HARDWARE
-1  HARDWARE PEAK DETECTOR FOR LASER EXPT.  TWO SETS OF 3 BUFFERS.
0  DRAWINGS ARM,TTL I/O BUS,DAC TARGET CONTROL, TURNTABLE CONTROL
	TURRET CONTROL,LASER MIRROR CONTROLLER
	GET 1 MONTH OF ELECTRONIC DRAFTSMAN FROM JOB SHOP
1	TV
2	FORCE-SENSING
3	MOD FOR LASER EXPT
4	MOVE LASER AND BEAM SWITCHYARD
5	NEW ARM ASSEMBLY
6	NEW ARM SWITCH
7	SEPARATE ELECTRONICS NEW ARM
	CLOSED-LOOP, GAIN AND VELOCITY SPECIFIED BY COMPUTER
	VELOCITY CONTROL LOOP
	MAKE SURE THAT THIS CAN BENEFIT COLLISION REFLEX
8	DEBUG A/D AND POTS FOR ARM
	SEPARATE 14 BIT A/D?
9	DEBUG TV DIGITIZER AGAIN
10	NEW HAND W/ REDUNDANT MOTIONS
	IMPROVED VERSION
11	SHAFT ENCODERS
12	NEW TOUCH SENSORS
13	TOUCH INTERRUPT
14	5 FINGER HAND 
15	PDP-6 TTL I/O BUS
	PDP-6 INTERRUPTS
16	UNDERFLOW MOD FOR PDP-10
17	TOOL HOLDER
18	TACHS ON JOINTS
19	FORCE SENSING ON OTHER JOINTS
21	NEW A/D FOR TV

22	QUAM ARITHMETIC BOX
	NOT PROPERLY IN OUR DOMAIN
23	panel of motor drivers of different power
	as standard interface with mechanical devices.


1.  construction algorithms (simple)
	as Hitachi
    arches and hard things
2.  assemblies
3.  touch and force
    hardware queue
4.  color constancy
5.  laser for hand/eye
6.  world model for curved objectx
	manipulation
7. avoidance
8. retrieval of visual memory



How can we improve the tv input chain?  
	input more bits
		video buffer
		scan at half the rate,same bandwidth
		digitize 7 bits, take lower and upper 4 bits in two passes
	improve tv signal
		higher signal/noise
			improve preamp
			improve tube current
			filter
		use available signal/noise over better range
Any reasonable way to get  in  more  bits  requires  a  7  or  8  bit
digitizer.  A buffer memory is a convenient thing to use.  I would be
happy to slow down the camera by a  factor  of  two  or  four  (where
resolution  is needed). The primary reason for wanting a video buffer
is for 3 color display, which  is  not  of  pressing  importance  for
vision.   For  display, we could again slow down the scan by a factor
of 3 to 6, provided persistence were adequate.

What intensity resolution can we expect from the camera?  We can  get
about  1000na  signal/2  na  noise.   Thus we have about 500/1 range.
These are distributed in a linear scale.  At high light  values,  the
s/n ratio is quite high.  We don't need all 500 levels.  To quantize,
we would like a linear scale at low light values (up to 32/1)  and  a
log  scale  beyond that. That is about 32xlog(17)+32=160 levels.  The
mods suggested below should improve signal/noise by about a factor  7
(now about 70/1).  The signal/noise ratio is low at low light levels;
we have suggested controlling light levels so that when  we  want  to
peer  into  the  dark, we can let in more light.  The signal/noise in
the dim areas will then be adequate, but the  bright  areas  will  be
driven  far beyond saturation.  Thus, we need a tube which can handle
large light overloads  without  affecting  the  tube  or  the  image.
Blooming  is  the  usual  symptom  even  for tubes which don't damage
easily.  One technique to control blooming is the anti-comet-tail gun
(Philips).   This  requires  mods  to  change  gun  focus on flyback.
Silicon vidicons  with  controlled  low  blooming  are  available  as
special items.   We have been told we can get one at a small premium.
A little blooming is probably tolerable.  This is because we need  to
increase light only for dark areas.  If they are next to a highlight,
the contrast is adequate without increase light.  So a small blooming
of the highlight does not hurt.

The silicon vidicon has a possible problem whose magnitude we have no
data on.  A few defects can be corrected for.  Any smooth shading can
be  corrected  for.   Pattern  noise  which  is  not smooth (salt and
pepper) must be less than a few percent.  We are  investigating  this
in contact with Philips Labs.

Besides changing the tube, we can improve the preamp and improve
the filtering.  Phase compensated filters have better transient
response (less ringing) than uncompensated filters.  These are
the easiest solution.  A delay line with multiple taps into an
integrator with t/n integration time is the most simple of the
time domain schemes we have considered.  Clearly, the time domain
and not the frequency domain is of interest to us.  Most of the
standard filter discussions center on frequency domain and introduce
bad things into the time domain.

Selection of an a/d is not complete.  We need 100 nsec sample time
if we are to speed up to 500 samples/line.  There is an advantage
in getting all the samples on one sweep, in that it requires less
precision in the timing for interleaving; the requirement now is that
the timing must be good to 1/500 to interleave.  The full horizontal
resolution is about 533 and vertical about 400 with 50% MTF.  Clearly
we want 7 or 8 bits.  We also want a reliable device.  The Computer
Labs a/d has been around and we have very good references on it.  The
Intercomputer Electronics a/d we have some doubts about because of
their performance with the d/a which we bought from them.  The other
two devices were not ready when we asked last, and we would like to
get detailed user references on them before we would be content.

camera interface
	a/d 						$3k to $6k
		50usec/100nsec/sample = 500 samples/line
		Phoenix $3800 8 bits 10 Mhz
			$2500 6 bits 10 Mhz
		
		Datel	$2500 8 bits 10 Mhz
		Computer Labs $5600 8 bits 10 Mhz
		Intercomputer Electronics  $7350 7 bits 10 Mhz
	buffer memory and display 8x256x333x3=2.05Mbits
						.8cents	$32k
	filters				$.5k
		delay line, multi-tap, 10 ns integrator
	  or 	phase-compensated filter

	log amplifier			$.2k
	silicon vidicon for Cohu	$1.5k
	update Cohu			$1k
		stabilize deflection system
		new preamp		$100?
		brakes
		iris control