Ancient Webcam

In my first job after University I wrote device drivers and firmware for cameras. This is a VLSI Vision camera, if I recall correctly it uses a 6402 VVL sensor and CPIA 1 control chip (Colour Processing Imaging ASIC).

This was our second generation webcam product. The original "Golfball" camera worked only via a parallel port and had a large box of electronics in addition to the camera head. I hadn't originally worked on that product, although I did do some work to improve its performance.

This "rugby ball" camera head could either work with a parallel port electronics box, or as in this example it could connect via what was then a completely new technology: USB. I was working on USB drivers before Windows support for USB was officially released - the development was all on beta versions of Windows 95 Second Edition (SE). It was real cutting edge stuff back then. Our USB webcams were some of the first ones available - and a lot of our technology worked better that our competitors too!

Now of course USB is ubiquitous and cameras are built into laptops, tablets and phones as standard - sometimes more than one. Some of them still use chips containing technology I worked on back then.

I gave my Mum this camera many years ago when I was working on this stuff. She's had it ever since, but now it is obsolete she has passed it back to me - I never had a complete one so I'm keeping it as a souvenir.

My parents are in town to visit MrsCyclops in hospital. It's lovely to see them, and we had a nice meal this evening (after abandoning my wife to her hospital salad).