> From: "Horst Mohr" <mohr@nemeter.dinoco.DE>                          <
        > To: "Robbie Rhodes" <rrhodes@foxtail.com>                            <

        > I followed the discussion about light sources and photocopy technics <
        > with interest. Is there already a possibility to direct a slim light <
        > beam, laser or not, very fast(!), to every fixed point in a line by  <
        > computer control?

Horst,
        It is possible.  I was hired in the 1978 to build a flying spot
scanner from scratch for a research lab at Temple University in Philadelphia.
I used an 5 milliwatt helium-neon laser and galvanometer mounted mirrors
which were controlled by the sweep signal of an oscilloscope and the output
of a wave generator.  The oscilloscope and wave generator were soon replaced
by a small Z80 microprocessor.  We used the scanner to digitize radiographic
images for feature analysis in tumor detection research.  A large collecting
lens was used to gather the light to a small (1 cm) solid state detector.
It was used for several years after that.

Larry Toto