How One Photographer Is Hacking the Concept of Time

An anonymous reader writes "Hungarian photographer Adam Magyar doesn't work like most artists. He takes the world's most sophisticated photographic equipment, then hacks it with software he writes himself — all in order to twist our perception of time inside out. In this latest story from the digital publisher MATTER, Joshua Hammer discovers how Magyar's unique combination of technology and art challenges the way we understand the world. At one point, Magyar realized he needed a 'slit-scan' camera, 'the type used to determine photo finishes at racetracks and at Olympic sporting events by capturing a time sequence in one image. Such cameras were rare and cost many thousands of dollars, so Magyar set out to build one himself. He joined a medium-format camera lens to another sensor and wrote his own software for the new device. Total cost: $50. He inverted the traditional scanning method, where the sensor moves across a stationary object. This time, the sensor would remain still while the scanned objects were in motion, being photographed one consecutive pixel-wide strip at a time. (This is the basic principle of the photo-finish camera.) Magyar mounted the device on a tripod in a busy Shanghai neighborhood and scanned pedestrians as they passed in front of the sensor. He then digitally combined over 100,000 sequential strips into high-resolution photographs.' There are pictures and videos interspersed throughout the article."

He's Hungarian and his last name is Magyar?

[Anonymous Coward]

So his last name is "Hungary" in Hungarian? What an amazing coincidence! Like Lou Gehrig .. what are the odds that he got the disease named "Lou Gehrig's Disease"!

(I got nothing)

Re:$50...if your time is worth nothing

[Cryacin]

I'm glad he gets out more than the stereotypical slashdot developer. I would imagine that a series of slit scan camera shots of a basement and the action in there would be quite boring.

Re:Where the fun in that?

[gstoddart]

Damn all those days drooling over parts and tools at Radio Shack.

Funny, my experience with Radio Shack was more in the category of 'drooling tools that can't find the parts' -- they really went downhill for the last bunch of years, until ultimately becoming the "cheap-ass electronics and toys store".

Re:$50...if your time is worth nothing

[icebike]

So if I buy a bicycle instead of that Bugatti Veyron I've been lusting for, it means I have a tax problem because of that $1,700,000 profit, (minus the cost of the bicycle)?

Brilliant!
All the government's budget deficit problems were nothing but an accounting error!

Re:$50...if your time is worth nothing

[narcc]

If you spend $50 and gain something equivalent to a $5000 camera, then you have essentially created a $4500 profit.

Math. How does it work?