When I worked for the dept of medical physics at Cedars-Sinai medical center, I worked with a $50,000 box that could record digital video. 8-bit Greyscale, 512x512, up to 30 frames a second.
It broke, and since the company that made it was in Irvine, I drove it there. However, it was during the Rodney King riots, and we were told to leave early, so here I am exiting LA in a huge traffic jam, car overheating, with something worth 5x the value of my car in the back seat. Made it though. Saw some rioters steal from a store but no violence.
I also programmed a digital device that took cineangiograms. I managed to get a picture of Elvis (I needed a test picture, this was early 90s) wedged onto the research system, such that GE had to remove it. I always wondered what the tech thought about finding Elvis on a medical imaging system.
