Between 1971 and 1973, Dan Sandin designed and built the Sandin Image Processor (IP) a patch programmable analog computer for real-time manipulation of video inputs.

In other words – a modular synth for video.

The whole video is great – Sandin is a great communicator and the video reminds me about some of the great things of the seventies – like researchers in Viking hats.

This is one of the movies that document the early history of the research that resulted in the creation of the EVL Lab. Dan Sandin explains, in general terms, the functionality of the Sandin Analogue Image Processor (IP).

Sandin was an advocate of education and espoused a non-commercial philosophy, emphasizing a public access to processing methods and the machines that assist in generating the images. Accordingly, he placed the circuit board layouts for the IP with a commercial circuit board company and freely published schematics and other documentation.

The IP is a general-purpose patch programmable analogue computer, which is different from a regular digital computer, and is optimized to process video/television signals and sound. The video is processed through the IP “live” so that the viewer is able to see the effect on video signals. Initially the video is B&W, at the end Sandin debuts the ‘Color IP’.

The money quote: “Turn your sets to color now!