Even if you don’t take to it like Usain Bolt, every one of us, at some point of time or another, have run a race. It might be your non-participating friend’s outstretched hands while running on the road, a string of thread during your school races or a ribbon at an elite event - but the finish line is probably as important, or perhaps even more, than the track used for racing.
If I can be bold enough, I would bet that at one of those races that you have run, there have been scuffles to sort out who the winner was. While that works when you are racing for fun, surely, it isn’t a viable solution when more is at stake. For when individuals, groups and countries put their reputation at stake, or bet a huge sum of money, they do want to come out on the correct side of the bargain.
The realisation that traditional timing techniques were proving to be inadequate at big events came about rather early. Stopwatches were no longer good enough, and so were attempts to automate using a beam of infrared light at the finish line, which was hence broken when a participant passed through it.
It was then that the engineers came up with a novel idea - to freeze the blur in order to figure out the winner - a photo finish.
Camera types
When the idea first came about, the cameras were the same as conventional ones with modifications to handle rapid multiple imaging. These cameras were positioned in such a way that they had a clear view of all the passing through the finish line, without blocking out anyone.
On January 16, 1936, these cameras were installed at Florida’s Hialeah Race Track, signalling the first instance when it was used for thoroughbred horse racing - a place where its use still remains hugely popular. Though it was employed here for horses, it wasn’t long before they were used in track meets, bicycle races, automobile racing and just about anywhere where the winner is determined using a finish line.
While the basic premise behind photo finishes has remained the same, the number of photographs taken per second has risen exponentially with the development in cameras. From hundreds in the mid-twentieth century, digital cameras brought the capability to thousands - making it easier to freeze the perfect moment.
Photo finishes have been around in Olympics for quite a while now and have been responsible in breaking the ties in the closest of encounters. The cameras that were put in place for the finish lines during the 2016 Rio Olympics were capable of taking 10,000 scans per second (sps), a phenomenal improvement even when compared to the 2,000 sps at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
While the technology does continue to still improve, there might not be a need for it beyond a certain level, as yet. But then, it might eventually change when a race finishes even closer than those that these devices can sort out. It's probably a good idea to race ahead and stay clear!
