Description
This application measures the vertical displacement of a body attached to a spring in real time using the device's camera and computer vision. The motion is filtered and displayed on a graph, with estimates of its period and velocity.
Experiment setup
Keep the device and spring fixed, frame the full oscillation, and click Turn on to grant camera access. During calibration, keep the mass oscillating slightly so that the equilibrium position can be identified.
Controls
Turn on enables or disables the camera. Start toggles between measurement and pause. Clicking the video switches between the front and rear cameras. Restart clears the calibration, data, and graph. Download exports the captured data.
Physical model
As with the recorded pendulum, the goal is to compare the experimental measurement—obtained here by video tracking vertical displacement—with the theoretical mass-spring oscillator model, allowing the period to be estimated and noise sources specific to real-time optical measurements to be discussed.
Developer
Marco P. M. de Souza