♫MUSIC♫
DONALD BITZER: Well, NSF was one of the primary supporters of
the work that we were doing in trying to bring computer-based
education to the public. Back in those days of the 1960s,
early '60s, education, particularly in the inner
cities, was not doing too well. And we decided that it would be
very important if we could bring in some excellent automatic,
computer-controlled, computer-based teaching system
to aid with that. And NSF became an early partner in
helping us accomplish that.
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It helped in two different ways. One is it helped us get
equipment that we had designed, allowed us to get this equipment
and distribute it. And secondly, it allowed us to
develop, well, course material. Eventually, using the help of
NSF, we developed about 10,000 hours of course material to use
with the system. That was very important. It allowed us, from
the hardware standpoint, to write material and explore the
various kinds of equipment we had, the touch, the projection
of the screen from behind with slides, the audio, all the
different aspects that we needed for, in those days, for
communication with the students and did not exist.
♫MUSIC♫
PLATO came first. We had run Plato for about four years when
we decided we needed a new display. So, Plato started in
1960. We got NSF support a little later once we had proven
some of the basic ideas. But in 1964 we decided we needed this
other display, and the basic ideas for the plasma display
came out in 1964, and we demonstrated it about '65 and
'66 that it would work.
♫MUSIC♫
The motivation for the plasma display was to provide a
terminal which would provide all of the characteristics that we
had designed into the system, the ability to put on slides
over the top of graphics, sensitivity to touch,
flicker-free, everything that we wanted, the plasma panel was
designed to fill and in economical communication mode.
It had to have memory in the display because memory used to
cost about $2 a byte, and you couldn't afford that. So memory
had to be in the display itself so you could turn on and off
different spots and do it at a low communication rate. You
only had to make the changes on the screen.
♫MUSIC♫
We did not intend it for TV at the beginning. That was an
unintended result. We did it to help education, get students and
make it easier for them to study. But now that it's
improved TV, I'm not so sure that the students might not
spend more time watching TV and less time studying instead of
what we intended.
♫MUSIC♫
The support from NSF was a key support, particularly at the
time it was given because we had to have, we would never have had
the motivation to continue making the plasma panel work if
it hadn't been we saw the educational side, which NSF
supported fully. So it's, to say that without NSF something
might not have come along, maybe it would've, but I can say that
by being there when they were they were, made a significant
difference in our ability to even bring the plasma
display to market.
♫MUSIC♫
Well, I would say everything always surprises me. We, Plato,
the surprise that Plato would work didn't, wasn't too
surprising because I had been a teacher. Now this is my 63rd
year at teaching and research, and I could see that this
technique was going to do a good job. And it's still, by the
way, running today. The works and the lesson material, which
NSF supported, is now available commercially and has been, and
thousands of students everyday use that material for learning
yet. So that side is surprising me that something would last
that long, since 1960, but the display, the success of the
display in television is what surprised me. We knew you
could do it. We weren't interested in doing that.
We were interested in a display for students.
♫MUSIC♫
I have all plasma at home. In one of my other houses I got all
plasma except one LCD.