  An imaging technique with sensitivity to short duration optical transients is
described. The technique is based on the use of wide-field cameras operating in
a drift scanning mode, whereby persistent objects produce trails on the sensor
and short duration transients occupy localised groups of pixels. A benefit of
the technique is that sensitivity to short duration signals is not accompanied
by massive data rates, because the exposure time >> transient duration. The
technique is demonstrated using a pre-prototype system composed of readily
available and inexpensive commercial components, coupled with common coding
environments, commercially available software, and free web-based services. The
performance of the technique and the pre-prototype system is explored,
including aspects of photometric and astrometric calibration, detection
sensitivity, characterisation of candidate transients, and the differentiation
of astronomical signals from non-astronomical signals (primarily glints from
satellites in Earth orbit and cosmic ray hits on sensor pixels). Test
observations were made using the pre-prototype system, achieving sensitivity to
transients with 21 ms duration, resulting in the detection of five candidate
transients. An investigation of these candidates concludes they are most likely
due to cosmic ray hits on the sensor and/or satellites. The sensitivity
obtained with the pre-prototype system is such that, under some models for the
optical emission from FRBs, the detection of a typical FRB, such as FRB181228,
to a distance of approximately 100 Mpc is plausible. Several options for
improving the system/technique in the future are described.

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics;Instrumentation and Detectors