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j Computer terminals in 'homes and a greater use of {computers in education and industry in New Zealand within 10 years were predicted on Wednesday by a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Canterbury.
Professor J. K. Bargh told a meeting of the Canterbury branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand that information retrieval systems based on computer libraries would become widespread in the next decade. Terminals in houses would enable individuals to extract any information they chose from these libraries. Present mechanical communications systems, such as newspapers, would probably also be computerised and made available through home terminals. The technology for these .public information retrieval ! systems was already availr>'p It was onlv a matter of
lowering costs sufficiently to allow the systems to be marketed.
Professor Bargh said that he could see a tremendous growth in the use of computers in education. “It would probably be the most patient tutor or teaching device or whatever you wanted to call it,” he said. He also said that computers would play a greater role in industry, particularly in food processing.
“If we are to make full use of our primary resources, much more will have to be processed here before export,” he said. “There is little doubt that the food processing industry will become computerised. To sortie extent, this is already happening in. the meat industry.” Professor Bargh believed that there were already about 800 computer units worth about ,S4OOM in New Zealand. This number
likely to increase at a steady pace, as shown by the sale recently of 42 new units to the Inland Revenue Department, and a further 20 units to the Data Bank. Professor Bargh said that the growth of computer technology had been phenomenal since the installation of the first commercial computer for the United States Census Bureau in 1951. An estimated 400.000 computers, valued at SIOO,OOOM, were now in use in the United States. Forecasts showed that a further SIOO,OOOM was likely to be spent on computers in that country in the next five years.
Basketball.—Missouri University of the United S’tates, beat Asfa Dakar, of Senegal, 85-45. to win its first victory in the tenth intercontinental clubs basketball championship in Buenos Aires. In another match Obras Sanitarias (Argentina) won a hardfought battle against Amazonas fßr-vzjl) RO-76.
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Press, 9 October 1976, Page 4
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385Plug-in newspapers? Press, 9 October 1976, Page 4
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