IEEE Spectrum - North American - March 2015 - 27

resources_sTArTuPs

SanStReaK loweRS tHe CoSt
of HIGH-Speed pHotoGRapHY
will A low-cost highspeed cAmerA creAte
new ApplicAtions?

igh-speed photography is
High-speed cameras are
a lot of fun. Ever since Eadweard typically set up on a stationMuybridge photographed gal- ary platform or tripod, not
loping horses in the late 1800s, people have hand carried, and most users
been using high-speed photography to see have a tablet or laptop handy,
what happens when a water balloon bursts so the Edgertronic piggyor when a lightbulb smashes. And, of course, backs on that external dishigh-speed cameras are ubiquitous in sports. play. And if you're connecting
But high-speed photography has more to an external computer, you
serious applications too. Manufacturers, for don't need controls on the camera either.
Matter's current design shoots 1280 by
example, can use it to monitor fast-moving
assembly equipment. Adoption, however, 1024 pixels at about 500 frames per secis limited by the expense of the equipment: ond and up to 18,000 frames per second
Today's high-speed cameras typically cost at reduced resolutions. It comes in a small,
around US $30,000 to $150,000 or rent for square blue metal case and was named in
homage to Doc Edgerton. The company
up to $5,000 a day.
Enter Sanstreak Corp., cofounded by Mike says it has sold about 400 cameras to date
Matter in 2012. Sanstreak is a small company and earned back its development costs by
in San Jose, Calif., funding itself with angel the end of 2013.
Matter has already heard of a few new appliinvestment, a 2013 Kickstarter campaign,
and sales. Sanstreak's strategy is to prioritize cations for the Edgertronic, which could help
price over performance: It sells its Edgertronic expand the market for high-speed photogcamera for just $5,500. Says Matter, "It's raphy: One customer, he says, is using one to
equivalent to buying a $2,000 oscilloscope- research better ways to literally separate the
it's not the fanciest one out there, but it's a wheat from the chaff.
Sanstreak's timing is right, says Christopher
good, solid product that gets the job done."
At age 12, Matter souped up a strobe flash Chute, a vice president at the analyst firm IDC.
to take stop-action photos of a golf club The video-camera market is moving away
hitting a ball; as an electrical engineering from the rental model, with even 4K-resolution
student, he studied under high-speed pho- cameras, another previously expensive techtography pioneer Harold "Doc" Edgerton. So nology, selling for under $10,000. Whether or
after spending a career designing computers, MPEG decoders, and electron microscopes,
It'S haMMer tIMe: the
edgertronic can capture
he decided to make something
the details of brief events,
he really wanted-an affordable
such as the demise of this
high-speed camera.
lightbulb, without dropping
a single frame.
First, he eliminated frills, such
as the camera's display screen.

sAnstreAK corp. (4)

not Sanstreak will ultimately be successful,
Chute says, depends on how much momentum it can gain. "And that could be tricky," he
says, "because the cinema space is still a cottage industry," while the nonprofessional,
camera enthusiast market is bigger but harder
to define. Eventually, he says, the real value will
likely be in industrial and medical applications,
so Matter will need to tap these markets.
And, says Chute, while Matter has no
immediate rivals at his current price, he will
likely face competition soon: "There are
probably other similar projects germinating in a lab or in someone's brain right now."
-tekLa S. perry

Company: Sanstreak Corp.
Founded: October 2012 headquarters:
San Jose, Calif. Founders: Mike Matter,
Juan Pineda Funding: Not disclosed
employees: 1 full-time, 5 part-time
Website: http://edgertronic.com

sPecTruM.Ieee.orG

NorTH AMerIcAN

MAr 2015

http://www.edgertronic.com http://sPecTruM.Ieee.orG

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum - North American - March 2015