Software Chronicles

Epidemic! (1982)

Ron Stevens (CEO of VOTAN) demoing the VOTAN V5000 Speech Recognition System from 1984. 

This is a great example of an early VUI (voice user interface). 

This device could control a personal computer using voice recognition. Like the CallText, it connected to an IBM PC using an RS-232 connection. The included software package controlled a color monitor.Basically, the demonstration consisted of Stephens talking into a microphone and using simple verbal commands to navigate menus within a sample program that displayed sales figures for a company. Stephens also demonstrated an application that enabled the user to verbally access their brokerage account, check their portfolio, and even leave a voicemail message for their stockbroker.Cheifet remarked the V5000’s speech was so good, it was hard to believe that it was computer generated. Stephens said the V5000 relied on “analysis and coding” technology that was similar to that used by major telecommunications networks. The main difference was that those networks used 64,000 bits of speech per second to modulate digital speech, while the V5000 only used about 10,000 bits per second. This made his device more cost effective and feasible for use with a personal computer.Lechner observed the V5000 relied on a pre-recorded and digitized vocabulary that was then sampled at 10,000 bits per second. Stephens said yes, the V5000 stored about 1,000 messages altogether that could be accessed by the included software, which could call out one message at a time. It was also possible to combine several messages together.Lechner then asked about where “the state of the art” was with respect to speech recognition technology. Stephens replied there were several factors to consider. First, the V5000 relied on speaker-dependent recognition using discrete words. Speaker-independent recognition was a more difficult technology and it would offer a more limited vocabulary. Second, there was the problem of discrete versus continuous words. Stephens said we would not see speaker-independent recognition of continuous words anytime soon. Finally, there was the scale of the vocabulary. The technology for accomplishing unlimited vocabulary with speech recognition–something akin to what the CallText could do with speech synthesis now–was probably 2 to 4 years away. (read more)

Ceefax (/ˈsiːfæks/, punning on "seeing facts") was the world's first teletext information service and a forerunner to the current BBC Red Button service. Ceefax was started by the BBC in 1974 and ended, after 38 years of broadcasting, at 23:32:19 BST (11:32 PM BST) on 23 October 2012, in line with the digital switchover being completed in Northern Ireland.

Logo is an educational programming language, designed in 1967 by Wally Feurzeig, Seymour Papert, and Cynthia Solomon. Logo is not an acronym: the name was coined by Feurzeig while he was at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, and derives from the Greek logos, meaning word or thought.  A general-purpose language, Logo is widely known for its use of turtle graphics, in which commands for movement and drawing produced line or vector graphics, either on screen or with a small robot termed a turtle. The language was conceived to teach concepts of programming related to Lisp and only later to enable what Papert called "body-syntonic reasoning", where students could understand, predict, and reason about the turtle's motion by imagining what they would do if they were the turtle. There are substantial differences among the many dialects of Logo, and the situation is confused by the regular appearance of turtle graphics programs that are named Logo. More on Wikipedia

Algebra Arcade was an educational game which despite its title is not an arcade game. It does include some aliens however and these appear on a coordinate grid. The player's task is to zap as many of these so called algebroids as possible and this is done by typing in equations. When the entered equation is plotted a whirlwind will follow its path and knock off any algebroids that it passes through. For each algebroid that is taken out the player earns some points. At the same time it is necessary to avoid the ghost that is also located on the grid. If it is hit the Graph Gobbler will appear and munch the equation and the player will be without any points. The player will also be sent to a committee which can penalize the player by taking away some turns. The game can be played by one or two players who each has ten turns. Extra turns are given for scoring 10,000 points, clearing all the algebroids or by finding the Graph Gobbler which is invisible on the grid.

More on the game

You can try Algebra Arcade online from Archive.org

Launched in November 1983 by Nottingham Building Society with backing from Bank of Scotland, Homelink enabled customers to view statements, transfer money between accounts, pay bills and arrange loans online. 

The system even included an e-commerce feature, letting customers compare prices and order goods from several retailers as well as arrange holiday's via Thomas Cook and send electronic messages to other Homelink users.

(a facinating early version of online shopping) [More on FinExtra]

How to send an e mail 1980's style. Electronic message writing down the phone line. First shown on Thames TV's computer programme 'Database' in 1984 07/06/1984.

More about Micronet 800

A Micronet advert 

The Writer's Workbench (wwb) was a software package developed for the Unix operating system by Lorinda Cherry and Nina McDonald of Bell Labs.[1][2] It was perhaps the earliest grammar checker to receive wide usage on Unix systems. (Wikipedia)

Video: Warren Kuhl from AT&T Western Electric demoing 

Demo of Audible.com (audio books and books-on-tape player) from 1999

Th Word Plus was developed in 1981 by Wayne Holder, Oasis Systems and licensed to Non-Linear Systems, Inc. for Kaypro computers. Word Plus was a spell-check program with automatic correction for computers running CP/M operating system. (National Museum of American History)

Clip

Wayne Holder demoing the software

WordVision was a word processor from 1983 for the IBM PC with some features unique for the time period, such as unerase, automatic document saving, and long descriptive filenames at a time when DOS did not contain that support. (for more and to download)

Note: I was’t able to find much about what the architect in the episode mentioned (draft), the closest from 1983 was Draft-Aid.(link)

Draft Perspective Drawing & Design Software

Draft-Aide is a two-dimensional, total CAD (computer-aided design) system to interface with the IBM PC XT, an upgraded IBM personal computer which is sold as a package with 128K memory, a 10 megabyte hard disk, and eight expansion slots, retailing for $4,995. 

In his thesis of May 1976, called “A versatile computer generated dynamic flight display”, he displayed a model of the flight of an aircraft on a computer screen.[3] With this, Artwick proved that it was possible to use the 6800 microprocessor, the first available microcomputer, to handle the graphics and calculations of the specifications needed to produce real-time flight simulation.

After establishing Sublogic in 1977, Artwick took his thesis one step further by developing the first flight simulator program for the Apple II, which was based on the 6502 microprocessor. He followed up the simulator with a Radio Shack TRS-80 version. By the year 1981, Flight Simulator became so popular that it was reportedly the best-selling title for Apple. (wikipedia)

Syntauri alphaSyntauri music system

Billed as the first affordable digital synth (around $1,500, Apple IIe not included), the alphaSyntauri competed directly against the Synclavier and Fairlight systems (both about $40,000 more) and set an impressive standard for 1980. (more from vintage synth)

Will Harvey’s Music Instructions Set 1983

Released in 1983, the HP-150 was one of the world’s earliest commercialized touch screen computers.