> temp > à-trier > hypercentric-optics-a-camera-lens-that-can-see-behind-objects-applied-science

Hypercentric optics: A camera lens that can see behind objects

Applied Science - 2020-04-29

Telecentric and hypercentric optics are very different from our eyes or normal camera lenses.  They have "negative" perspective or no perspective, respectively, leading to very unusual images.  In this video I show how to use a common fresnel lens in the creation of your own telecentric optical system.

Fresnel lens, 300mm dia.  200mm FL is sold out... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071ZQL9YZ/

$5 projection lens on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Delta-108-Projection-Lens-from-U-S-Precision-Lens-inc/264605738684

Good practical discussion of telecentric optics: https://www.lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/scenario/labman3/telecen.htm
https://www.mii.cz/art?id=626&lang=409&style=4

Idea to use macro tubes for telecentric conversion of normal lenses came from here: http://www.4photos.de/camera-diy/Telecentric-Lens.html

In-depth info on telecentric lenses: https://schneiderkreuznach.com/application/files/9715/0781/8897/optical-measurement.pdf

Commercial hypercentric and telecentric lens maker: https://lw4u.com/

Paper on making telecentric lenses with fresnel front elements: https://sci-hub.tw/10.1117/12.455256

https://www.patreon.com/AppliedScience

@trollenz - 2020-04-29

Scanning electron microscope : check
XRay imaging system : check
Waterjet cutting gear : check
Ruler for drawing straight lines : over budget

@GRBtutorials - 2020-04-29

Don't forget the DeLorean, the cryocooler, the turbomolecular pump, the mass spectrometer and the $20000 Tektronix 5 Series oscilloscope! And surely I'm also forgetting something...

@aaalbert - 2020-04-30

Sputtering setup

@sebastianschmidt566 - 2020-04-30

The ruler is currently attached to an obscure experiment 😂

@blackopps01 - 2020-05-02

this paper have square lines, he dont even try :D

@verdatum - 2020-05-05

And the ruby laser. He has a tektronix scope? I've used them with my job but the one we have cost as much as the house I grew up in.

@matthewhall6288 - 2020-04-29

The "zooooom" sound created by sliding the armature adds to the effect.

@Khrrck - 2020-04-29

It's more of a shooooooooooof really.

@dustinhaile4196 - 2020-04-29

its more of a shwoooooooooooooohf really

@gearhead1302 - 2020-04-30

I thought he was putting that effect in at first 😄. Not his style to add silly effects I thought to myself.

@guillermocastillo8488 - 2020-05-02

YES!

@PapoochCZ - 2020-05-02

Funnily enough, the term 'zoom' comes from the sound that the first variable magnification system made when zooming.

@TechyBen - 2020-04-29

"Lens sees around objects... by being so big, it is around the object." ;)

@SynomDroni - 2020-04-29

You know how much I don't like clickbait, but I gotta clickbait...

@MLGJuggernautgaming - 2020-04-29

Yeah only works for objects smaller than the lens itself I would think 🤔

@thepianoaddict - 2020-04-29

@@MLGJuggernautgaming only if you want to look around it from all sides, as long as part of the lens looks past an object even on just one side, it can look "around" it on that side.

@JNCressey - 2020-04-29

I can do the same thing much easier with a cardboard box and two mirrors.

@Qicksilver0075 - 2020-04-30

Give me a big enough lens I can see around the world

@PracticalEngineeringChannel - 2020-04-29

This broke my brain. In drafting classes, you learn to think in parallel projections, but I had never considered that you could capture images that way. Lots of 3D CAD packages will allow you to switch between perspective and parallel views. It's necessary to produce accurate drawings, but it's really disorienting to navigate a 3D structure without distance cues.

@satibel - 2020-05-01

You haven't played enough isometric games :p

@nightrous3026 - 2020-05-04

Literally the first thought that came to my mind

@verdatum - 2020-05-05

Seriously though, look into chrome-ball photography. It is even crazier.

@DrunkenUFOPilot - 2020-06-10

I'm always flipping between perspective and ortho views in Blender while 3D modeling. Like at the end of the video, you need parallel projection to compare details on near and far ends of something, and perspective for those vital spatial size and shape cues. BTW, drafting was my favorite class in high school! (Don't tell my physics teacher.)

@davidwilkie9551 - 2021-07-01

Went from there to emitter-receiver inside-outside holographic projection-drawing. Still grinding the mental gears.

@Nevir202 - 2020-04-29

Now I really want to see a scene in a horror movie, where in camera, using a MASSIVE one of these lenses, we get to see the killer is behind the person in shot, by adjusting the camera like this.

Can you imagine how freaky it would be, at they seem to appear and then grow to loom over them, out of nowhere? 😱

@brenebon6980 - 2020-05-04

That sounds like an awesome piece of cinematography right there!

@justalex3209 - 2020-05-09

@@brenebon6980 AWESOME IDEA

@DangerousMuteLunatic - 2020-05-14

Nevir202 I was actually just thinking a lens like that could be used for a really great sci-fi "mind-bending" effect, where things get all warped and weird. Like a teleportation thing.

@Nevir202 - 2020-05-14

Patchwork Productions Damn, that could be awesome too.

Use it such that something which appears to be a background, shrinks down behind the subject, and then when it expands back out, it’s different?

@geyotepilkington2892 - 2020-05-26

This is absolute genius. Or use it to portray a mental illness or great confusion or something. SO MANY GREAT POSSIBILITIES

@JimCoder - 2020-04-29

In a darkened room I pointed a 10" telescope toward closed venetian blinds on a bright sunlit day. I was able to focus an image of the stairway outside the closed blinds. The tiny amount of light leaking through the blinds' cord slots was enough to form the perfect image. X-Ray vision! Weird.

@hrgwea - 2022-02-09

This is how they combine the light in a telescope array to produce a single sharper image. They don't need to capture all the light in a giant circle, just specific spots.

@pchris - 2022-02-13

If I'm not mistaken that's called a pinhole camera. My curtains in my bedroom as a child did this and would project what was happening on the front lawn onto my ceiling so I could see when the mail man was arriving.

@runforitman - 2022-02-14

oo
I might have to get out my telescope and give this a go
I wonder if bird watchers could use it to see through camouflage

@pectenmaximus231 - 2022-02-21

@@pchris “Camera Obscura”

@thegirlwiththemouseyhair6486 - 2022-02-21

@@pectenmaximus231 the game?

@RobertMilesAI - 2020-04-29

The 'dolly zoom' type effect you can get with this is really interesting. I wonder if anyone has actually used a lens like this in film-making

@DonnieX6 - 2020-04-29

yay, good seeing you here! :D

@Cyber_Kriss - 2020-05-05

@@DonnieX6 It's not the DJ... 😂

@zuda8919 - 2020-05-06

I was honestly wondering how I could use it in a music video

@Alex-lc1bv - 2022-02-05

This thing already works very similarly to how they normaly do a dolly zoom. If you wanted to scale it up, you would need a massive lense.

@alexanderklee6357 - 2022-02-19

@@Alex-lc1bv didn't he say that it won't look good beyond 1 meter?

@jamesgrimwood1285 - 2020-04-29

In a parallel universe this is a video explaining these weird effects known as "perspective" and "depth of field" to creatures with hypercentric eyes.

@mrmeatman9948 - 2020-05-05

How dare you put the image of humans with 10" eyes in my head.

@1224chrisng - 2021-03-06

@@mrmeatman9948 don't Giant Squids have eyes that big?

@urphakeandgey6308 - 2022-02-24

@mr meat man anime

@TrickyNekro - 2020-04-29

I find this lens much more agreeable than many things in life with its "negative perspective".

@Gr33kChief - 2020-04-29

Lol

@josebregel6752 - 2020-04-30

Lol

@bemusedindian8571 - 2020-04-29

“You know how much I hate clickbait” - And that is one of the reasons that I love your channel.

@Tre3141 - 2020-04-30

Yeah, I find myself hardly ever watching channels that upload multiple times a week. Quality over quantity.

@rgstever - 2020-04-29

I use to use a similar lens for creating orthographic snapshots of objects for CAD use.

@mattmoreira210 - 2020-04-29

That's awesome!
This was the first thing that came to my mind when he demonstrated this effect.

@user-cz9ss4yq4x - 2020-04-29

Actual 5Head 🍷 Holy shit

@coolerdaniel9899 - 2020-04-29

That's actually so cool!

@4.0.4 - 2020-04-29

@@AppleGameification yes, but the lens is as big as your frame.
I mean, maybe there's some moving-lens thing for cars and other large objects? I assume it would be possible.

@victortitov1740 - 2020-04-29

Me too, actually without even knowing it was called "telecentric"! Just a big magnifier glass with camera/eye attached right at the focal point.

@geoffrjjjjjjj - 2020-04-29

The click bait is "Applied Science". I don't even read the title when I see that name.

@RealLuckless - 2020-04-29

Well that's a neat looking project. I get some weird enough looks when I cart out a small large format camera in public, so I'm on the fence for whether or not I want to play with something like that...


But this does remind me of what was always my favourite demonstration of neat properties of optics: Using a wide open lens to 'focus through' something like a wire mesh screen or chain link fence.

@the_eminent_Joshua_E_Hrouda - 2020-04-29

I bring my camera up to the chain link fence and shoot through the rhombus shaped hole ;)

@Jambeeno - 2020-04-30

Yeah that's a neat trick. Steve Mould demonstrated it when he was figuring out how to film inside a microwave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bXhsUs-ohw

@MushookieMan - 2020-04-29

I had heard of telecentric lenses, and knew a little about geometric optics, but you put it all together. I always learn a ton from your videos.

@projectartichoke - 2020-04-29

A good source for truly huge Fresnel lenses with low magnification is some older TV sets where they are used over the screen. Mainly old-style enclosed projection sets.

@satibel - 2020-05-01

Afaik lcd screens have some too, so a trashed large screen tv should work fine.

@madichelp0 - 2020-04-29

One of the few channels that can have a clickbaity title yet still undersell the contents of the video.

@skipfred - 2020-04-29

That bittersweet feeling of a seeing a new Applied Science video but knowing that there probably won't be any more for the next month

@fzigunov - 2020-04-29

You forgot about the Corona lockdown... There might be!!

@Hyraethian - 2020-05-01

knowing the limitations to a system and the failures that came with a project help a lot in learning.
Quality content time and time again.

@ryPish - 2020-04-29

Really cool, as always!
I'm glad this effect is rather easy to reproduce, no electronic microscope or other crazy gear needed :p

@potatojz38 - 2020-05-04

Very interesting, I liked how at the very end you included what real world examples it would have. Very interesting

@AtlasReburdened - 2020-04-29

Aperture Science.
We do what we must,
because,
we can.

@cmdraftbrn - 2020-04-29

the cake is a lie

@rahulsawant_pikachu - 2020-04-29

Okay. The test is over now. You win. Go back to the recovery annex. For your cake

@randydireen3566 - 2020-04-29

For the good of everyone, except for those who are dead.

@Dudleymiddleton - 2020-04-29

Cave Johnson!

@BRUXXUS - 2020-04-29

For there's no use crying over every mistake,
We just keep on trying 'till we run out of cake.

@jomiar309 - 2020-04-30

Honestly never seen anything like this before. I love how you introduce me to, and then explain, all kinds of new and interesting things! Once I get my maker shop set up, I may play with this one. It's easy, straightforward, and would be fascinating!

@xaytana - 2020-04-29

I really want to see someone mix tele- and hypercentric optics into one of those VR games/demos that make use of hyperbolic space. The combination of the two seems like it could produce a very interesting result.

@daveloomis - 2022-02-22

Hyperbolica now has a release trailer. 😄

@TheTwistedTraceur - 2022-02-19

thank you for showing it quick to prevent the clickbaityness. youre a good person

@br6768 - 2020-04-29

This channel always blows my friggin mind!

@StardustBruno - 2020-05-01

Thank you for showing the subject of the video right away, instead of making us wait (or skip) to see what we clicked for.

@FMAxBrotherhoodXx - 2020-05-02

The first law of physics: There are no free lunches

@phyjob - 2020-05-02

I didn't know about hypercentric, but this is the clearer explanation of telecentric lenses that I know of.

@HuygensOptics - 2020-04-29

You could actually look behind the moon if you had a Fresnel lens with a diameter approx the size of the Earth...

@ezekielmartin4323 - 2020-06-04

We'll call that a stretch goal.

@EgnachHelton - 2020-07-21

Could gravity lensing caused by massive stars be used in this way?

@frost8077 - 2022-02-26

I'm just glad you correctly described aperture. So many people believe it squishes and stretches the light.

@justicesportsman6020 - 2020-04-29

Didn't even notice the clickbait title. I never need to read the title of your videos to click on them XD

@johnalexander2349 - 2020-04-29

If you've heard of lenses that can see behind themselves (Nikon 6mm), it's not hard to guess what this would be about.

@LightningHelix101 - 2020-04-29

Is it really clickbait tho?

@dans6127 - 2020-04-29

yeah, I'm sold at the Applied Science part

@alanclarke4646 - 2020-04-29

@@KahruSuomiPerkele yeah, but "video with slightly misleading title" is so much more of a mouthful. Lol.

@seattlefiorelli - 2020-05-01

I was a little stressed out that maybe something was wrong. So glad youre still here doing these!

@vjm3 - 2020-04-29

Before watching the video:
Me: "Sweet. Now I'll be able to spot invaders hiding behind my back yard fence."
After watching the video:
Me: "Sweet. Now I'll be able to spot invaders hiding behind a very thin pole that's less than a foot away from me."

@dakel20 - 2020-04-29

Useful for watching out for Creed.

@AtlasReburdened - 2020-04-29

@@dakel20 That guy from the office with the mung bean sprouts?

@extrastuff9463 - 2020-04-29

Just build a tower in your backyard with... uhm a lens that has a larger diameter than your backyard (not sure how to work this out practically) and then you could!
I guess you'd have a better chance to let people living around you install pan tilt zoom cameras on their terrain, and even that's a long shot.

@alanclarke4646 - 2020-04-29

Sorted. I don't have any very thin poles in my yard.

@BillyEilish - 2022-02-24

I remember having an idea similar to this back in high school.. I thought on how mirrors could reflect things we could not directly see with our eyes and quickly learned the advantage of angles. The fact that the lens is so large is helping get those light rays into the camera's sensor. I've never thought of making a lens out of the idea. I truly enjoy the video and the explanation on how it works and how it can be built. Great stuff!!

@0dWHOHWb0 - 2020-04-29

So it's like orthographic projection in real life, sort of?

@forasago - 2021-02-01

Orthographic projection = telecentric optics capture light in parallel so you can only see things the size of the lens and smaller. Hypercentric optics like in this video require even bigger lenses for the same object, in order to capture light that comes from behind it.

@Greg_ThymeTraveler - 2022-03-13

The sound the camera slider makes is a cool sound effect to accompany the change in focus.

@GodBlessHipHop - 2020-04-30

I find it odd it has the same effect of moving your head to one side to see whats behind the object, i mean, just look behind it..

@pmyou2 - 2020-05-16

I am amazed this is the first time I am hearing about all this. It is such a fascinating concept it deserved to be widely known.

@milky3ay566 - 2020-04-29

Good, now I can use this lens at the poker table.

@hobbified - 2022-06-06

For anyone searching the terms: what you're describing when you talk about a telecentric lens system is a front-telecentric lens system (it accepts rays that are parallel in object space, and it "sees" in an orthographic projection). Camera and instrument manufacturers also take an interest in rear-telecentric lens systems, which have normal perspective but have the convenient property of making the rays parallel at the focal plane.

@fascistpedant758 - 2020-04-29

Fascinating, I had never heard of anything like this. Thanks.

@SebastiaanSwinkels - 2020-04-29

Reminds me of Vision Mantis 3D microscopes. Basically moving your head side to side or up / down will allow you to see around the object you're looking at. Very neat, very useful when working with tiny components on PCBs

@skuzlebut82 - 2020-04-29

Thank God! An interesting YouTube video!

@ToTheGAMES - 2020-04-29

Albeit a short one. I'll take it anyway.

@cleebe823 - 2022-02-13

Implications of snells law, a huge lens, and small objects. Nice video. Very intuitive demonstrations.

@AtomicShrimp - 2020-04-29

OK, one last time. These cows are small… but the ones out there are far away. Small… far away…

@azz2 - 2020-04-29

My first thought. Guess it turns out Dougal was right after all...

@wyatt639 - 2020-12-11

Burger

@melody3741 - 2022-01-23

You NEED to get an optics channel to make you a really good lens like this but a real one that can preserve lines like the special wide angle lenses can. I would absolutely love to see these demos with less distortion and aberration

@verdatum - 2020-04-29

This reminds me of chrome-ball photography, where it technically sees 360 degrees, so long as you process it and have enough resolution.

@thiesenf - 2020-04-29

really good and big fish-eye lenses do take in a view of 180 degrees...

@mckenziekeith7434 - 2020-04-29

There is NO other channel where I would watch a video with this title.

@noahtaylor7632 - 2020-04-29

“Negative perspective” reminds me of a lens my friend had that had a minimum f-stop of less than 1. I always wondered how that was possible.

@LazerLord10 - 2020-04-29

I think that the f-stop of less than 1 isn't related to telecentricity, as Leica makes an f0.95 50mm lens that has normal perspective.

@Toad_Hugger - 2020-04-29

The maximum focal ratio is determined by the distance of the lens to the sensor/film divided by the diameter of the lens.
This is effectively the flange distance divided by the throat of the mount.
A camera with a flange distance of 50mm and a throat of 25mm will permit a maximum focal ratio of f2, while a camera with a flange of 25mm and a throat of 50mm will permit a focal ratio of f0.5.

It isn't uncommon for lenses to protrude inwards and past the throat of the mount. This is less common on SLR cameras due to the mirror requiring clearance to move, and more common on mirrorless/rangefinder cameras because of the lack of a mirror.

You typically don't see lenses with such high focal ratios because of the increased amount of correctional elements required to produce a quality image.

@NAG3V - 2020-04-29

@edo The theoretical maximum if we want to have well corrected lens and have the usual f# to light gathering relation is NA = 1, f/0.5 lens without going into immersive setups.

@brenebon6980 - 2020-05-04

Someone should make a game demo that gives the player "hypercentric vision".
I think it'd be interesting to be able to freely position and explore with a hypercentric lens. We'd also get the benefit of seeing what kind of images a "perfect" hypercentric lens would produce (i.e. One with an arbitrarily large diameter and without chromatic aberration).

@Roxor128 - 2022-01-28

Should be possible with raytracing. Would require programming the camera a bit differently than usual, though.

Raytracers usually treat the camera's location as the focal point and point of origin for the camera rays and the rays passing through the image plane as they spread out, with field of view determined by how far the image plane is from the point of origin. That would not work for a parallel projection or a hypercentric one.

Instead of treating the focal point as the point of origin, you'd need to use the pixel's location in the image plane, and allow the image plane to be scaled instead of always being normalised. From there, parallel projection is easy: just make all the rays point in the same direction. Perspective projection seems like it would be a matter of changing signs in the usual equations to get the same directions as the usual approach. Hypercentric projection might be a case of pointing the rays toward a point in front of the camera, so they converge on it. Like perspective projection in reverse.

It almost seems like it could be possible to have one set of equations that could cover all three cases. Except... parallel projection is the limit of perspective projection as the distance between image plane and focal point goes to infinity. So, there's that hope dashed.