A Simulation of How FinishLynx Cameras Work

C.F.P.I. Timing & Data, Inc. is proud to use only FinishLynx cameras at all of their events.  A FinishLynxline-scan camera only sees a very narrow piece of the world - the finish line. It looks at the finish line many times a second and stores each of these images. The animation on the right side of the simulation shows 35 "images" of the finishline shown one after another. You will notice that it looks like a moving picture of athletes running through the finish line. The animation on the left shows these same "images" placed one beside the other in a way that mimics how the FinishLynx software assembles the images. Each image represents a fractionally later moment in time. Reading a time is simply a question of identifying which "image" contains the moment when a competitor crossed the line by placing the hashline there. Because the images are time-indexed by the software, the competitor's time is instantly displayed when the hashline is positioned.

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