VIDEOPHONES TO OUTSELL FAX? 

Although the principle of the fax machine has been around for almost a hundred years and available for almost 50, it was not until the Japanese reduced the cost and size that the concept took off. When it did it went global. The fax machine is now an essential part of business operations around the world.

The forerunner of the video phone was unveiled at the 1932 World Fair in Flushing, New York, by American Telephone & Telegraph, but the costly and cumbersome installation and use kept it as a tinkerer's toy for 50 years. This curiosity is ready to explode, with the same or even greater velocity than the ubiquitous fax machine and assorted mutants. I have been using one of these mutants, the Dove Fax+ now for about one year. It isn't a fax machine in the usual sense. It is a fax "box", a 9 x 15 X 3 cm grey box, plugged into my Macintosh computer, that recognizes an incoming fax as opposed to a call coming from a human or a computer sending E-mail. The Dove Fax+ also routes calls to its own answering machine, when no one is in the office.

The main advantage, apart from a much lower price than the three machines it replaces, is that the fax box uses the higher brain capacity of its attached computer to do all the work that is done by the expensive (but duplicated, if you have a computer) components in a conventional "flat-bed" fax machine. The fax-box directs signals from incoming faxes to the computer which records then stores the information until retrieved. The fax can be read on the computer screen, diverted for permanent storage, printed out, or tossed in the trash. All with a mere click of the mouse (or voice if a Voicewriter II unit is attached).

For outgoing faxes the same system in reverse applies. The fax is prepared on the screen, with pictures if required, then zapped around the world in single or multiple copies at the time designated (after midnight during lowest phone rates, if desired). The computer keeps the record until filed, forwarded or discarded. The same fax box also incorporates its own voice messaging (answering machine) capability. You can even receive a fax and zap its clone out to anyone, again with just a few clicks of the mouse. This user-friendly ability will eventually include an internal fax box or fax card inside every computer.

The dramatic developments coming with the merger of the computer screen and television will soon provide the latest surprise. For two years now my Digi-TV has been instantly digitizing my television signals from stick antennae, dish and cable connection and throwing them on my computer screen. From there I can "freeze", alter, store, or forward anywhere in seconds. Next year, I will have my computer screen converted to a real time (30 frames per second), full (16.8 million) color, two-way, interactive videophone. Compression Labs Inc. (CLI) of San Jose, California, have succeeded in compressing a mass of data into an area where no technology has gone before. And, it will all come over an updated fibre-optic phone line.

This is the "electronic highway" or ISDN (Integrated Systems Digital Network) mentioned in earlier columns. Like the fax box and fax card, it will eventually fit inside a computer and merge still more technology into personal and educational communications and information.

Compression Labs have been the leading researcher and manufacturer of video-conferencing systems during the past decade. They are also the leader in the emerging arena of Compressed Digital Video (CDV) communications. This currently gives them control of the vital price factor by doing so much with so little. CLI are currently working with Sprint (U.S.), the all-digital fibre-optic phone network, to achieve network certification for their video phone system. CLI was one of the first companies to announce their latest developments by fax. I get it, you get it, faster. Somewhere along the line this can save time and money. If you don't recognize the increasing value of time, you may drop down to the techno-peasant class.

Today's expensive videoconferencing will tomorrow be part of desktop video, a developing field that will surpass desktop publishing in accelerating world communications. And, most likely, eventually, showing up on your screen in High Definition Television (HDTV), a system with twice the resolution as you are watching today.

More information: Dove Fax+: Dove Computer Corp., 1200 North 23rd St., Wilmington, NC 28405. Phone: (Canada) 919/763-7918. International 919/763-7600. USA direct or via Camnet from Canada: 800/622-7627.

Digi-TV: Louise Kohl, Director of Corporate Communications, Aapps Corporation, 756 North Pastoria Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94086. Phone: 408/735-8550.

Voice Navigator II: Articulate Systems, Inc., 600 West Cummings Park, Suite 4500, Woburn, MA 01801. Phone: 617/935-5656.

Compression Labs Inc. : Tracy Beaufort, 2660 Junction Ave., San Jose, CA 86134. Phone: 408/435-3000. Fax: 408/922-5429.

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