanical part could move.
We’re talking time slices like:

• picoseconds (10⁻¹² sec)
• or femtoseconds (10⁻¹⁵ sec)

That’s a million-million times faster than you can blink.

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How do you make a gate that fast?​

There are two main options, and neither involve quartz crystals:

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OPTION 1 — Electric-field gate (Pockels cell / Kerr cell)​

This is the simplest to understand:

• Light passes through a special crystal.
• When you apply an electric pulse, the crystal becomes transparent.
• When you stop the pulse, the crystal becomes opaque.

So the electric pulse is the gate.

This can switch billions or trillions of times per second.

✔ No mechanical parts
✔ No quartz
✔ Just light + electricity

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OPTION 2 — Laser-based gate (light only)​

This one is elegant:

• A second laser beam is crossed with the light you're trying to film.
• The second beam temporarily changes the material (for a femtosecond).
• During that tiny moment, your camera becomes “open”.

So a laser pulse is the gate.

This is how many ultrafast cameras work.

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​

Very simple:

It controls​

Nothing binary.
No digital 0/1.
No quartz vibration slicing.

Just:

• Open: buckets collect light for a tiny sliver of time
• Closed: buckets collect nothing

Each tiny opening is like a single frame.

You do this many times → you get a video.

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​

To “see” a beam of light move, you need time slices around:

• 1–10 femtoseconds

That’s why you need a gate that fast.
You’re trying to watch something that crosses a room in a billionth of a second.

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​

Imagine:

• You have a big field with millions of buckets (the pixel screen)
• It’s raining VERY fast droplets (photons)
• You want to know where the rain is at exact moments

So you drop a tarp over the field.
Every millisecond, you lift the tarp for ONE tiny moment.

Each lift lets a few raindrops fall into each bucket.
Do this many times → you get maps of the rain at different times.

That’s exactly how ultrafast imaging works.

 

[scruffy]

Hi Trevor, you can state this problem in an easier way, and when you do you can see that it's insurmountable, because it bumps into the uncertainty principle.

Imagine that you have a continuous recorder, like a tape or an EEG. Then we can sample from this record at any frequency we want ("after the fact", we can treat it like a stock ticker or any other time series). In theory the highest frequency we're interested in is the speed of light - but unfortunately the Nyquist theorem says we can only get to half of that.

(Being careful to distinguish "sampling frequency" from the frequency of the light itself).

To see an "aether" you'd have to sample at "at least" twice the frequency of the speed of light.

Given the distances involved, this looks easier at the cosmological scale than at the microscopic or everyday scale.

 

[trevorjohnson83]

Hi Trevor, you can state this problem in an easier way, and when you do you can see that it's insurmountable, because it bumps into the uncertainty principle.

Imagine that you have a continuous recorder, like a tape or an EEG. Then we can sample from this record at any frequency we want ("after the fact", we can treat it like a stock ticker or any other time series). In theory the highest frequency we're interested in is the speed of light - but unfortunately the Nyquist theorem says we can only get to half of that.

(Being careful to distinguish "sampling frequency" from the frequency of the light itself).

To see an "aether" you'd have to sample at "at least" twice the frequency of the speed of light.

Given the distances involved, this looks easier at the cosmological scale than at the microscopic or everyday scale.

Scruff I'm sure that made sense to you but I had to check with AI and AI says you were blowing hot air.

 

[scruffy]

Scruff I'm sure that made sense to you but I had to check with AI and AI says you were blowing hot air.

AI isn't the smartest sometimes.

It's easy to prove.

Look at it a different way. What is a photon? It's a quantum entity, yes?

Things like position and velocity are thus quantum "measurements" subject to Heisenberg's law dx*dp >= h / 4π

h is Planck's constant.

Since a photon is massless we use E = hf and you can do the algebra yourself, there is an upper bound to the precision with which we can "see" things traveling at the speed of light. (A corollary is, even a highly coherent laser will eventually diffuse).

The converse is also true. All kinds of mystical magical things happen at the speed of light. If you're traveling at the speed of light you see thermal activity in the vacuum that isn't present in stationary frames (or at least they don't see it). A photon can bump into things that literally aren't even there.

I don't understand why you're looking for an aether. You already have one. More than one. They're called fields. They're like gigantic membranes stretched across all of space and time. They relate to each other through symmetries.