MIT researchers have devised a new system for photographers, one that give them the perfect lighting for every photo, every time. And by system, I mean MIT has created a fleet of drones that, controlled by a central computer, automatically provide the perfect lighting.
The new drone system will be displayed in August, during the International Symposium on Computational Aesthetics in Graphics, Visualization and Imaging (wow, that's a title ). The fleet of lighting drones uses one single UAV, lightweight, in order to produce an effect called “rim lighting,” which makes one edge of the subject particularly well-lit.
Using their drone fleet, a photographer can set exactly how wide they want the lit border on the subject. The drone will then swing around to the appropriate place and angle that will produce that specific effect with its light. The drones can also adjust their position in real-time, in case their subject moves or something shifts, an ability that requires them to have a very, very delicate sensitivity to light.
The fleet can also move in response to the photographer’s movements. According to Manohar Srikanth, co-designer of the system, the drones provide their controlling computer with a sample image 20 times every second, which helps it update its position. Rather than being stored, these sample pictures bypass the camera’s memory card and are simply streamed to the computer.
While we’ll have to see what happens when the drones are displayed, future versions of the fleet could use a huge amount of individual drones, all working together to create more and more complex lighting effects. As the drones don’t require manual set-up or break-down each time the photographer wants to produce a new effect, this would drastically cut down the amount of time—and cost—it takes for professional photo shoots.
Source TechCrunch
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