ON THE USE OF VERY LOW COST TERMINALS
Abstract
This effort seeks to maximize the number of places (cities, buildings, rooms, desks,...) from which people can interact with digital computers in a meaningful way. Because of the extraordinary availability and low cost of the ordinary telephone, it was chosen as the corner-stone of the project. A set of possible applications were then identified. This applications include desk calculator services (scientific and business), information storage and retrieval (public assistance and private industry); and computer program development. For each category of applications, the identification of specific services is followed by a study of input/output language problems, economic considerations and human factor problems. These studies have involved the design and implementation of a specific hardware/ software system. Telephone signals are interfaced and multiplexed into an Interdata Model 14 computer in the same manner as teletype messages. Output is generated by a Cognitronics Speechmaker as a consequence of selection codes that are presented to a specially designed buffer. Requirements for large data collections and computational services are satisfied by a high speed connection to the University's central computing facility.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1969
- Accession Number
- AD0691398
Entities
People
- Albert Newhouse
- Robert A. Sibley Jr.
Organizations
- University of Houston