Telecommunications and computers converging

Press, 28 June 1983, Page 32

Telecommunications and computers converging

By

Norman Nicholls,

of the N.Z. Post Office

Progress towards “The Office of the Future” is being driven by advances in two major technological spheres, terminals and networks. Developments in these areas are outpacing progress in the two most important underlying aspects: software and “the human response.” Dominating most developments in office automation is the trend towards the convergence of telecommunications and computers. Nowhere is this more evident than in terminal design. Terminals are what we see, what we can use, experience and experiment with, and what can be most readily understood. Therefore, they tend to gain most attention. In the computer industry terminals have developed from simple visual display units through to today’s even more intelligent terminals with the computing power of minicomputers. Graphics and colour are now making their appearance. In the meantime, the telecommunications industry has been producing im-

provements in the terminal equipment for its two traditional markets: voice and text transmission. The telephone’s initial enhancements, such as “handsfree” operation, auto-dialling and auto-answer, have led towards the so-called “intelligent” phone; so intelligent in today’s technology that it requires a visual display unit to display messages and a keyboard’ to instruct it adequately. The result is a “telephone” with text capability that looks like a computer terminal. Never to be out-done, the computer designers have felt the need to add audio capabilities to their terminals to cater for spoken messages. This has resulted in a computer terminal that looks like an intelligent telephone. The outcome of these trends will be the executive, or office, work station which incorporates communication and computing requirements. Such terminals will be the key to the office of the future, although more improvements are required to make it acceptable to a wider range of users. All ready rapid progress is being made on such developments as voice recognition to avoid the need for keyboard input. Supporting these work stations will be increasingly sophisticated versions of today’s high-speed printers, data bases, facsimile machines and the like. To realise the potential of these advanced terminals requires communication networks to link them together, almost regardless of their location. In each of the major network areas (local, metropolitan, national and international) spectacular developments are taking place: fibre optics, com-

munication satellites, digital technology, to name a few. Until recently the only major networks were for telephone and telex. The former being a vast international system and a wonderful achievement, considering the electromechanical technology it is based upon. Telex, although it lacks the versatility of the telephone, plays an important role in the business community. Data traffic today is mainly carried by specially adapted circuits on the telephone network. However, as the importance of data transmission has increased, new networks, specifically designed for data, have emerged. Foremost among these are the packet networks which assemble data in “packets,” complete with an address and delivery instructions, which are fed on to the network for transport to their destination. The Post Office’s packet network is being installed now and is due to begin commercial operation early next year. At the planning stage, in New Zealand and internationally, is the next step: integration of the various networks that exist today to achieve an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). The evolution of ISDN will take the next two decades; the detail of its shape is still being refined, but its goal is to take (digitally encoded) information generated at any terminal and transport it to any other location. Several means of transmission may be used: cable, fibre optics, satellite, etc. Also, if required, the network may operate on the information during transit, translating it into the language of its destination for instance, until it reaches a terminal which is held, carried, or on the desk of its recipient. ISDN will be fast, reliable and economic, capable of accepting voice, text, data, graphics or video information. The first moves towards ISDN in New Zealand began

when the Post Office recently let a contract for the supply of a digital microwave system that will form a new transmission highway throughout New Zealand. It will begin operation in 1986. With these developments in network capability and the emergence of sophisticated terminals “the office of the future” will become commonplace provided development of the other two, more critical factors — software and human response — takes place at a comparable rate. Regardless of how sophisticated the terminals are, or the networks that connect them, unless the instructions that drive them are designed with the user in mind, their potential will not be realised. They must be easy to use on tasks that their users want to be carried out. This may be very obvious but it is difficult to achieve, mainly because insufficient attention has been paid to the human factor. The telephone has been with us for more than 100 years and yet our response to it and the changes it has brought about, are not well understood. The same is no doubt true of computers, particularly as developments have taken place so quickly, whereas the measurement of human responses is difficult and slow. But unless we obtain a greater understanding of the human response to these developments the exploitation of their potential will be held back. We will only achieve the “less-paper office,” rather than the “paper-less office.” It is therefore most appropriate that the Post-master-General, Mr Talbot, should have suggested recently that the establishment of a chair of communications at a New Zealand university would be a fitting gesture to mark World Communications Year 1983. The aim of this academic post would be to examine the impact of communication technology on our society.