orthicon
- n a now obsolete picture pickup tube in a television camera; electrons emitted from a photoemissive surface in proportion to the intensity of the incident light are focused onto the target causing secondary emission of electrons
- The size and complication of the image orthicon would keep television from any use as a hidden, unwinking eye.
- The image orthicon, 100 times as sensitive as earlier tubes, had actually amplified the light reflected from their faces.
- Primarily intended for brightening the faint images on X-ray fluoroscope screens, it is based on the image-orthicon tube used in television cameras.