1. The Overlooked “Invisible Killer” in Photography: The Jello Effect

Have you encountered these issues?

• When capturing a moving car with your smartphone, the vehicle appears distorted, resembling a slanted “banana shape.”
• During drone aerial photography, ground buildings appear strangely stretched.
• Industrial inspection equipment captures blurry, ghosting images of parts.

These bizarre effects are caused by an often-overlooked culprit—the rolling shutter.

2. Understanding Shutter Types: Global vs. Rolling

A camera shutter acts as a light gatekeeper, regulating how long light reaches the sensor. Modern electronic shutters fall into two main categories:

1) Global Shutter: Freezing the World Instantly

Working principle: All pixel points, like well-trained soldiers, open and close the shutter simultaneously to capture light and freeze the image.

Analogy: Imagine flipping a light switch—the entire room lights up and turns off instantly. 

Key advantages:

✅ No distortion in high-speed motion: Sharp images even for vehicles at 180 km/h.
✅ High-precision detection: Industrial parts can be measured with an error margin of less than 0.1 mm.
✅ Strong synchronization: Ideal for multi-camera setups.

2) Rolling Shutter: The “Snake” That Scans Line by Line

Working principle: Pixels expose row by row, scanning from the top of the sensor to the bottom—much like the movement of a snake in a classic game.

Analogy: It works like scanning a document line by line, taking 0.01 seconds to capture the entire image.

Major drawbacks:

⚠️ Jello effect: Fast-moving objects shift during scanning, causing warped images.
⚠️ Motion blur: A plane’s propeller may appear disjointed or broken in photos.
⚠️ Synchronization errors: Poor timing alignment in multi-camera setups.

3. Golden Rules for Choosing Shutters

 4. Why Professionals Are Choosing Global Shutters

 Case 1: “Eagle Eye” on Highways

After deploying Smartgiant Horus AI High-Speed Cameras, a provincial highway police department achieved:

• Captured vehicles at 180km/h without motion blur.
• Improved License plate recognition accuracy from 82% to 99.7%.
• Reduced Violation capture response time by 60%.

Case 2: Drone Mapping Upgrade

Comparative tests conducted by a mapping company showed:

• At a flight speed of 60 km/h, global shutter cameras improved image clarity by 40% compared to rolling shutters.
• 3D modeling error reduced from 0.5 meters to 0.3 meters.
• Coverage area per flight expanded by 2.5 times, significantly improving operational efficiency.

5. Smartgiant Horus AI Camera: Modular Architecture Empowering Customer Innovation

1) Flagship Model: Horus AI High-Speed Camera (Global Shutter Integrated Machine)

Core technologies:

🔹 1-inch global shutter sensor: 3.45μm ultra-large pixels with 45% quantum efficiency.
🔹 Integrated AI computing power: Hi3519AV100 processor + 2TOPS NPU.
🔹 High frame rate: 4K@50fps / 1080P@120fps.
🔹 Time synchronization: Supports NTP timestamps and hardware trigger input.

Proven performance:

In a smart highway project, the camera achieved 96.3% license plate recognition accuracy in rainy and foggy weather, increasing effective night detection distance to 200 meters.

2) Universal Model: Horus AI Camera Module (Rolling Shutter)

Key advantages:

🔹 Rolling shutter sensor: Supports 6 mainstream models including Sony IMX327/IMX335, compatible with C/CS interfaces and 8-50mm lenses.
🔹 Modular design:

• Size: 38mm×38mm standard board for easy integration into customer device
• Interface: Gigabit Ethernet + USB2.0 + dual UART, supporting external LiDAR / infrared sensors.
• Storage expansion: Supports TF card (up to 256GB).

🔹 SDK development support:

• Provides multi-language APIs in C/C++/Python, covering image acquisition, encoding/decoding, and other core functions.
• Supports ONNX model format conversion, allowing customers to port and develop based on their own algorithm models.

Customer customization cases:

• Security technology company: Developed face recognition gates based on SDK, achieving 0.3-second rapid recognition with rolling shutter’s low latency feature.
• Industrial solution provider: Integrated temperature and humidity sensors via the module’s UART interface to develop equipment status monitoring systems.
• Business intelligence enterprise:Integrated a self-developed product display analysis algorithm through SDK, reducing shelf out-of-stock rate by 72%.

6. How to Choose the Right Camera?

Three-step selection guide:

1. Assess the scenario: Is the subject moving at high speed?
2. Calculate costs: Global shutter cameras cost 2-3 times more than rolling shutters.
3. Verify requirements: Do you need synchronized triggering or high-precision detection?

Expert advice:

• High-speed dynamic scenes: Choose flagship global shutter cameras.
• Static/low-speed scenes: Opt for universal camera modules for flexible,customized solutions.

7. The Future of Shutter Tech Is Here

• Hybrid shutter technology: Dynamically switch between global and rolling modes.
• Higher integration: Seamless integration of AI processing and sensors for enhanced efficiency.
• Power-efficient design: Global shutter power consumption reduced by 50%.

At Smartgiant, we believe that real breakthroughs in technology come when professional tools move beyond the lab and into real-world use. As global shutter technology continues to advance, it’s helping transform high-speed photography, industrial inspection, and more—making high-precision imaging a standard across industries and empowering smarter, more efficient vision solutions.

For more information: Horus AI high speed camera | Horus AI Camera Module