Word: audio
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Price too has inhibited the spread of the discs. Computer CD drives cost about $800, and software publishers are charging up to $50,000 for CD versions of especially valuable data. But strangely enough, audio CDs may be coming to the rescue. Says David Davies of Minnesota's 3M company, which produces about half of the world's compact discs for computers: "Without the CD music market, data CDs would not exist. The hardware would be too expensive." The intense competition to produce music CDs, he explains, will spill over to the CD data field, forcing down the costs...
Bring out the sandbags! The American music industry is already at war with a new audio technology that is expected to land in U.S. stores sometime this year. The enemy is the digital audio tape, yet another advance in high-quality sound reproduction that will be marketed by Japanese electronics firms. DAT's imminent arrival on U.S. shores has stirred a protectionist outcry from an entire industry, all the way from record-company headquarters in Manhattan to sound studios in Los Angeles...
...partly to preserve the sense of wonder about the devices, but also to prevent rivals from making knockoffs. While the technology is nothing that will tip the balance between superpowers, each toy company has developed a creative scheme for linking the toys with TV shows via light beams or audio signals...
While Axlon is tight-lipped about its Tech Force robots, executives confirm that the toys are controlled by audio signals. Michael Hatcher, Axlon's senior product manager, imitates the sound by muttering a low-pitched beeping noise. The Tech Force robots will carry microprocessors that decode the signals from the sound track of the Tech Force cartoon program. Those beeps -- signifying such commands as forward, reverse, right and left -- will send the robots wheeling across the living-room floor. At the same time, children can control other robots by sending out audio commands from a small keyboard. That way youngsters...
Experts say the optical and audio signals are unlikely to cause any havoc with other electronic gear, automatic garage doors or pets with sensitive hearing. Though the technology is now being pitched to children, it could eventually lead to some interesting possibilities for grownups. Saving the universe is one thing, but how about being able to take a potshot at J.R. Ewing on Dallas...