IF You want to sell off your car, howabout advertising on television? If youare thinking about the expenses, don'tworry - it will be cheap enough, thanksto the efforts of researchers fromViewcall, a company set to stormBritain's information superhighway.The firm has developed a new technology that makes it possible to transmithigh quality still pictures, text andsound over conventional copper telephone lines to standard television sets inan interactive manner.
The technology will enable a subscriber to the Viewcall multimedia service to view what can be described as across between classified advertisementsin local newspapers and cinema trailersfor neighbourhood businesses at theflick of a button on the TV remote.Coloured photographs of the varioussecond-hand cars for sale and other relevant details regarding the vehicleswould be accessed as on screen display.More key depressions may enable youto express interest in particular modelsand also arrange for test drives.
Viewcall differs from other multimedia services in many respects, saycompany officials. First, it will be cheap- about E2 a week for residential customers. Second, it will offer only homeshopping or advertising. Third, it will belocal in style and content.
John Bentley and David Boyce,executive chairperson and chief operating officer of Viewcall respectively,argue that the conventional approach tothe information superhighway - basedon expensive and technically difficultservices such as voice on demand - isfundamentally flawed. Its operatingcosts are high, they say, pointing tostudies which indicate the cost of providing interactive shopping servicesover cable at $5,000. The Viewcall system works out at just $250 a home.
The Viewcalt system comprises anumber of servers or database computers. Information is transmitted downconventional telephone lines to a settop box designed by Online Media -division of Acorn Computer,.Viewcall's chief selling point is the quality of graphics that it can transmit -images of almost photographic qualityand clarity. This has been made possibleby a mathematical method called fractalcompression for squeezing down thenumber of binary digits needed totransmit an image.
Compared to the ordinary televisionadvertising, the Viewcall system worksout to be cheap. Viewcall has alreadydemonstrated the latest version of itssystem at London's Cafe Royal andintends inviting content providers tosign up for trials.