Rossi debuts gyroscopic onboard camera

New technology for our viewing pleasure derived from the Red Bull Air Race series

Posted: 19 July 2010
by Ben Cope

VALENTINO ROSSI debuted a gyroscopic camera at the Sachsenring MotoGP at the weekend.

The camera is designed to 'lean' with the rider, giving the viewer a more realistic view of riding onboard a 200mph MotoGP machine.

The technology has been developed by Dorna, in association with Spanish company UAV Navigation, who supply cameras for the Red Bull Air Race series.

The camera is 'fixed' on the horizon, with two accelerometers, a triaxial gyroscope, a GPS and a micro-chip providing real-time data on the location of the bike and also the exact coordinates of the three gyro sensors, thus giving a better indication of the bike behaviour on track.

This data stream is processed in real-time to control a miniaturised motor placed in the Gyroscopic OnBoard camera, which rotates its lens according to the movements of bike - the movements of the lens actually compensating the movements of the bike in order to maintain a fixed horizon line, as the riders see it - so that the resulting footage is not a shot moving with the bike, instead the bike is moving around a reference point, giving a better perception of the riders' dexterity in throwing their +210 hp prototypes through hair-raising-fast corners and audacious moves.

You can check out the video here.

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Discuss this story

Daz Dabicz

Good idea but it needs work as it looked really artificial.

Bike seemed to lean over too far ??? - looked more like a video game

Posted: 19/07/2010 at 17:08

Razif Rosly

I had seen the visual from this gyro cam, during Rossi lap test at German GP yesterday. Short only

Posted: 19/07/2010 at 17:32

Bluebandit

Surely, as the camera is digital, that could have been done by software instead? No more weight to add, just a software routine that keeps the picture oriented in a certain way ... Nerds - I mean techies, get on with it!

Posted: 19/07/2010 at 21:36

Mike G 7

You can't rotate it digitally without zooming in and dropping the resolution. A camera lens is round, but the CCD chip is rectangular.

Posted: 19/07/2010 at 22:17

Derek Hanbidge

I reckon it is great, another view on thangs and of course it had to be on Vale's bike on his return!!

Mind you it's all old hat, Ron Haslam had it all sorted (er taped on) during practice for the 1980 Castrol 6 Hour at Amaroo Park, Sydney, link to image...

http://www.deejay51.com/six_hour_1980.htm

Posted: 20/07/2010 at 01:11

mobus

i thought the pictures where great from the new camera, looks really cool.

Posted: 20/07/2010 at 02:20

bill gates 2

Personally i think Rossi could still win with a cameraman and 3d camera on the seat hump.

Posted: 20/07/2010 at 07:52

minirollsrule

i agree with Mike G 7 however the image a lens projects onto a CCD is not rectangular, it is circular, if they used a bigger CCD and captured the full circle of image available they could crop it digitally and save themselfs alot of weight and mechanical fuss, it could also be post processed removing the need for onboard computing power to calculate the angle of the camera needed again saving weight.... the weight savings im talking about are obviously only a few grams but in racing everytthing counts and im surprised yamaha have been so lazy when designing this system because it is only lazyness that this hasnt been designed like Mike G 7 sugested. the person designing it has taken an off the shelf camera consturction and mounted it to a servo.... not very high tech is it?

Posted: 23/07/2010 at 09:56