General > General Technical Chat
Would anyone be capable of making a barcode reader with vacuum tubes?
Connecteur:
I'll echo the idea that many of the old skills are being forgotten, in favor of a digital solution. It's easier to break down the problem into bits (1s and zeroes) and then let a microprocessor handle it. But the real world isn't binary, and the skills engineers developed before the digital age should not be forgotten.
mag_therm:
--- Quote from: Connecteur on November 14, 2021, 09:52:06 pm ---Just a fun thought; I'd expect it to be a big challenge requiring a good deal of creativity, if possible.
--- End quote ---
You could try an image orthocon with a close up lens.
Into a VTR.
I remember in 1972, one of the USA 'scope companies ( can't remember who) came out with a FFT for military use.
That had a computer of the day. I don't know if there was ever a tube FFT recorder.
So the best you might do would be to match signatures of a simple QR code.
That would need about a kitchen and 2 bedrooms full of gear.
daqq:
--- Quote from: mag_therm on November 15, 2021, 09:53:34 pm ---
--- Quote from: Connecteur on November 14, 2021, 09:52:06 pm ---Just a fun thought; I'd expect it to be a big challenge requiring a good deal of creativity, if possible.
--- End quote ---
You could try an image orthocon with a close up lens.
Into a VTR.
I remember in 1972, one of the USA 'scope companies ( can't remember who) came out with a FFT for military use.
That had a computer of the day. I don't know if there was ever a tube FFT recorder.
So the best you might do would be to match signatures of a simple QR code.
That would need about a kitchen and 2 bedrooms full of gear.
--- End quote ---
Thinking out loud here:
For the QR code: An electro-mechanical-optical solution might actually be doable, if brute force. As an inspiration take a normal barcode scanner where you have a single beam of light being projected into dozens of lines by a simple rotating block of mirrors, each with a different reflection angle, being projected onto more mirrors. See *. Or take the single "pixel" thermal camera that scans an image using rotating mirrors. See **.
Now how about a mechanism that continuously sweeps through different focuses, zooms and orientation on an optical system - basically a "brute force" approach. The optics concentrate the image onto an array of photoresistors or other photo sensitive devices. The evaluation electronics then "simply" look for the orientation markers on the sides.
*:
**:
T3sl4co1l:
Also, my tube cred, not that anyone doubted :)
https://imgur.com/gallery/OF4jAxh
Tim
TimFox:
Back in grad school in the dark 1970s, before FFT computation was routine, the electron microscope guys would do a 2D Fourier transform in a very analog way, but diffracting a laser beam through a transparency with appropriate glass optics.
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