World's First One-tube Color Camera for Consumer Use

Around 1970, color video cameras for business use, such as the ones at TV stations, had three very expensive pickup tubes inside; therefore, it was very difficult to convert those cameras to ones for home use.

In order to solve the problem, technology called frequency interleaving was developed.
Frequency interleaving is a method to place a color stripe filter diagonally across the direction of scanning lines.
With this technology a video camera only needs one pickup tube.
Our company organized the special project to mass-produce pickup tubes with built-in color stripe filters, and the project members worked on the improvement of design development and mass-production technique of the tube.
Then in 1974 we put the world's first single-tube color video camera for home use, IK-12, on the market.