Lightning strike photos

I wonder if OpenCV could scan fast enough video frames quick enough, learn what a lightning strike is, save those photos, discard others.

Depends upon your computer and resolution.

You can get OpenCV to run at 60 Hz, but by the time you process the frame and send a trigger pulse, you will probably miss it.

I would just set up a good HD video camera and then use OpenCV to sort those frames that do not have a flash in them.

DAB

Depends upon your computer and resolution.

You can get OpenCV to run at 60 Hz, but by the time you process the frame and send a trigger pulse, you will probably miss it.

I would just set up a good HD video camera and then use OpenCV to sort those frames that do not have a flash in them.

DAB

I recall someone taking a similar approach a few years back. I think it was this project:

https://lukse.lt/uzrasai/2015-05-lightning-strikes-and-python/

Not likely to win any competitions but it may be of interest to see what can be achieved using a GoPro 3 action camera.

According to the write-up it takes about 8mins for a 'quick and dirty' Python OpenCV motion detection script to process 15min of 1080p @60 video on an i7 CPU.

Nice sequence.

Yes there are a lot of ways to go about solving the problems.

As long as you live somewhere where you get lots of lightning, like Florida, you can have a lot of fun projects playing around with cameras, software and different triggering methods.

DAB

Even more fun if you have a high speed camera lying around

Lightning Strike at 103,000 FPS - YouTube

( Just need to setup on the correct side of the hotel ! )

Yes, if you have access to a high frame rate cameras, you can see all sorts of things.

DAB