But it’s not all narcissism. The ability to show family and friends your point of view during an exciting episode, for example, is a powerful medium. To re-experience a sky dive, a walk through an ancient temple, or maybe running with the bulls, is something that can be looked back on with joy and excitement for years, and even generations, to come.
The problem is, quite often the video may suffer from camera shake, especially when you are on the move. It makes videos hard to watch in the best case, and impossible to watch in the worst. The disappointment of watching an experience back, only to realise it is unwatchable can be a heart sinking experience.
The challenge
The challenge this month is therefore to come up with a way of making filming video more stable. For this exercise, we’ll use a GoPro camera that has become somewhat of the standard action camera.
Let’s assume such activity ranges from skiing downhill to running on the beach with the family. Both situations would likely induce a fair amount of vibration and shake the camera, so your job is to make sure that is minimised.
The smooth moving shots that we see in the movies are the ideal here, but unless you are thinking about shock absorbing roller blades as a solution, then there might have to be some compromise. Really, what you need to produce is some method of cushioning movement.
The aim is to provide stabilisation in 3-axes to compensate for unwanted movement, arm shake and vibration. Any sort of device should either be hand held or able to be mounted to something like a helmet or bike. Lastly, the device should be practical and not overly extravagant, so a body mounted rig, with weights and air suspension might not be the ideal solution in this case.
As usual we have an idea in mind. However, have a think about how you would tackle the problem and let us know your ideas by emailing tim.fryer@markallengroup.com or leave a comment below.
