St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 124

22BP ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 1992 Interaction: Tandy's New Toy Brings Information Through TV By Steven Vonder Haar 1992 Fort Worth Star-Telegram Welcome to Tandy's new electronic alternative to the bedtime story. Cookies and milk are still in order. But once kids catch a glimpse of the new gadget introduced on Thursday by the Fort Worth-based consumer electronics giant, they may never again settle for just plain old Dr. Seuss.

Instead, they'll flip on the TV, grab a compact disc and slide it into a VCR-looking device in the living room. At the push of a button, the television starts reading aloud a children's story called "Just Grandma and Me." With the click of a remote control, kids then can make a bumble bee fly or check to see what animal is living in Grandma's mailbox. It is all part of a wrld Tandy will try to bring to your living room when it starts selling its Visual Information System, or VIS, this October. With VIS machines, Tandy has packed the guts of a personal computer into a $700 machine that looks and acts more like a VCR. In announcing the product last week, Tandy executives said they hope the device will make information software a welcome part of the family entertainment center.

With the new interactive technology, super sleuths can go on the case with Sherlock Holmes. Novice chefs can pick up cooking tips. And users can even design their own work-out routines, programming the device to be their own personal fitness trainer. "We think customers are ready for the next generation of entertainment that is more than just shoot'em-up blocks moving around the screen," said Howard Elias, vice president of Tandy Computers. "We don't view this as a video game device," Elias said.

"This is something that can provide fun in the process of learning." Tandy said that more than 100 applications from almost 50 independent software developers will be available for the VIS system by the end of the year. Most of the VIS applications have been translated from a similar standard for multimedia software used on standard computers. Each of the software packages will be priced from $29.95 to $79.95. The packages typically will be available in the same stores where the VIS players are sold. VIS is an electronic cookbook that can provide video instructions for assembling a recipe.

The program, for example, can show a viewer how to saute onions with a video demonstration. Tandy will set the educational marketing tone for its VIS system by including an electronic encyclopedia with each VIS system. Compton's Encyclopedia will publish a multimedia version with complete text from its standard encyclopedia set. The electronic encyclopedia will include about 10,000 pictures, 20 animation sequences and 20 minutes of sound clips, said Tom McGrew, vice president of sales and marketing for Compton's NewMedia in Carlsbad, Calif. "This agreement gives us a larger base of customers that we may be able to sell upgraded and updated versions of our encyclopedia in the future," McGrew said.

Applications such as the Compton's Encyclopedia targets the market Tandy is trying to address with VIS, Elias said. "Our research has told us that customers understand the value of having education presented in better ways," he said. "Our vision is for every family to have a VIS in the living room." Tandy plans to sell the machines through its network of stores, including its nationwide Radio Shack chain. The company also has agreed to make machines for Zenith Electronics which will attempt to distribute the system to other consumer electronics retailers. The goal for VIS, Elias said, is to have a broader audience than typical Nintendo video game systems, which are usaally targeted at children between the ages of eight and 14.

Users may enjoy solving a case with the legendary Holmes. In a software package developed by ICOM Solutions of Wheeling, 111., players take an active role, searching for clues by watching videos of key informants, gathering information from local school children and reading the newspapers of the day. Other applications designed specifically for adults include a software program that allows users to tailor-make their own video work-out. With the program, users can program the number of sit-ups, push-ups or jumping jacks they want to complete in a given time. At that point, an exercise instructor will appear on the screen and do the exercises at the pace you want.

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