Wobble strings: spatially divided stroboscopic effect for augmenting wobbly motion of stringed instruments

Abstract

When we snap strings playing with a CMOS camera, the strings seems to vibrate in a wobbly slow motion pattern. Because a CMOS sensor scans one line of video in sequence, fast moving objects are distorted during the scanning sequence. The morphing and distorting are called a rolling shutter effect, which is considered to be an artistic photographic techniques like strip photography and slit-scan photography. However, the effect can only be seen on a camera finder or a PC screen; the guitar player and audience are quite unlikely to notice it by the naked eye.