Digitizing video frame for printing

[Lawrence Wilkinson]

Sorry I accidentally deleted this message from Dag Spicer, so here it is
for cctalk. Reply to him or the list, not me!

Lawrence


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	Digitizing video frame for printing
Date: 	Mon, 28 Sep 2020 06:00:21 +0000
From: 	Dag Spicer via cctech <cctech at classiccmp.org>
Reply-To: 	Dag Spicer <dspicer at computerhistory.org>, General Discussion:
On-Topic Posts <cctech at classiccmp.org>
To: 	cctalk at classiccmp.org <cctalk at classiccmp.org>



Hi there,
Trying to help a former operator of a digital portrait scanning booth
‘back in the day…’ He writes:

++++
IN 1976, I worked at "get your portrait by computer" store.

The heart of the system was a 16 bit, Data General, Nova II computer.

A black and white, analog, standard definition CCTV camera was tethered
to a "digitizer" box that was connected to the computer.

The photographer hit the ‘Capture’ button on the "Digitizer" box to
instantaneously freeze the image and "digitize" it.

The image was then sent to a Centronics, 102AL, 7 pin, dot matrix
printer to print. A perceived grey scale of 26 shades was created by
numbers and letters.

What I am trying to find out is what the "Digitizer" box was and how it
worked. Ram? Tape loop? I DO know that it said 'Digital Image Systems'
on the outside but have not been able to learn more.
++++
Can anyone help with more information about DIS or generically about
these systems? They were popular in shopping malls for a few years in
the mid-70s…

Thanks for any tips!

Dag
——
Dag Spicer
Senior Curator
Computer History Museum

1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043
dspicer at computerhistory.org<mailto:dspicer at computerhistory.org>