I'm looking for optical encoder chips.
First HP sold opto-electronics. Then they sold themselves to their own printer division, and the "real" HP became Agilent. Then Agilent split off, or sold off, their semiconductor business -- but to whom?
They made a nifty chip that could basically read any old random pattern (so they said) and turn it into an encoder output. I've recently seen literature from encoder manufacturers that indicates that there's a chip that can be aimed at a _particular_ pattern and give an _absolute_ encoder output -- I'd like to get my hands on such a beast, if it exists far enough outside of my fervid imagination that it's easy to get and reasonable to apply.
Any pointers?
Thanks.