A Combined Videotex/Videodisc System for Tourist Information

Videotex and videodisc are two relatively new media for electronic publishing. Although the current state of technology can deal with information in different forms, no one information system can handle all vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information at the same time. The convergence of the existing technologies may provide a new environment for electronic publishing and trigger a new range of applications in this area. The Brighton videotex/videodisc project has undertaken a pilot study into a combined videotex/videodisc system in which a videodisc player is controlled by a videotex terminal so that control information on videotex pages can select still frames, or sequences of frames, on the videodisc. The system has been developed in co-operation with the English Tourist Board. It is intended to mount a public trial of the system in the near future. This paper presents a description of the combined videotex/videodisc system. The user facilities are described in detail and there is a brief discussion of the technical issues involved in the implementation.