Whiz-bang systems

[kddlab!atr-ln.atr.co.jp!myers@uunet.UU.NET (John K. Myers)]

ATR Communication Systems is mainly committed to developing the 6-foot
color-stereo virtual-reality conference TELEPHONE.  I expect models
to begin being used by 1997, +/- 2 years.  Expect one in every home
10-15 years after that.

ATR Interpreting Telephone is committed towards building the
interpreting telephone.  This is a much harder problem, and may take
up to 20 years to solve correctly.  Expect to see stupid voice
translators with manual keyboard backup entry within use at hotels
by 1995.  Other folks are banging on this problem.

ATR Optical and Radio Communications is researching building antennaes
small enough for wristwatch telephones.  So you will never be out
of touch with your computer.  No projections on this one, but
think about it.

***
News for this year, or maybe you've heard it already:  New kind of
movie theaters coming.  HiRes TV in a closet.  Advantages:  Don't take
up huge lots of space.  Don't have to sit with screaming randoms,
only your friends.  Can adjust quantity to population of town.
Don't have to show the same movie on everything, can split them up
and optimize resource allocation, make more money.  Coming to a
shopping center near you Real Soon.  Hopefully should do wonders for
bringing down the cost of big-screen flat HiRes TVs. 

***
It takes about 4 years to develop a software system that can do anything
decent.  During that time, computational power increases by an order of
magnitude.
It takes about 8-10 years for a software project to mature.
  What are YOU writing that will be able to take advantage of the computers
that we will have in 1999?


Wake Up America!!!


  John Myers

Opinions expressed are those of the author only.