I bumped into this video on Lost at E Minor lately. Interesting, as Bas van Koolwijk, one of my collaborators in SKIF++, is using this process in a digital way in the SKIF++ live performances. It seems there's more people out there making digital versions of the Rutt/Etra Scan Processor, developed by Steve Rutt and Bill Etra.

"Videomakers like Gary Hill and Steina and Woody Vasulka used the Rutt/Etra Scan Processor to expand the scope of their experiments with electronic imaging. Between 1972 and 1974, the Vasulkas explored the possibilities of the Rutt/Etra and created one of their best known video effects in which the lighter areas of the frame pull the lines of the raster vertically and give the illusion of three-dimensional shapes. When the input signal is an image captured by a camera feed, these lines seem to adopt the contours of objects."
(taken from http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=456 - also check the video on this page, with Bill Etra showing the Rutt/Etra)

On a related note: Bas just finished building the Synchronator (together with Gert Jan Prins), a device that maps audio to video. There is a Vimeo channel with video's made with the device.