High-speed video instrumentation system

A high-speed video instrumentation system has been developed that records and stores video images at data rates up to 12000 frames per second. The unique features of this system are: (1) the high-data rate, (2) real time processing of the image to detect the occurrence of events for automatic triggering and storage of the images, and (3) digital storage and playback of the images on a PC based computer system. The sensor is a 64x64 silicon photodiode array, the real time processor uses three custom microprogrammed 9101 ALUs and the data is stored in 16 Megabytes of dynamic RAM. A PC AT computer controls the instrumentation system. The PC is used for programming of event triggering algorithms, permanent storage of the images, display of the images and analysis of the images. This paper presents a description of the system design configuration, an analysis of the sensitivity and speed performance capabilities of the system, and a discussion of memory modifications that are currently being demonstrated to increase the data rates to 24,000 frames per second. Video images captured with the camera are included.