A video measurement system

A major problem in dealing with digital computers is creating an efficient path for data transfer to and from the human environment. This thesis describes a measurement system that interfaces a digital computer to its human operator to ease the digitizing and cataloging of cartesian coordinates of specific points of an image. Normally an operator would measure the image with a scale and type the data into the computer. But the video measurement system makes use of a closed circuit television system that is easily understood by both man and machine. The operator merely indicates the desired points to the system by means of a cursor or light pen; then the system calculates and catalogs the coordinates for future reference. Such a system can be used for anything that can be viewed by the television camera and is stable long enough; so long as the proper scaling is observed.