Paul Stebbins (center), blind engineer from Chicago, received first DENA talking voltmeterfrom Ken Renaud (right), Master Specialties product manager, and Gerry McLaughlin (left),sales engineer.

Solid State Voice SystemEnables Blind EngineerTo "Read" Voltmeter

Because of a new talking digital volt-meter, a blind engineer in Chicago, Illinoiscan fulfill his ambition to become a broad-cast engineer.

Paul Stebbins needed to be able to takelevel meter readings from the various broad-cast equipment-virtually impossible for ablind person with existing, conventionalmeasuring instruments. With the DigitalEquipment Number Announcer, Stebbinscan now take the voltage readings and hearthe output in a loud, clear voice.

This voice system, developed by MasterSpecialties Company, is a solid-state system

April 1975

with whole.-words digitized and stored inread-only memories. It is standard with thenumeric-words zero to nine, but additionalwords may be added as specified by thecustomer. The voice sytem is applicable toany type of equipment with BCD output.

According to the manufacturer, whole-word storage results in a synthesized voiceso natural sounding that it is difficult todistinguish it from the original. With eachword stored in its own individual memory itis a simple matter to access each ROM andcall up the words in the sequence requiredfor the desired message. Simple logic de-coding can be used to accomplish thissequencing without complicatedprogramming.

Reader Service Number 491

Minicomputer System ProcessesMutilated Checks Rejected byOther Machines

Every day, banks throughout the coun-try process millions of checks, many ofwhich are "illegible" to the automatedprocessing equipment which relies on mag-netic character sensors. These "reject"checks, which can amount to thousands ofchecks daily, are now being processed auto-matically.

The minicomputer system developed byOptical Recognition Systems makes it possi-ble to process mutililated or chewed-upchecks and those that will not processnormally because of printing errors, magne-tic ink inconsistencies, bank encoding ma-chine problems, and attachments to thecheck.

Combining two methods of reading-magnetic ink and optical sensors-theOCR-71 relies on a Varian Data Machines620L computer. This system can capturethe data on 50 to 80 percent of checksrejected by the primary machine.

The few remaining rejects are displayedin a built-in video display/keyboard termi-nal, where the operator can determine themissing information and enter it. The sys-tem reduces the reject pile to virtually zero,resulting in total data capture, according toDan Nikolaus, Optical Recogition's productmanager.

The data collected from the rejectedchecks is stored on magnetic tape and laterfed to the main computer memory where itrejoins the unrejected batch of check data.

The 620L computer acts as the "brains"behind the whole operation, exp14insNikolaus. "The Varian 620L makes fareeverything is happening in our OCR-7 1system when it's supposed to, such as whento read, where to store the data, and whereto place the check."

The programmable 620L computer has a16-bit-word capacity and an 8K magneticcore which is expandable to 32K. Thecomputer allows complete flexibility in datavalidation, reformatting, zero balancing,recording, and self-diagnosis.

Reader Service Number 492

59

edited by

11*\ / Dr. Demetrios A. MichalopoulosAssociate Professor of Computer Sciences

I 5 | California State University at Fullerton

NA I INEW APPLICATIONS

Hotels, Casinos UseHolographic Memory toVerify Credit Cards

The first commercially available holo-graphic memory, the Holoscan 300, is beingused to check credit cards to avoid improperusage. Several hotels in the Hilton Inter-national, Hyatt, and Western Internationalchains and many Las Vegas gambling casinosare already using the company's Holoscan300 Memory Unit, according to James J.Wilson, president of Optical Data Systems,Inc. The casinos use the device to check agambler's credit, and can even make specialnotations that tell how large a marker he isgood for.

Wilson noted that the Holoscan wouldbe beneficial for airline ticketing operations,gasoline companies, and any retailoperations that have their own credit orother credit cards coming across thecounter.

The operation of the memory unit is sobasic and simple that little or no specialtraining is involved for personnel using it,according to the manufacturer. For ex-ample, suppose you were to ask lodging atone of the hotels using the system. Theclerk would ask which credit card youintend to use to handle the charges. Youpresent the card and the clerk punches, thecard's number into a Holoscan 310 key-bo ard.

"Within three seconds the memory unitwould search a file holding as many as700,000 card numbers to see if your cardhas been designated a bad credit risk,"Wilson explains. "If your card number is notin the memory, the clerk gets a 'thumbs up'and you proceed with the checking in cere-monies."

However, should your card be includedin the file, the clerk would get a negativeresponse and refuse to accept the card-saving the hotel a lot of time and moneytrying to collect on a credit card that shouldnot have been honored.

At a busy hotel or a line-up at a grocerystore check-out stand several keyboards maybe placed so that clerks and customers willreceive speedy service in checking creditcredentials.

Cassettes containing the film strips maybe updated as often as the purchaser of thesystem wishes. Credit information is sup-plied only on the cards accepted by theindividual firm.

Either positive or negative credit infor-mation may be entered on the film strip. Itis also possible to have a combination ofboth positive and negative information ifthe client wishes.

According to the manufacturer, Holo-scan 300 takes on the average, only threeseconds to confirm information; thereforecredit card customers receive speedy creditverification.

Holoscan is compatible with previouslyinstalled computer systems as well as elec-tronic cash register point-of-sale systems;only a simple interface between the Model300 and the CPU is needed.

Reader Service Number 493

RF Communications' Multifunction receiver is part of the ground control system for theEarth Resources Technological Satellite (ERTS). This photograph taken by ERTS shows theWashington, D.C., Baltimore, and Chesapeake Bay area.

NASA Gets Multifunction Receiver for Satellite Tracking

Multifunction receivers, developed forNASA by the RF Commuriications Divisionof Harris Corporation, are part of theground control system for the Earth Resour-ces Technological Satellite (ERTS), whichprovides a new method of exploring theearth from space with television camerasand a multispectral scanner.

Launched on July 23, 1972, ERTS is aspace observatory 570 miles above the earthwhich is used to survey earth resources andto monitor changes in crop growth, glacieradvances, and spread of people and pollu-tion. Photographs taken by ERTS revealpatterns that are very helpful to land-useplanners, cartographers, and agricultural ex-perts. These photographs point out trends inurban sprawl and actual use of the land aswell as providing accurate information forrevising maps.

The multifunction receiver (MFR) isused in NASA's Spaceflight Tracking andData Network for reception of satellitesignals-including the ERTS observatory-from VHF through X-band. Functions per-formed by the MFR include telemetry datademodulation, monopulse antenna auto-tracking, and Doppler ranging. By com-bining these three receiver functions in thesingle MFR unit, NASA was able to replacethree separate receiving systems.

NASA receiver-monitoring stations thatuse the MFR are located in all parts of theUnited States, with more stations to beconstructed in the near future. The MFR isalso used in receiver-monitoring stationslocated throughout the world includingChile, Spain, Australia, England, Guam,South Africa and Hawaii.

Reader Service Number 495

Remote Legal Offices Use Law Library Stored on Disks

A computerized law library of over1/2-million legal documents, is now beingstored on the 88 Memorex 3670 DiskStorage Subsystem. The legal retrieval sys-tem includes the full text of federal statutesand cases, the statutes and cases of severalstates, federal tax materials, and federalsecurities materials. The system allows law-yers and others to search through thousandsof statutes and decisions in a fraction of thetime it would take to do manually.

Lawyers, accountants, and governmentagencies currently use the system via 150terminals located remotely and connectedby telephone lines into the computer ofMead Data Central, the company that de-veloped the system. The system works byscanning the statutes, regulations and de-cisions looking for key words and phrasesdesignated by the researcher, and then

displaying the retrieved, information in seve-ral forms such as a listing of the statutes orcases containing the desired words, or thetext of the statutes or cases in full.

Mead Data Central's (MDC) service,called LEXIS, presently contains three-and-a-half billion characters of informationstored on-line in the 3670's, and six millionmore are being added weekly as new docu-ments are added to the library. Since each3670 drive has a capacity of 100 millioncharacters the entire 88 drives will even-tually hold 8.8 billion characters of legaldata and programs.

This legal retrieval service is available sixdays a week-weekdays from 9 a.m. tomidnight-at an average cost of $85 an hourfor actual on-line time.

Reader Service Number 494

COMPUTER60

Coronary Care System consits of a CPU and one or two control/display modules, each capableof monitoring eight patients.

Monitoring System Logs and Warns of Ventricular Arrhythmias

A new cardiac arrhythmia monitoringsystem, jointly developed by the MedicalProducts Group of Hewlett-Packard and theCardiology Division of the Stanford Univer-sity School of Medicine, can detect pre-monitory ventricular arrhythmias in asmany as 16 patients simultaneously.

Medical studies have confirmed that life-threatening arrhythmias are frequently pre-ceded by less serious irregularities such asVPB's. It has been further demonstratedthat early detection and aggressive treat-ment of these premonitory signs reduces theprobability of subsequent, potentially fatalarrhythmias.

The arrhythmia monitor gives a con-tinuous display of the status of all moni-tored patients and provides, at a glance,up-to-date information on the electricalactivity of a patient's heart. This relieves thestaff of a coronary care unit from thefatigue of continuous visual monitoring ofECG-scope tracings. A three-level visual andaudible alarm, based on severity, alerts thestaff to significant changes in a patient'scondition. so that appropriate therapy canbe initiated to avoid more serious conse-quences.

On demand, a patient's trend of VPBs,heart rate, and other critical coronary eventsover the past nine hours can be displayed bythe system on centrally located videomonitors. This permits rapid evaluation ofresponses to given therapy and provides abasis for decisions on further treatment.

Each patient's status is described by upto four lines of information: alarm status,rhythm status, ectopic beat status, andmonitoring status; beats/minute (andVPBs/minute where appropriate) are alsoshown. The status of up to eight patientsmay be shown on a single display.

ECG signals for each patient are sampledat a rate of 250 samples/second. Everysecond, each patient's samples are scannedfor QRS complexes, P waves, T waves and

artificial pacemaker spikes. Values extractedfrom each beat include QRS height, dur-ation, offset and R-to-R interval.

When first admitting a patient, the sys-tem "learns" the patient's predominant beatmorphology for one minute and then con-stantly updates these data to reflect subtlechanges that may occur. Beats determinedto be abnormal are then compared tovarious "families" of VPBs.

Price of the basic 8-bed arrhythmiamonitoring system with one control/displaymodule (HP 78220A) is $37,500. The16-bed system with two modules (HP78220B) is priced at $57,500. Currentavailability of the system is six months fromdate of order.

Reader Service Number 496

Terminals Help MaintainPatient Accounting Records

Medical Computer Systems, Inc. hasdeveloped a new computerized patient ac-counting system that provides client hospi-tals, clinics, and medical schools with dailyaccess to current patient account informa-tion.

With clients spread across 31 states, thekey to the new system is the use ofintelligent terminals, according to JimFoster, president of MCSI. MCSI clientsenter patient account information directlyinto Datapoint 2200 intelligent terminalswhich automatically transmit the data, dur-ing the night, to one of three MCSI compu-ting centers for processing. This permitsdaily updating of patient master files atMCSI centers. In addition to the accountingfunction, clients also use the terminals inrequesting patient information from MCSIcomputer centers.

Over 80 terminals have already beeninstalled in client locations across the coun-try, each with 6,000 characters of memoryand a 30 charater-per-second serial printer.Clerks enter all patient account charges,credits, and adjustments directly into theDatapoints which automatically subject thedata to various levels of verification, assur-ing clients that information is accurate.

When satisfied with a record as entered,an operator has the Datapoint store the datadisplayed on the terminal's TV-like screenon the self-contained cassette tapes. Duringthe night, the Datapoint automaticallytransmits this data to the appropriate MCSIcomputer center for master file updatingover standard direct-dial voice-grade tele-phone lines.

With the Datapoints, Foster explained, apatient's current account balance can becomputed in seconds. To settle a bill, acashier simple types a code into the terminaland almost instantaneously receives a sum-mary of the patient's billing informationincluding a current account balance.

Reader Service Number 497

DLSC Advances Art of Micromation

Innovations in micromation of data com-munication within the U.S. Governmenthave become second nature to the DefenseLogistics Services Center (DLSC), a majorfield agency of the Defense Supply Agency(DSA).

DLSC provides data concerning supplyitems to the U.S. Department of Defenseactivities, U.S. civil agencies, the NATOnations, other foreign governments, and insome instances, industry. This informationincreases the efficiency of government pur-chasing, shipping, storing, reusing and, ulti-mately, selling of supplies as surplus. Thedata is available because of DLSC's mainten-ance of the 4.3 million items with NationalStock Numbers whch are mostly in compu-ter memory systems.

A COM mechanism is the heart of thissystem, accepting computer prepared mag-netic tape as input and generating micro-

fiche as output; according to the agency, a2,400 foot magnetic tape can be reproducedon film in 17 minutes.

Available on microfiche are a cross refer-ence list that references government stocknumbers to industry numbers and vice versa,a catalog management data notification listthat covers the entire 603 classes of thefederal supply class listing, and data thatinsures that certain items are demilitarizedbefore they are sold.

Additional products produced on micro-fiche are freight classification informationthat will be updated every six months, thedefense property disposal program sale bid-ders list that is updated monthly, and theintegrated disposal management system listthat is produced weekly with a monthlyupdate.

Reader Service Number 498

April 1975 61