Police cars
assemble accepted manipulate of strobe lights.
Stroboscopic lights, or strobe lights, are light bulbs that flash at a regular interval based on the speed setting dialed in by the user. Some strobes may not have a speed setting if they are being used for a dedicated purpose in various applications: to create effects, get attention or light a scene.
Special Effects
Strobe lights are probably known best for their use in special effects. They are common at Halloween to make a lightening effect, and they are often used in commercial haunted houses, stage productions and at nightclubs for their "slow motion" effect.
The speed of the lights flashing can make the lighted scene appear as though it is moving in slow motion, creating a very unusual effect for the people in the light and those watching from outside.
Emergency Vehicles
A common place where people see strobes is on emergency vehicles. Police cars, ambulances and fire trucks often have strobes installed to identify themselves and to indicate to other vehicles on the road that they are coming through and to get out of the way or pull over.
People who have their radios turned up loud may not hear the wailing of an emergency vehicle's siren, but the flashing lights will typically gain enough attention to alert everyone.
Alarm Systems
Fire alarms or other emergency alert systems may include strobe lights mounted along walls throughout a building. Also, the hearing impaired may not be able to hear a siren but will be able to see the flashing strobe and know that they should evacuate or follow an established emergency plan.
Photography
Strobe lights are used frequently in professional photography. These strobes work a bit differently.This is especially common in hotels or hospitals. These strobes generally flash about once per second to let everyone know when the alarm has gone off.In the event that the alarm is not sounding properly, the strobes work as an excellent backup.
They are able to flash very quickly, but are synchronized to the camera that is taking the photographs. When the shutter release is pressed on the camera, a signal goes to each of the linked strobes and causes a flash just as the exposure is made.
Quickly flashing strobes are sometimes used in photography as well. When a flash goes off in a photograph in a dark area, the pupils are often wide and the reflecting light causes the "red eye" effect. By setting off a series of strobe flashes just before the exposure, the pupils shrink and the red eye is corrected before the exposure.
