The

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

Ruvi is an analog

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

and still video camera released in 1998. The Ruvi was considerably smaller than any other camcorder available at the time, at 124 mm × 66 mm × 44.1 mm and 380 g. This made the Ruvi small enough to keep inside a shirt pocket. ''Ruvi'' is an abbreviation of ''Recording Unit by Video''. The small size was achieved by making the tape essentially non-removable. A miniature "video cartridge" contained thirty minutes of Hi8 tape permanently loaded around a conventional

helical scan Helical scan is a method of recording high-frequency signals on magnetic tape, used in open-reel video tape recorders, video cassette recorders, digital audio tape recorders, and some computer tape drives. With this technique, magnetic tape he ...

record head. The head itself was part of the cartridge, negating the need for a loading mechanism. Although user-replaceable, the cartridge was intended to be a service part and not a form of

removable media In computing, a removable media is a data storage media that is designed to be readily inserted and removed from a system. Most early removable media, such as floppy disks and optical discs, require a dedicated read/write device (i.e. a drive) ...

. The Ruvi contained several features that were considered innovative at the time of its release. The camera had high-density electronics packaging and a color-reflective LCD screen. The Ruvi also featured mechanical linkages for zoom optics. It could record up to 350 stills on the cartridge, each still being able to hold up to five seconds of audio, and a search function that would display them all in sequence. An "End Search" button automatically located the end of recorded material, readying the camera for new recordings. Though it was considered an engineering marvel at the time of its release, the Ruvi achieved only mild success, mainly due to certain engineering trade offs to achieve a smaller size. As a result, only one model was ever produced, the CCD-CR1, before the system was discontinued in 1999. The Ruvi was briefly released in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

References

External links

digicamhistory.com Ruvi DDC-CR1 gdgt.com Ruvi DDC-CR1photo Ruvi DDC-CR1 tape door opendigicamhistory.com Clear Cartridge photo
{{Video storage formats Sony camcorders Still video cameras Discontinued media formats Products and services discontinued in 1999