The Sandin Image Processor is a video synthesizer, usually introduced as invented by

Dan Sandin Daniel J. Sandin (born 1942) is an American video and computer graphics artist, designer and researcher. He is a Professor Emeritus of the School of Art & Design at University of Illinois at Chicago, and co-director of the Electronic Visualiz ...

and designed between 1971 and 1974.The Sandin Analog Image Processor
at Dan Sandin's UIC website. Some called it the "video equivalent of a Moog audio synthesizer." It accepted basic video signals and mixed and modified them in a fashion similar to what a

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014 ...

did with audio. An analog,

Modular Synthesizer Modular synthesizers are synthesizers composed of separate modules for different functions. The modules can be connected together by the user to create a patch. The outputs from the modules may include audio signals, analog control voltages ...

, real time, video processing instrument, it provided video processing performance and produced subtle and delicate video effects of a complexity not seen again until well into the digital video revolution. Its real time nature led to its use in live theater performance, including "Electronic Visualization Events" where it was seen processing the output of

Tom DeFanti Thomas Albert "Tom" DeFanti (born September 18, 1948) is an American computer graphics researcher and pioneer. His work has ranged from early computer animation, to scientific visualization, virtual reality, and grid computing. He is a distinguishe ...

's Graphics Symbiosis System. The Sandin Image Processor fostered many imaginative videotapes seen, for example at early

SIGGRAPH SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...

conferences. Sandin's instrument, and his personally delivered instruction in video, trained many of the people who were later to engineer the digital video revolution. Physically, an Image Processor system would be built out of modules. Several types of modules were defined and typically would be an aluminum box containing a circuit board inside, video connectors and knobs on front of box and power connector on back of box. The modules would be organized in rows. Individual systems could vary in size and increase in power with the addition of more modules. Typical modules would be signal sources, combiners and modifiers, effects modules, sync, color encoder, color decoder, and NTSC video interface. Sandin was an advocate of education and a "copy it right distribution religion". Accordingly, he placed the circuit board layouts with a commercial circuit board company where anyone could buy them for ordinary manufacturing costs and freely published schematics and other documentation. A following of video artists, students, and others interested in video electronics would assemble these modules kit style and try to build up their synthesizers. From time to time Sandin and staff would hold fix-it parties where modules that failed to come up for non-electronics oriented artists would be repaired by the senior staff. This distribution method was unique in the proprietary and competitive industrial field of advanced electronics. Other analog video instruments from the same era include the Paik-Abe video synthesizer, the

Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer The Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer is an analog raster manipulation device for image processing and real-time animation. The Rutt/Etra was co-invented by Steve Rutt and Bill Etra. See also *Scanimate {{about, the computer animation system, the an ...

(by

Steve Rutt Steven Alexander Rutt (February 26, 1945 – May 20, 2011) was an American engineer who in 1972, along with Bill Etra, co-created an early video animation synthesizer, the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer. His equipment was used in the early pioneering ...

and Bill Etra), and the work of Steina and Woody Vasulka with Jeff Schier and Diana Dosch.

Module types

*Oscillator *Camera Input *Adder Multiplier *Comparator *Differentiator ( Edge Emphasizer ) *Amplitude Classifier *Function Generator *Color Encoder

References

{{Reflist
The Sandin Analog Image Processor
at Dan Sandin's UIC website *

Computer Lib/Dream Machines ''Computer Lib/Dream Machines'' is a 1974 book by Ted Nelson, printed as a two-front-cover paperback to indicate its " intertwingled" nature. Originally self-published by Nelson, it was republished with a foreword by Stewart Brand in 1987 by Micr ...

, a book by Ted Nelson *Description of Sandin IP module

Video