early digital image sensing / was Re: enough already...

This is on topic. I have an old BYTE magazine that talks about the use of DRAMs with the covers removed and a piece of glass placed over the chip, and using the memory chip as an image sensor. If I recall correctly, the first chip used was an early Mostek MK5009. They weren't great in terms of resolution, but making multiple passes through reading, could gain a couple of bits of grayscale resolution. They needed pretty high light levels, but served as usable image sensors. Many years ago, I knew a guy that made a small business out of using early 64Kx1 (256 x 256 array) DRAM chips, suitably modified, as image sensors for PDP-11 based product inspection systems. -----Original Message----- From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Brent Hilpert Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 9:23 PM To: General at priv-edmwaa06.telusplanet.net; On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: early digital image sensing / was Re: enough already... Chuck Guzis wrote: cameras to Don't know if this is the answer you're looking for, but it reminds me of the "Cyclops" camera: a peripheral for the computer hobbyist market, contemporary with the Altair/IMSAI . I assembled one for a friend who had an IMSAI in 1976 or 1977. I don't think we ever got it to work. My recollection is that the sensor was a CCD array, but the occasional mention of these modified-DRAMs on the list leaves me wondering. I don't remember what the matrix size was: 256^2 seems too large, 16^2 seems too small, perhaps 64^2. I'm sure there must be adverts in Byte of the period. It would be a pretty rare find to come across one today.