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"I went back to science fiction to try a few experiments …and my first experiment was a disaster…"
- Alfred Bester
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| Reading Machine | ||
| A projector which showed text on a screen or the ceiling for easy reading. |
I really like this device, for various reasons. First, it projects the words on the ceiling, which is a spectacularly good idea and would have saved me many a sore neck from reading too long in bed.
| She decided that she might as well go to bed. One wall was filled with books; she found a spool of Kipling's Just So Stories and took it happily upstairs.
The bed in her room was as modern as next week, with automassage, coffee dispenser, weather control, reading machine, etc. Jill decided that she would probably not oversleep, crawled into bed, slid the spool into the reading machine, lay back and scanned the words streaming across the ceiling. Presently the speed control slipped out of her relaxed fingers, the lights went out and she slept. |
| Technovelgy from Stranger in a Strange Land,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Putnam in 1961 Additional resources -
|
I also like the fact that the lights would automatically go out when you fell asleep (I not infrequently find my son in bed, with the lights on, and a book nearby).
The most intriguing idea to me is that this is a device for convenient reading; it is not a device that reads aloud to the user. The only similar products today are used as assistive reading devices for people with vision problems. I'll bet if they used the ceiling, there would be fewer people with vision problems and neck aches.
In Arthur Radebaugh's popular newspaper comic “Closer Than We Think" we find an "electronic library" which seems to be what Heinlein has in mind here.
(Arthur Radebaugh's "electronic library")
Some unusual inventions for home entertainment and education will be yours in the future, such as the "television recorder" that RCA's David Sarnoff described recently.With this device, when a worthwhile program comes over the air while you are away from home, or even while you're watching it, you'll be able to preserve both the picture and sound on tape for replaying at any time. Westinghouse's Gwilym Price expects such tapes to reproduce shows in three dimensions and color on screens as shallow as a picture.
Another pushbutton development will be projection of microfilm books on the ceiling or wall in large type. To increase their impact on students, an electronic voice may accompany the visual passages.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Stranger in a Strange Land
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to Stranger in a Strange Land
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Reading Machine-related
news articles:
- Lucent DVR Sleep Detector
- Book Time Page-Turning Robot
- Netflix Smart Socks Know When You Doze Off
| Sleep Pods At Daxing International Airport |
| Amazon Blimp Parent Drone Concept |
| Tortoise Mobile Smart Stores |
| Sony Pocket Air Conditioner Is Phil Dick's Idea! |
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'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
'Oscar picked up a trowel. 'I'm the tool for the mortar,' the little trowel squeaked cheerfully.'
'... he waited for the robotrix attendant to finish fueling up his ship.'
The Roujin Z system provides care to fully bedridden patients - and then some!
'Aerostat meant anything that hung in the air. This was an easy trick to pull off nowadays.'
'The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky.'
'An adjustment panel outside the door would cause it to extrude various appurtenances in memory plastic...'
