Nearly 100,000 Attend : High-Tech Expo Looks to Future
LAS VEGAS — The high-tech fanatic looking for the latest and greatest computer technology had to search a little harder this year at Comdex, the nation’s largest computer expo, which ends here today.
Past the latest and greatest local area networks (wires and software that link computers). Past the latest and greatest laptop computers (most of which can now be lugged by someone who pumps iron only twice a week, not daily). Past the latest and greatest video graphics boards (which allow computer screens to rapidly create and display crisp pictures and graphics.)
But tucked among the new computer models, including the one introduced by AST Research of Irvine, were several products worth finding among the nearly 8,000 booths covering nearly 1 million square feet in eight far-flung locations.
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Perhaps the greatest enthusiasm was generated among the nearly 100,000 expo attendees by “Freestyle,” a pencil-and-paper style desktop computer system unveiled earlier this month by Wang Laboratories Inc. of Lowell, Mass. On public display for the first time, the system attracted standing-room-only group demonstrations, long lines for personal tutorials and favorable reviews on the well-wired grapevine.
The sophisticated office system brings together into a single product several advanced writing and voice technologies that have been designed over the years to make the computer easier to use. Essentially, the system marries the traditional personal computer and its keyboard to an electronic tablet, pencil and a special telephone-like tape recorder device that capture the user’s writing and speech.
Anything written on the tablet is automatically displayed on the computer screen, allowing a document to be changed with a simple swipe of the electronic pencil. Further, if the writing is done while the user is talking into the special speaker device, his comments are attached to the document in synchronized time with the writing.
“It’s what real people--not computer people--want,” says Stephen Levine, a Wang computer scientist who led the Freestyle development team. “It’s something my father could use.” A full system, which includes facsimile, printing and scanning equipment, is expected to retail for about $14,700. The tablet and speaking system carry price tags of about $3,500.
Although long known to be nearing completion, erasable optical disks, capable of storing up to 650 megabytes of data, were also displayed for the first time this week by Japanese giants Sony and Canon.
Both companies are shipping the cassettes to unidentified computer makers, which are expected to install the optical storage systems into computers shipped early next year. However, the systems don’t come cheap. Sony says it is charging up to $4,000; Canon’s price is $2,000.
Sharp Electronics and Hitachi Ltd., two more Japanese electronics leaders, displayed prototypes of their new color monitors for small laptop computers, the first public displays of these devices. But clearly, the screens were not yet ready for immediate shipping.
The Hitachi screen measured just 6.3 inches on the diagonal, in part because a larger screen would not display the same quality crisp color. The screen could barely display more than a paragraph of type. The Sharp screen, which employs a slightly different technology, measured nearly 15 inches by 12 inches, but its color quality was cloudy.
Still analysts have predicted that the first color laptop screens will be on the market next year.
Yet another new technology intended for the laptop is the Isopoint, a device that mimics the performance of the movable “mouse” pointing device attached to so many desktop computers.
Licensed by Alps Electric, the Isopoint allows users to scroll through a document horizontally, vertically and diagonally by simply rotating or sliding a thin, three-inch cylinder set in front of the usual keyboard space bar.
The device, much like the mouse, also allows users to make selections from pull-down lists found in the newest operating systems. Alps is selling the system to computer makers, and the first full products that will include Isopoint are expected to hit the market next year.
