Note: High-speed optical tracking of a flying insect.

We developed a video recording system with the capability of tracking moving objects and used it to track the flight of an insect. The system consists of two galvano mirrors, which redirect the light coming from the object in two orthogonal directions toward a high-speed camera to capture the image. An additional high-speed camera, which views the same object through a beam splitter placed between one of the galvano mirrors and the observation camera, detects the position of the object. The mirror angle is controlled to maintain the position of the object at the center of the view, allowing the object to be tracked. In order to validate this system, images of a live fly in flight were recorded along a flight path that was much longer than the field of view of the stationary camera. A high-resolution video image of a rapidly moving live fly was successfully captured.