VLSI PC Card Camera (1994)

The VLSI PC Card Camera is a notebook PCMCIA camera. VLSI, a scottish company based in Edinburgh, introduced it to the market in 1994 and claimed it to be the first commercially available miniature video camera which could transfer images directly to a portable PC.

Still images and real-time motion video clips could be captured in TIFF files in any computer with a Type II PCMCIA slot. The palm-sized camera handset was detachable for storage and fitted with a CCTV industry standard C-mount lens. The camera took black and white pictures with 320 X 240 pixels resolution, in 256 grayscale. The unit came complete with camera handset, cable, card, software, and manual. A SDK software designers kit allowed the user to customize the application software. The camera was sold through Envoy Data.