Television systems have become an integral part of many scientific and medical research studies at the NIH. The implementation of a television system demands adherence to rigid standards for system interconnections and adjustments. Technical assistance such as system design and consultation is provided to the Intramural Research Program by the EEES of the BEIB. Consultations range from assistance in selecting system components such as cameras, associated electronics, and lenses to solving problems of an existing system. Typical examples were with Dr. Nancy Ostrowski and Dr. Steven Stanhope. Dr. Ostrowski was having problems performing studies on brain receptors using a SDS Autoradiographic Image Analyzer. The system has a vidicon camera, which has poor electronic stability, causing difficulty in comparing different brain studies. Dr. Stanhope has a Vicon six camera computer operated motion analysis system for the acquisition and evaluation of data associated with patient function. The video system detects the presence of reflective markers located on the patient and by software, calculates the three dimensional location of each marker. The problems with persistence, blooming, and electronic stability of the vidicon makes the balancing of the six camera very difficult. The solution for both problems is to replace the vidicon cameras with CCD cameras. The CCD cameras have superior electronic stability and do not display picture smearing when detecting fast motion.
