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CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND -- Acorn Computers Ltd. has developed a prototype videophone as part of an alliance with the Information and Communications Systems Laboratories of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT).
Though the initial design is based on a set-top box and would use a TV for a display, the aim of the Acorn-NTT project is to produce a chip or chip set that will provide video telephony as a standard function on televisions by about 2000, said Mark Phillips, technology marketing manager for Acorn, based here.
Acorn will use video-compression algorithms developed at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland) to offer videotelephony over links as slow as 9.6 kbits/second. NTT, Japan's leading provider of telephone service, will bring expertise on transmitting video over its network. Acorn will also provide display software and hardware technology.
"They [NTT] are looking to get OEMs involved in the project," said Phillips. "We are not yet in a position to say which consumerequipment makers are involved."
The next stage work will be to produce a number of prototypes, which...