PARALLEL SOLID STATE VIDEO RECORDER

THE USE OF HIGH-SPEED PARALLEL OUTPUT IMAGE SENSORS REQUIRES A HIGHSPEED PARALLEL INPUT RECORDER WHICH IS CAPABLE OF STORING DATA AT A RATE WHICH IS SO HIGH THAT IT DOES NOT DEGRADE THE RESOLUTION OF THE SYSTEM. CAMERAS EMPLOYING CCD OR CID IMAGE SENSORS CAN BE USED IN PLACE TO HIGH-SPEED FILM CAMERAS ONLY IF THEIR FRAMING RATES ARE COMPARABLE. THE RECORDER DISCUSSED IN THIS PROPOSAL WILL DIGITIZE AND STORE ANALOG DATA FROM THE IMAGE SENSOR AT 10 MHZ, THE FASTEST THE NEWEST LARGE MEMORY CHIPS CAN BE ACCESSED. THIS WILL ALLOW PICTURES THAT ARE 256 PIXELS WIDE TO BE RECORDED WITH A FRAMING RATE OF 40 KHZ. THE PROTOTYPE SYSTEM WILL RECORD 1024 PICTURES WITH A RESOLUTION OF 256 X 128 EIGHT-BIT PIXELS. THE SYSTEM CAN BE EASILY UPGRADED TO A 256 X 256 PIXEL SYSTEM WITH THE ADDITION OF TWO MORE MEMORY BOARDS. THE RECORDED PICTURES CAN BE VIEWED BY A STANDARD VIDEO MONITOR OR A MICROCOMPUTER CAN BE USED TO READ THE IMAGE DATA THROUGH A COMMUNICATIONS PORT.