Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.tech From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: tech Mon, May 18 1992 Date: Mon, 18 May 92 05:21:50 EDT Message-ID: 05-18 0000 DECISIONLINE: Technology USA TODAY Update May 18, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network LOW VISION SYSTEM DEVELOPED: A video headset will soon allow people with low vision to view the world as though it's projected on a 60-inch black-and-white television screen. The portable Low Vision Enhancement System (LVES) should be commercially available in three years, scientists say, and is expected to cost about $3,000. It will help many of the 3 million people with disabling visual impairments. (For more, see special Vision package below.) HOME TELLER MACHINE DUE OUT: Two Washington-area banks, Maryland National and American Security, are launching a new service Monday that will allow more than 700,000 bank customers to pay their bills, transfer money between accounts and get account information using a special automated teller machine at home. The cost: $68.95 for the ScreenPhone, plus $6.95 a month for the service. NUMBER NEEDED FOR TRANSACTIONS: The new ScreenPhone that is to be launched by two Washington-area banks has a tiny screen and functions as both a regular phone and an at-home automated teller machine that must be accessed using a personal ID number. The phone won't take deposits or issue money. The service was developed by Online Resources & Communications Corp. of McLean, Va., which services electronic transactions. U.S. ROBOTICS CUTS PRICES: U.S. Robotics Inc. has cut the prices of its Worldport portable fax:modems and Sporster modems. The cost of the WorldPort 2496 Fax:Data service is now $379, down from $499. The WorldPort 9600 is priced at $559. The Sportster 9600 external model now costs $549. CYPRESS TO MOVE OPERATIONS: Cypress Semiconductor Corp. says it will move its U.S. assembly operation offshore to cut costs. It will cut 200 U.S. jobs in 1992, the firm says. "We can no longer afford the extra $8 million in yearly costs required to keep our assembly operation in Silicon Valley," Cypress President T.J. Rodgers said. SUPERCOMPUTING TO BE DISCUSSED: The Electronic Industries Association's Fourth Annual Federal Information Systems Forecast Conference will be held Wednesday at the J.W. Marriott, 1331 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington. Keynote speaker Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., will discuss supercomputing and other information technology topics of interest to the federal information systems community. LAB WORKING ON TRANSFER SPEED: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will head a three-year effort to speed data transmission between storage devices and supercomputers, Computerworld magazine reports. The goal of the National Storage Laboratory will be to combine commercial hardware and software to achieve data transfer time of up to 400 megabits per second. METAPHOR REDUCES PRICES: Metaphor Inc. says it has reduced the price on its Data Interpretation System, a client:server software package. Prices now range from $825 to $4,100 per user, down from $5,000. The price does not include software for the local-area network. COMPUTER ASSOCIATES BUYS FIRM: Computer Associates International Inc. has signed a deal to acquire Nantucket Corp. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Nantucket is primarily a desktop database developer. It had revenue of $40 million in 1991 and has about 260 employees. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON VISION: LVES CANNOT HELP EVERYONE: Robert Massof, director, Lions Vision Center, Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, Baltimore, says a new Low Vision Enhancement System (LVES) will help people with visual impairments due to diseases such as diabetes, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, retinal degeneration and macular degeneration. The LVES won't help people with no useful vision, Massof says. MINIATURE CAMERA IS USED: Standard aids for low vision include magnifying devices, such as telescope-like glasses. The LVES sends black and white images from a miniature camera on the front of the headset to two three-inch monitors that wrap around the temples. Small mirrors then reflect the stereo images from the screen to the eye through prescription eyeglass lenses. SYSTEM CAN ZOOM IN ON OBJECT: Prototypes, to be sent to U.S. Veterans Administration hospitals, can focus from any distance, allowing people to move normally in a room or outdoors. It can also zoom in for close-ups of people, books and magazines, enhance contrasts and display video signals of any type, including TV shows, VCR movies and information from a personal computer. MORE TECHNOLOGY WILL FOLLOW: More vision-enhancing technology is being developed. Already in the laboratory are systems that trick the brain into filling in blind spots. "I don't know where it will go or how far, but it will allow things to be done that previously couldn't even be considered," says LVES co-inventor, Douglas Rickman, Mississippi's NASA Stennis Space Center. (End of package.) Technology Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM