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. On request, EEES, BEIB provides technical assistance such as system design and consultation is provided to the Intramural Research Program. Consultations range from assistance in selecting system components such as cameras, associated electronics, and lenses to solving problems of an existing system. A typical example is represented by the requests of Dr. Steven Stanhope. Dr. Stanhope has a Vidicon 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 cameras very difficult. The solution 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.
