IS THERE A LASER DISK IN YOUR FUTURE?.....

By Bill Latino

What's this, a general interest article appearing in ANALOG? One about a device not yet successfully interfaced to any personal computers - let alone the ATARI? Bear with me if you will, for the laser disc, though in its infancy as a consumer entertainment device, promises to become one of the most powerful and versatile peripherals at our disposal. Perhaps a lofty vision for a device conceived as merely a sort of fancy 'record player' for television.

Consider a few of the laser disc's attributes - it's nearly impervious to dust, scratches, fingerprints, and media wear (try playing frisbee with your floppy or Winchester media... ), it has a storage capacity of 10' bits per disc (a few megabucks worth of floppy or Winny media - a blank laser disc costs only 10 bucks), the laser disc can store 54,000 frames of random access video information (yes, that's 54,000 screens full of text, high-res, graphics, broadcast resolution pictures, or what have you) with a worst case access time of 5 seconds, and, best of all, the cost for all this technology is a mere 750 bucks.

The fly in the ointment? Actually there's two first, the laser disc is a read only device and second, no one has come out yet with a device and the software necessary to interface a laser with a microcomputer. However, both problems are being attacked with vigor. Although the word is that the second obstacle is much nearer to being resolved than the first, it's reassuring to note that the 'Big Boys' have set only a two year timetable on developing a read/write laser disc. But even assuming the worst - that it takes a couple years just to implement and market an interface, it shouldn't be too difficult to imagine the scenario following.

It's a Saturday morning early in November of 1983, as you sit in front of your 640K ATARI 1200 you debate whether to put the final touches on the sales forecast you've been slaving over the past week or brush up on your pre-flight training. Logic wins out, after all it is Saturday and you do have your first flight lesson this Tuesday. So you connect up the special cockpit module you borrowed from your instructor, turn on your Sony 6 foot holographic projection T.V., ATARI 1250 Video Disc Interface module, Pioneer laser disc player, and bring up your computer. In only minutes you're airborne and into your first steep bank. Once again you can't help but marvel at the realism you're enjoying - although you have to admit that it isn't always enjoyable memories of last week's practice session are all too vivid ... your poor attempt at recovery from a stall, the shuddering of the hydraulics felt through the control module, the fear and nausea, and finally the crash simulation itself. You blush at the memory of the involuntary scream ... and still wonder how the pilot who filmed that sequence ever pulled out. Of course the crash itself was just depicted in high resolution graphics, but you recall being just a few hundred feet above the ground before the film gave way to graphics.

Anyway, this week you'll do better. Just as you're about to practice a similar stall however, your wife comes rushing in with the new Sears Catalog and the pronouncement that she just has to order a new dress for that wedding coming up next week. You concede defeat, knowing the futility of argument in such cases. Before surrendering your chair you pull the flight simulator disc and obligingly ready the CAT Modem for that potentially expensive marriage to the telephone receiver. With practiced ease she slips into the chair, takes the Catalog from its jacket and places the disc into the player. Seconds later life size models are competing for her attention. Go ahead, admit it competing for yours too! In a few minutes the decision is made, the code entered into the system, the order is acknowledged, billed to MasterCard, and a ship date is provided.

The damage done, you prepare to go back to the task at hand when you are advised by your daughter that she simply must use the encyclopedia to research a subject for her science class. Without waiting for an answer she gains the chair, removes the latest copy of Encyclopedia Britannica from the reference shelf, slips off its jacket, places the platter on the player, deftly locates her subject, lists to the printer the three pages of interest, and surrenders the chair all before you can voice your objection.

At least your son is not home so there's no chance of his demanding the console to play his latest interactive Adventure Game, filmed entirely on location at several famous European medieval castles, and one infamous Hollywood studio.

A phonecall interrupts your return to flight practice - it's your best friend Phil - wants to know if you've heard of the new Pioneer laser disc drive. Seems it has record capabilities as well as play and costs only a few bucks more than the unit you're using now ... fear not, you can always watch Jaws IV on your obsolete play only machine!

Lest you think the above scene unlikely, it may be interesting to note that Martin Duhms, formerly Vice President of Marketing at Lexidata, has formed New Media Graphics, a systems house devoted to developing and marketing laser disc based micro systems.

Then there's Project Aspen, a joint Army/M.I.T. simulation project melding laser disc technology with computers. Seems a film crew went to Aspen, Colo., drove down every street, making all possible turns and filming the entire sequence. The film was subsequently transferred to laser discs and the upshot is that the videodisc was interfaced to a computer, allowing a simulated trip down any street in Aspen by joystick control. The intelligence implications of the above are rather obvious.

Of course you've probably heard of Readers Digest's acquisition of a controlling interest in one of the major computer timeshare networks. I assure you this has nothing to do with selling magazines as we now know them. On a similar note, it has been admitted by at least two newsweekly magazines that they are investigating the possibility of eventually going to a videodisc format - people just don't seem to have much time for reading these days.

Concerning holographic projection, Sony, Panasonic and JVC all assure us they've units in the works. I've yet to see Sony not come through.

Laser disc/computer marriage? I'd bet my Atari on it!