Videodisc Technology: Developments 1980–1982
| Pages | 93-96 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb047489 |
| Date | 01 January 1983 |
| Published date | 01 January 1983 |
| Author | John Riddick |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Videodisc Technology:
Developments 1980-1982
JOHN RIDDICK
This annual review of literature will summarize
and analyze the scientific developments and the appli-
cations of optical and videodisc technology. For this
first review the initial coverage extends backward to
the year 1980. That time represents the great initial
surge of application of video and optical discs in the
home entertainment market and in libraries.
Early disc technology developed under the aegis
of Dutch, French and Japanese scientists and the con-
comitant advances of laser science and various facets
of solid state physics. Such commercial firms as
Toshiba (Japan), Thompson (France) and Philips
(Netherlands) led the way in the development of both
videodiscs of sufficient storage capability to record
a feature length movie and also of meeting a standard
of quality and cost acceptable for home purchase.
Recognizing the great potential of the entertainment
market, such American firms as RCA and Magnavox
hurried into the market with both home and com-
mercial players.
In the field of education important disc applica-
tions emerged from the work of Dr. Charles Gold-
stein at the Lister Hill Medical Center at Bethesda,
Maryland. His endeavors have encompassed linking
videodisc players and minicomputers for use with
self-instructional learning packages for medical edu-
cation. This application has enormous potential
throughout education as its techniques appear equally
useful for gifted students and for students suffering
learning disabilities. As a consequence, the costs asso-
ciated with program development do not appear to
be prohibitive once techniques for the initial disc
production are streamlined.
For years philosophers have speculated as to how
many angels might dance on the head of a pin.
Such speculation would be equally applicable to the
number of characters, words or pages of text possible
to record on an optical disc. As we shall see, projec-
tions of billions of characters representing text
ranging from 50,000 to 75,000 pages on a single disc
are common. Although the applications continue to
be only in their formative stages, one's imagination
could safely range over the entire field of document
delivery, catalogs, preservation and publishing.
It must also be remembered that the technology
is in place; the Library of Congress is testing it. What
is needed now is further attention to possible applica-
tions.
Ways, means, and standards regarding disc
products, transmission of data, read and print-out
capability, and copyright will pose the stumbling
blocks over the next decade.
As further disintegration of library collections
becomes commonplace, disc technology will offer a
means of economically storing and producing copies
that will provide even greater clarity than the archival
original. In similar fashion the Library of Congress
has found it possible to reproduce old water stained
catalog cards with enhanced readability. Paralleling
these efforts to retrieve and retain safely and per-
manently archival materials, the Library of Congress
is using videodiscs to store chemically active, and
thus deteriorating, early movie films, slides, pictures
and phonograph records.
Hand in hand with continued new breakthroughs
in the application of videodisc technology will be
continued research to develop reusable discs, multiple
disc storage and player units, and new enhancements
of recording, mastering and playback features. Cer-
tainly a disc will not replace Margaret Mitchell's
Gone with the Wind or James Michener's Space, but
it offers a plausible means of retaining the ERIC
microfiche collections, the microfilm run of the
New York Times or the enormous serial run of the
William and Mary Quarterly. Speculation, however,
is better fueled by fact as this review of the litera-
ture reporting on videodisc development for the
three year period 1980 through 1982 shows.
[Editor's note: Conventions for usage and spelling
of videodisc are not yet uniform. We will follow the
editorial guidelines of Videodisc/Videotex (Meckler
Publishing, Westport, CT) and prefer videodisc as
the choice when we refer to the medium except when
the author of the article uses videodisk in the title
to specifically mean digitized data.]
Barrett, R. "Developments in Optical Disk Tech-
nology and the Implications for Information Storage
and Retrieval," Journal of
Micrographics
15 (Janu-
ary 1982): 22-26.
Sees the largest growth of optical disc technology
where online remote access to information is re-
quired with rapid retrieval of the source document
in its original form. Barrett assigns to optical disc
technology such characteristics as:
Riddick is Head of Acquisitions Services at
Central Michigan University and Editor for LHT for
videodisc, OCR, and computer video technology and
applications.
SUMMER 1983 93
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