"First" digital camera

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat May 29 17:27:00 2004

> A little OT but certainly related: I had a 'camera' made by MicroMint
> (Steve Ciarcia) made to work with an Apple ][. It was basically a
> photo-eraseable EPROM and an adapter card for the Apple.

I thought it was actually a DRAM chip with a transparent top (the number
'IS32 Optic RAM' is sort-of in my mind, but I can't be sure). Light
falling on the storage capacitors causes them to discharge faster. You
fill the RAM with 1s, wait a little bit, and read it out. The cells that
read as 0s have had a lot of light falling on them. Then fill the RAM
with 1s again, wait a bit longer. The extra cells that read out as 0s
have had some, but less, light falling on them. Repeat for 8 or so times
(to get 3 bits/pixel).

A real CCD is a lot better ;-)

> Hand Franke has it now - I still have a couple of JPEGs I took of it if
> anyone's interested. It was from '78 or thereabouts.

I would haev put it about 5 years later than that. Or maybe that was a
later version.

-tony
Received on Sat May 29 2004 - 17:27:00 BST