Radiohead's camera-free video clip

First came the album for which fans could pay what they liked.

Now Radiohead has released a video which does not use a single camera, relying on laser rather than light to produce images.

The images in House of Cards, from last year's album In Rainbows, were captured by firing laser beams at a variety of objects - including the face of the leader singer Thom Yorke - and capturing the signals that bounced back.

The clip, which resembles the mock-ups one sometimes sees for computer-generated imagery in Hollywood films, relies on a technology known as Lidar, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, and is more commonly used in the production of aerial photographs.

Mr Yorke, long a fan of experimental approaches to music-making, said: "I always like the idea of using technology in a way that it wasn't meant to be used."

"I liked the idea of making a video of human beings and real life and time without using any cameras, just lasers, so there are just mathematical points – and how strangely emotional it ended up being."

Two types of technology were used to produce the rather eery clip, which was released on a Google website today. The first, called Velodyne Lidar, involves 64 lasers shooting 900 beams per minute while they spin around to create a 360-degree 'panorama'.

The second, called Geometric Informatics, is used to capture 3D images at much closer range - for instance, of the contours on a singer's face.

In a film about the making of the clip, the director, James Frost, describes experimenting by placing a sheet of perspex in front of Thom Yorke's face and running water over it as the lasers passed through it, in order to create a distorted effect.

Mr Frost, of Zoo Film, said: "In a way, the clip is a reflection of where we are in society - because everything is data. Our lives our digital."

Velodyne Lidar is typically used by mining and surveying companies to produce "long range" images, whereas Geometric Informatics is used by computer game developers, animators and medical researchers to create and model facial expressions such as winks and grimaces.

In October, Radiohead released In Rainbows online with an 'honesty box' policy, inviting fans to pay what they liked. A report by comScore, the research firm, suggested that the average price paid globally was $6 (£2.90), and that three in five fans didn't pay a cent.

Comments

[Carl, London, England.]

Wow...it doesn't use lights or camera...you mean like "Computer Animation", which has been around for...er...ages?

[Jimmy]

No, Carl, not like computer animation.

This is an alternative way of recording images, as opposed to animation, where images are created.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but Finding Nemo didn't actually happen.

[mike]

nope...carl....your point is stupid...and off target