APPARATUS FOR SIMULATING PERCEPTUAL PHENOMENA

摘要

1,263,078. Television. NATIONAL RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT CORP. 29 April, 1969 [30 April, 1968], No. 20501/68. Heading H4F. Apparatus for simulating perceptual phenomena comprises a receptor unit incorporating a multiplicity of photosensitive devices arranged in a hexagonal array and a display unit incorporating a multiplicity of light sources arranged in a hexagonal array, each light source being associated with a group of seven photosensitive devices arranged in positions corresponding to the centre and apices of a regular hexagon, signals being derived from the receptor unit only in response to changes in the illumination of individual devices, which signals are used to control the individual sources of the display unit so that an initial illumination of the receptor unit in a given spatial pattern results in a reproduction of a corresponding spatial pattern by the display unit. Specifically, a light source is energized when the central device of the corresponding group of devices is initially illuminated regardless of the state of illumination of the six peripheral devices of the group, but if the light source is not energized in response to illumination of the central device it is energized in response to illumination of the peripheral devices only if for one of the two subgroups constituted by alternate ones of the peripheral devices at least two more devices are illuminated than for the other sub-group. The pattern reproduced by the display unit will be maintained only if appropriate changes are caused to occur in the illumination of the receptor unit, for example by vibrating the pattern of illumination with an appropriate frequency and amplitude or by chopping the illumination at an appropriate frequency. If such conditions are not fulfilled the pattern will subsequently disappear, but different rates of decay are exhibited by geometrically different parts of the pattern such as circular arcs and straight lines, in particular for the hexagonal arrangement described there is no smearing of the pattern reproduced if a vertical line of illumination is slowly moved horizontally across the receptor unit. The circuit arrangement connecting the photosensitive devices to the light sources is described (Figs. 2 and 3, not shown).