Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
and an output mechanism that was also activated by the reading head.
The four components were driven by a motor, and the whole apparatus
was contained in a rectangular box measuring 10 inches
×
16 inches
×
8
1
2
inches.
The memory was the core of the device. It consisted of a roll of
paper in the form of an “endless” 131 foot band, 16 inches wide, that
moved over two rolling drums and was held in position by perforations
on the edges, in rather the same way as a 35mm film is held in position
in a camera. The dictionary entries were recorded line by line in five
columns. The first column was for the word in the source language (the
language from which the translation was being made), the other columns
for equivalents in three other languages and for additional useful infor-
mation. By employing a Varityper
17
to type the words, the paper band
could contain up to 40,000 lines, which could be doubled if both sides
of the band were used.
In order to achieve an even greater capacity, Artsrouni proposed that
words could be printed in two different colours (red and blue) superim-
posed on each other on the same lines, and read by switching from one to
the other by changing coloured filters. Since the machine could use sev-
eral bands, and since the width of the bands could also be increased,
the amount of dictionary information stored on the bands could be
enormous.
A selector mechanism enabled the perforation band to locate the cor-
responding word in the memory band. The whole line of five columns
was then displayed in the row of five slits at the top of the operator board.
These slits represented the output mechanism: the first slit showed the
source word and the four other slits showed the translations and other in-
formation. The slits were provided with windows of red and blue glass,
allowing users to select either blue or red entries. As well as this visual
display of the machine's results, the “brain” could be provided with a
printer to create typed output. Even more ambitiously, Artsrouni envis-
aged spoken output by means of a special mechanism (presumably using
recordings.)
Artsrouni claimed that the selector and the memory could search for
words at a speed of 40,000 lines per minute. If the search began midway
on the band, the average speed would be doubled. In fact, a special brak-
/
17
The Varityper was a highly ingenious word processor whose heyday was in the 1920s and 1930s.
This machine could set text in more than 300 different typefaces, it could adjust the spacing between
characters and could even produce right-justified copy.
