Optacon Electronics, Optics, and Packaging
The first Optacon prototype using this retina was completed on September 1, 1969. It was portable and completely self-contained in that it combined the stimulator array, electronics, batteries, and camera in a single package measuring 13.5” by 8” by 2.25”. The total weight was 9 pounds. The low power electronics design in this unit was a joint effort by J. S. Brugler and W. T. Young which made possible about 12 hours of sustained operation from the rechargeable batteries. This unit included an improved optical system and camera plus a tactile bimorph driven screen, both developed by James Baer and John Gill at SRI.
As integrated circuit technology progressed, another custom integrated circuit was developed in the Stanford laboratories. This integrated circuit contained 12 bimorph drivers and interfaced between the 5 Volt circuitry and the 45 Volts required to drive the bimorphs. The incorporation of this circuit and the use of lower power components enabled the size to be reduced to 8” by 6” by 2” and the weight to be reduced to four pounds. Again the team of Brugler, Young, Baer, and Gill were responsible for the design of electronics, optics, and packaging. The first Optacon incorporating these advances, Model S-15, was a significant milestone. It won an IR-100 Award as one of 100 best designed products in 1971 and was the prototype of the Telesensory Optacon. It is now at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
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