[sci.electronics] CCD Vision: limits, sources, prices

wli@fornax.UUCP (William Li) (12/15/90)

I would like to build a small, lightweight vision sensor for use in
guiding a small car around.  What I think I need is a bare CCD
chip off of which I can directly read analog intensity signals.
Optics, frame grabbers, NTSC interfaces, whatnot, I can either
build or don't need.  Single chips would be preferable, so I
do not have to reverse-engineer/destroy/spend money on expensive
carriers like cameras.  (*Inexpensive* carriers -- eg, Fisher Price
PVX 2000, I can live with.  Take apart a $700 Kodak CD camera?
Are you kidding?)

What sort of relationships can I expect between price and resolution?
What maximums are there on the resolution of state-of-the-art
CCD chips?  In general, what are the power requirements of such chips?
Which companies are the best sources for such hardware?  Data sheets,
sources for data sheets, would be greatly appreciated.

Thx.