Web camera-enabled material research: an acoustooptic example.

The applicability of standard PC web cameras to material testing has been discussed. A simple method for measuring the acoustic velocity and attenuation of transparent solid materials has been described as an illustrative example. It is based on the acoustooptic diffraction in the Raman-Nath limit and a digital readout and processing of the information obtained. Acceptable accuracy of the results is achieved. The method is particularly suitable for very quick testing of high loss materials.