SCIENCE

Performance of Videotex-to-speechconvertor

O.R. Omotayo, Ph.D., Mem.I.E.E.E., Assoc.I.E.E.

Indexing terms: Biomedical engineering, Computer applications, Speech synthesis, Teletext

Abstract: Videotex is an electronic information service which allows sighted subscribers to access vast amountsof textual information in data bases via the telephone line. Pages of information, called via a keypad or key-board, are normally viewed on the screen of a domestic television set. A microprocessor-based system whichautomatically converts Videotex pages to synthetic speech in real time has already been developed; this enablesblind people also to access Videotex pages. This paper is a report on the performance of the system when usedby both blind and sighted users to access the British Telecom Videotex service (Prestel).

1 Introduction

Videotex is an electronic information service which allowssighted subscribers to access vast amounts of textual infor-mation in a large computer via the telephone line [1].Pages of information are called with a keypad or keyboardand viewed on the screen of the domestic television recei-ver. The system is interactive and permits a very largedatabase to be used. The Videotex service explored in theproject reported in this paper is Prestel, which is owned byBritish Telecom. Many other countries apart from Britainalso operate Videotex services [2].

At present, Prestel has about 200 000 pages of informa-tion available to subscribers which cover news, business,education, electronic mail, etc. However, in addition tobuying a Prestel decoder, a subscriber has to pay for thenormal telephone charge for the period of accessingPrestel, as well as the cost of each page when necessary.

To access Prestel information, a decoder is connected tothe telephone line and a television (TV) set. Then the userpresses a key on the decoder which automatically dials outto the Prestel computer and effects the line connectionwithout any further action by the user. When connection ismade to the computer, the user is asked to provide hisidentity number, which is a security against misuse of thereceiver by an unauthorised person.

When the user is identified, the Prestel computer allowshim to access the pages of information. To find a particu-lar piece of information, the user calls up the main indexpage, page 0, with a keypad or keyboard connected to thedecoder. Every category of informaton shown on the mainindex page (or, indeed, any other index page) has its ownnumber. The user presses the number of the keypad toidentify the section he wants, and he can continue tonarrow down the subject until the precise page is found.The user can also interact with Prestel, and, for example,book accommodation in hotels, book airline seats, ordergoods, etc. via the system.

2 The convertor

So far, only sighted people can access Prestel pages in theirbasic textual form. However, a microprocessor-basedsystem has been developed which converts Prestel pages tosynthetic speech for the blind [3]. This convertor simplyreplaces the TV set normally used to read the pages. The

Paper 3109A (E14/E7/E8), first received 30th August 1983 and in revised form 18thJanuary 1984

The author is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Ibadan,Ibadan, Nigeria

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convertor operates as follows: a page reformatter retrievesthe page requested by the user from Prestel and reorga-nises it into a form which can be sensibly read out inspeech. Then, a text-to-speech translator takes over thereorganised page and translates it into phonetic codes,which are then used to drive a speech synthesiser which'speaks' the page. All operations are under the supervisionof a system controller, which also provides the channel ofinteraction between the blind user and the system.

Facilities are provided in the convertor which allow theuser to read through a page either sentence by sentence orline by line, and he can switch between these two modes asmany times as he likes within the page. It is also possibleto move backward and forward as many times as necess-ary within a page, and, for example, when the end of thepage is reached, the system automatically loops back tothe top of the page. Similarly, when reading backward andthe top of the page is reached, the system loops to thebottom of the page. Thus, a page can be read in a contin-uous loop clockwise or anticlockwise.

Each line or sentence can be read either phrase byphrase or word by word, and any word can be spelt withinthe word mode. In addition, there are facilities for repeat-ing any utterance and for restarting any mode of reading.Thus, a blind user of the Prestel-to-speech convertor has tomaster these speech-output control keys in addition to thepage-selection keys on the Prestel keypad. This should notpresent any serious problems to the blind users of the con-vertor; many blind people have been successfully trainedto operate far larger number of keys as in, for example, theIBM talking typewriter [4], which allows a blind typist toprepare and proof-read documents without the assistanceof a sighted colleague.

3 Performance evaluation

The first step was to observe how different levels of speechquality could affect the performance of a user of thePrestel-to-speech convertor. To do this, two groups ofusers were asked to hear the output of the system via twosynthesisers which were known to have different levels ofspeech quality. The two speech synthesisers used wereVotrax SC01 [5] and Microspeech 2 [6]; Votrax SC01 hasalready been proved, in a separate experiment, to be thebetter of the two synthesisers [3].

Next, effort was made to establish whether or not theblind people, with the aid of the convertor, can accessPrestel information confidently like the sighted subscribers.To establish this fact, the performance of the blind wascompared with that of the sighted when they both used the

IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 131, Pt. A, No. 5, JULY 1984

convertor to access Prestel pages. Finally, in order toestablish the operational speed of the blind users of theconvertor, their performance was compared with anothergroup of sighted subjects who read Prestel pages visuallythroughout the experiments.

Because the convertor was designed purposely for theblind, effort was made, through a society for the care of theblind, to involve all age groups and both female and malesubjects. The ages of the eight blind people who volun-teered to take part in the evaluation exercise ranged from20 to 65 years, and their average age was about 40 years.In order to observe the age limit of those who could com-fortably cope with the system, one old blind man, agedabout 80 years, was invited to perform the experiments.The ages of the sighted subjects ranged from 18 to 40years, and their average age was about 30 years. In all, 29people took part in the evaluation exercise; they are allBritish, having English as their native language.

4 Preparation

From the survey of Prestel pages carried out before theexperiments, it was clear that Prestel pages can be roughlyclassified into the following categories: pure text, table,index and a mixture of two or more types. In addition,there are interactive pages which permit the user to com-municate with Prestel. The tests carried out covered alltypes of pages; in order to facilitate ease of collection ofexperimental data, the Prestel-to-speech convertor wasmodified to operate as in the following.

When switched on, it resets a clock attached to an inputport of the microcomputer and records the time the experi-ment begins. Any other recorded time is with reference tothis initial time. When a Prestel page, requested by asubject, is received, the title of the page is copied into thedata record as well as the time received. Also, when aspeech-output control key is pressed by a subject, the key,the time when pressed, as well as the text read as a resultof pressing the key are recorded. When the system isswitched off, the stop time is also recorded and the recordfile closed. All data are automatically recorded into afloppy-disc file.

From this data, it is possible to estimate the time spenton each line, each sentence, and each page, as well as thetime spent on each experiment. One can thus gauge thelevel of difficulty encountered by the subjects in using theconvertor to access Prestel pages.

In planning the experiments, pages of Prestel wereobserved over many weeks to see how stable their contentswere, and it was found out that the contents of many pageschanged from time to time; in some cases the pages wereremoved altogether. It therefore became clear that if all theexperiments were based on these unstable pages, the likeli-hood of the subjects encountering different types of textwas very high, since the experiments would be on for manyweeks. This would make it difficult to compare the per-formances of the subjects.

In order to overcome this problem, a request was madeto British Telecom to provide a Prestel editing terminalwith which some fixed pages consisting of indexes, texts,tables and interactive information were safely entered intothe Prestel computer in a special space reserved purposelyfor this experiment. In this way, the contents of these pageswere kept stable for all the subjects throughout the evalu-ation exercise. These pages are listed in Appendix 12.2.

The experiments based on these special pages wereaimed at finding out the problems of extracting informa-tion is speech from each type of page (index, table, pure

IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 131, Pt. A, No. 5, JULY 1984

text and interactive). After performing these experiments,the subjects were asked to use the convertor to find outcertain facts, starting from main index page (page 0). Inthis final experiment, each subject was free to access anyPrestel page available to arrive at the goal. The aim of thisfree-run experiment was to observe how subjects makedecisions on the choice of topics to search, and alsoobserve the difficulties faced in using the convertor to solvea real problem.

In all, eight experiments were performed: seven basedon the special pages plus the last free-run experiment. Theexperiments were arranged in order of complexity, with thefirst being the simplest. The arrangement was as follows:

experiment 1: single-level indexexperiment 2: double-level indexexperiment 3: triple-level indexexperiment 4: formatted multiple column pageexperiment 5: unformatted multiple column pageexperiment 6: timetable pageexperiment 7: interactive pageexperiment 8: free run

5 Experimental procedure

At the start of the experiments, each subject was intro-duced to Prestel and how to use it to access information;then the subject was given a brief demonstration on howto use the Prestel-to-speech convertor. Each subject triedout the system to be sure he knew what was expected ofhim throughout the exercise.

After the introduction, the experiments, designed forabout two hours, were then performed in the order shownabove. In each of experiments 1, 2 and 3, on index pages,the subject was presented with an index page and told tofind out facts contained in a specific page. In experiment 1,the answer could be obtained by pressing the right keystraight away. In experiment 2, the correct page isobtained via another index page, while in experiment 3 theuser had to go via two other consecutive index pages toreach the right page. These experiments were aimed atfinding out the problems of accessing index pages as thedepth increased.

If a wrong key was pressed at any stage in each of thesethree experiments which led to a wrong page, the systeminformed the subject in speech that he had made an errorand that he could try again by pressing a specific key onthe Prestel keypad. If this key was pressed, the subject wasled back to the page where he made the wrong decision. Ifa subject, after many trials, wished to discontinue a parti-cular experiment, he was allowed; this applied to all otherexperiments also.

Experiments 4 and 5 were aimed at finding out theproblems users could face in accessing a page of mixedcontents consisting of texts, indexes and columns of unre-lated information, which if read out serially would notsound sensible. In each of these experiments, the subjectwas asked to find out two specific pieces of informationwhich normally occurred in two different columns. Inexperiment 4, the mixed columns of the page had been pre-viously reformatted into a sensible form; the page was leftin its original form in experiment 5.

In experiment 6, the subject was presented with a time-table for trains travelling from Southampton to London(Waterloo), and asked specific questions aimed at findingout how far he actually understood the table of informa-tion read out in speech.

In experiment 7, the subject was presented with aninteractive page which consisted of a form to be filled by

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entering the answer to each question with the Prestelkeypad. This experiment was to test the level of difficultyassociated with filling a form page not seen but only heard.However, each subject had been shown how to use theconvertor to fill such forms before starting this experiment.

In the last experiment, the subject was asked to imaginethat he was going on holiday to a particular country, andto find out what the exchange rate of the British poundwas in that country. The subject started off from thegeneral index page (page 0), and had to use Prestel as nor-mally used; coming across many types of pages in gettingto the right page. All the experiments and correspondingquestions are listed in Appendix 12.1.

At the end of the last experiment, each subject wasasked to respond to a questionnaire in which he wasrequested to assess the system.

because the unformatted page required more time tounderstand than the formatted version, thus stressing the

6 Results

All the subjects finished the experiments except the oldblind man who, because he was tired, stopped after thefifth experiment.

6.1 Performance of the sighted subjectsThe average performance of all the sighted subjects whoused the convertor are shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 1 shows

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Fig. 1 Average percentage score of subjects per experiment0 Votrax SC01• Microspeech 2

the percentage score in each of the seven experimentsbased on the special pages entered into Prestel. All subjectsscored 100% in experiments 1, 2, 3, and 4, but could onlyscore 50% in experiment 5 based on the unformattedmulticolumn page.

So far, in experiments 1 to 5, the scores of those whoheard the output of the convertor via Microspeech 2 arethe same as those who heard Votrax SC01. However, theirperformances diverge in experiments 6 and 7, and thosewho listened to the better synthesiser, Votrax SC01, per-formed better. In particular, this group scored 100% in theinteractive page, while the other group scored 80%.

The average time spent on each experiment by the sub-jects is shown in Fig. 2. From experiments 1 to 3, the timeincreased as the level of indexes increased. All subjectsspent more time on the fifth experiment than on the fourth

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Fig. 2 Average time of subjects per experiment

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importance of reformating the multiple column pages. Thesixth experiment, based on the tables, took the longesttime followed by experiment 7 based on the interactivepage. On the whole, those who heard the better synthe-siser, Votrax SC01, were faster.

In the last experiment, in which the subjects were left toaccess Prestel freely to find out specific information, 78%of the Votrax SC01 group obtained the information in 15minutes, while 57% of the Microspeech 2 group spentlonger time, on average about 22 minutes, to obtain theinformation.

In response to the questionnaire, all the subjects agreedthat the speech-output control keys are adequate and easyto use, and that the system as a whole would be useful tothe blind. Moreover, more than 85% of them rated thesystem as good. However, their opinions differed on thequality of the speech output of the system: while about78% of those who heard Votrax SC01 said the speech wasintelligible, only 30% of the Microspeech 2 group took thisview.

Finally, when asked to list the problems faced in usingthe convertor, the response of the subjects can be sum-marised in order of importance as follows:

(a) the system is slow when compared with visual scan-ning

(b) comparing two options far apart on a page is tediousand time consuming

(c) there are too many unclear options in Prestel(d) moving back to previous pages is restricted in

Prestel(e) tables are very difficult to read(/) the system requires higher concentration than visual

scanning.

On the whole, the performance of the system when speak-ing via Votrax SC01, the synthesiser with better speechquality, was better than when speaking via the other syn-thesiser, Microspeech 2. Thus, it is clear that the quality ofthe speech output of the Prestel-to-speech convertor affectsits overall performance: the higher the speech quality, thebetter the performance.

330 IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 131, Pt. A, No. 5, JULY 1984

6.2 Performance of blind subjectsThe average performance of the eight blind subjects isshown in Figs. 3 and 4. In order to have direct comparison

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Fig. 3 Average percentage score of subjects per experiment

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Fig. 4 Average time of subjects per experiment0 eight blind subjects• four sighted subjects who read pages visually

with the way Prestel pages are normally accessed, theaverage performance of the four sighted subjects who readPrestel pages visually throughout the experiments are alsoindicated in these diagrams.

All subjects, blind and sighted, scored 100% in experi-ments 1, 2, 3 and 7. In the fourth experiment, while all theblind subjects scored 100%, the four sighted subjects couldonly score 50%. The reason for their poor performance inthis experiment was that every one chose the first option in

an index page closest to the information wanted. Forexample, when asked to find 'football results', every sightedsubject selected 'sports' because it was encountered firstand did not bother to read other index lines, even thoughthey could see the whole page.

The same tendency made them score less than 100% inexperiment 5, which was based on the unformatted page.The score of 50% of the blind subjects in this experiment isunderstandable because of the nature of the page, whichconsisted of double columns of unrelated material, and soshould be difficult to understand when read out by theconvertor. In the sixth experiment, based on the train time-table, the sighted and the blind subjects scored 100% and80%, respectively.

The average time spent on each experiment is shown inFig. 4, which indicates that the timetable page was themost difficult for the blind, followed by the interactivepage. The index pages were relatively faster to read.

When the average performance of the blind is comparedwith that of the sighted subjects who equally heard theoutput of the convertor via Votrax SC01, both groupsscored nearly the same mark in all the experiments, asshown in Fig. 5. Similarly, the operational speed of both

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groups tends to balance out, as shown in Fig. 6, because,although the sighted were slightly faster than the blind inexperiments 1, 2, 3, and 6, they were slower in the fourth,fifth, and seventh experiment.

In the free-run experiment, all the blind subjects pro-duced the required information in an average time of 26minutes. The same is true of the four sighted subjects whoread the pages visually; they spent 4 minutes on average.

The old man finished experiments 1 to 5 before stop-ping, and he scored 100% in all except number 5, in whichhe scored zero. He definitely would need much longertraining in order to use the convertor effectively.

In response to the questionnaire, all the blind subjectsagreed that the speech-output control keys are adequateand easy to use. They also rated the system as good andvery useful. However, two of them felt that the quality ofthe system speech output was not good enough but, likeothers, would not mind using systems with synthetic voice.

When asked to indicate the problems encountered in

IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 131, Pt. A, No. 5, JULY 1984 331

using the Prestel-to-speech converter, they were tooexcited to say much against it, and only one person felt the

The average operational speed of the blind throughoutthe experiments is 5.9 times slower than normal, indicated

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system was slow. This person only became blind recentlyand had been used to faster visual scanning of text pages.The only major point mentioned by all the blind subjectswas that all the keys on the Prestel keypad, as well as thespeech-output control keys, should be robust and wellspaced. This point should be noted when manufacturingthe Prestel-to-speech convenor; Staisey, et al. [7] havesuggested how to modify conventional keys for the dis-abled.

7 Operational speed

The operational speed per experiment of the four sightedsubjects who read Prestel pages visually is shown relativeto the speed of the blind subjects in Fig. 7. In the firstexperiment, the blind were 11 times slower, but their speedincreased remarkably in the second experiment, when theywere just four times slower than the sighted subjects. Thespeed of the blind subjects did not vary, too widely betweenexperiments 2 and 7, but, in the last experiment, theirspeed fell to seven times slower than normal; this may bedue to fatigue of using the system continuously for abouttwo hours.

The fastest blind subject spent 15 minutes on this lastexperiment, while the slowest spent about 30 minutes.Therefore, apart from fatigue, there is an additional factorof different routes taken by the subjects in obtaining therequired information. In addition, some companies select-ed, which normally publish the required information, didnot do so on some days. By the time this was realised, thesubjects would have wasted some time and had to returnto a previous page to select another company until onewas found which published the required information. Thisproblem occurs too when Prestel pages are read visually,and can only be reduced when the users become familiarwith the Prestel system itself.

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Fig. 7 Relative speed of the sighted subjects who read pages visuallywith respect to the blind subjectsAv(l) = average for questions 1-8Av(2) = average for questions 2-8

as Av(l) in Fig. 7. Their very slow speed in the first experi-ment, which was indeed the simplest, can be due to the factthat they were just getting used to the system, and as suchthe first task would tend to take a very long time. If thiseffect is ignored, then their average speed from the secondto the last experiment would be 4.4 times slower thannormal, indicated as Av(2) in Fig. 7. If the effect of fatigueis also ignored, their operational speed from experiments 2to 7 would increase to about three times slower thannormal.

8 Comments on the page reformatter

The position of the page reformatter was seen differentlyby all the subjects (blind and sighted alike) who have usedthe Prestel-to-speech convertor so far. While all of themagreed that reformatting some pages improved their read-ability, only some of them agreed that the page reformat-ting should be automatic. The others suggested that thepage reformatting should be under the control of the user,who should have access to any page in its original form. Ifafter reading the page to a point the user felt that it wasnot sensible, he could then make the system reformat thepage by pressing a special key.

In order to satisfy both groups, it might be better tomake the page reformatting optional, so that those whowant automatic reformatting can turn it on always and theothers can turn it off and on selectively as required.

9 Conclusion

The performance of a system for converting Videotexpages to synthetic speech in real time has been described.The system is potentially of low cost and portable. The

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two main categories of users, blind and sighted, who usedthe system to access pages of the British Telecom Videotex(Prestel), demonstrated comparable abilities. In compari-son with the normal speed of reading Prestel pagesvisually, the Videotex-to-speech convertor is about four tosix times slower. This operational speed is the average ofjust two hours' exercise, which can be improved withincreased practice by the user.

On the whole, converting Videotex information serviceto speech in real time has proved to be a viable venture,especially since thousands of blind people can, with thehelp of this aid, also enjoy the vast amount of informationoffered by Videotex. A Braille version of this convertor hasbeen developed also [8].

10 Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank all members of Man-Machine Systems Research Group of the Department ofElectronics, University of Southampton, England, for theirgeneral advice and regular discussions during the course ofthis project. Thanks are also due to B. Pyne and J. Deaperof the Hampshire Association for the Care of the Blind,England, and numerous volunteer subjects for their assist-ance in the evaluation exercise. British Telecom supportedthis project with equipment, and allowed access to thePrestel computers throughout the course of the project.

11 References

1 MOTHERSOLE, P.L.: 'Teletext and Viewdata: new informationsystems using the domestic television receiver', IEE Proc, 1979, 126,pp. 1350-1354

2 CLARKE, K.E.: 'International standards for videotex codes', ibid.,1979,126, pp. 1355-1361

3 OMOTAYO, O.R.: 'Synthetic speech output for electronic informationservices'. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Southampton, 1983

4 DAMPER, R.I.: 'Speech technology: implications for biomedical engi-neering', J. Med. Eng. & Tech., 1982, pp. 135-149

5 CIARCIA, S.: 'Build an unlimited vocabulary speech synthesizer', Byte,1981, pp. 38-50

6 MONKHOUSE, R., and ORR, T.: 'Microspeech 2 operators hand-book'. Costronics Electronics, Hillingdon, 1980

7 STAISEY, N.L., TOMBAUCH, J.W., and DILLON, R.F.: 'Videotexand the disabled', Int. J. Man-Machine Studies, 1983, 17, pp. 35-50

8 COPE, N., and KING, R.W.: 'Conversion of Teletext and viewdatainto Braille'. IEE Conf. Publ. 212, 1982

12 Appendix

12.1 Prestel evaluation experimentsExperiment 1: Find currency and exchange ratesExperiment 2: Find out what's new about holidays andtravelExperiment 3: Find out about booking hotels inSouthamptonExperiment 4a: Which keys would you press for 'yourweather'?

b: Which key would you press for 'footballresults'?

Experiment 5a: Which keys would you press for 'horo-scopes' ?

b: Which key would you press for 'cable TVreport'?

Experiment 6a: What time does the 1108 train get toLondon?

b: what time does the 2015 train get toLondon?c: Which is the last train you could take toarrive in London before 1200?d: What is the earliest train you could take toarrive in London after 1730?

Experiment 7: Answer the questions on the Prestel pageExperiment 8: Imagine that you are going on holiday toSpain. Find out what the exchange rate is

12.2 Pages for experiments 1 to 7Experiment J

Scratchpad 6513163a OpSpecialised indexes:

1 Agriculture2 Building & construction3 Commercial & industrial property4 Currency & exchange rates5 Medical profession6 Microcomputing7 Motoring & motor industry8 Shipping9 TV dealers information0 Librarians index

Scratchpad 65131631a OpCurrency & exchange ratesYou have found the right page, thank you.

Experiment 2

ScratchpadIndex

6513164a Op

1 Indexes for specialist users2 News & weather3 Buying & booking4 Advice & advertisements5 Stocks & shares6 Local information7 What's new8 Talking back to Prestel mailbox9 Information for Prestel users0 Other message services

65131641a OpScratchpadWhat's new

1 New information providers2 New additions3 New from Prestel4 IP's own what's new sections5 What's new in holidays and travel6 Games and quizzes7 What's new explained8 Football results9 County cricket fixtures0 New Gateway facilities

Scratchpad 651316411a OpYou have found the correct page, thank you.

Experiment 3

Scratchpad 6513165aTalking back to Prestel

1 Teleshopping through Prestel2 Messages to IPs3 Complaints & compliments4 Competitions on Prestel5 Prestel's gateway service6 Prestel Mailbox7 Booking by Prestel8 Prestel games9 Ordering books0 Other response frames

Op

IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 131, Pt. A, No. 5, JULY 1984 333

Scratchpad 65131651aBooking by Prestel

1 Hotels2 Flights3 Theatre4 Coaches5 Car hire6 Holidays7 Ferries8 Books9 Magazines0 Other items

Op

ScratchpadHotels by town

1 Glasgow2 London3 Birmingham4 Liverpool5 Belfast6 Cardiff7 Manchester8 Southampton9 Brighton0 Others

651316511a Op

OpScratchpad 651316513aHotels in SouthamptonYou have found the right page, thank you.

Error message for experiments 1, 2, and 3: 'Sorry, but youhave made a mistake; please press 0 to try again'

Experiment 4

Scratchpad 6513162b OpThe world's first daily electronic newspaperExperimental page

11 National news12 International13 Business14 Financial15 Sport16 Travel17 Horoscopes18 Your weather19 Magazine20 Norway focus22 Free fun23 CSO database

Newsflashes:Some airlines to fold 3Free concert in Nuffield 4Latest football results 5Cable TV progress report 6

Experiment 5

ScratchpadExperimental page

11 National news12 International

6513162a Op

13 Business14 Financial15 Sport16 Travel17 Horoscopes18 Your weather19 Magazine20 Action pages21 Norway focus22 Free fun23 CSO database

The world's first dailyelectronic newspaperNewsflashes

Some airlines to fold 3

Free concert atNuffield 4

Latest football results5

Cable TV progressreport 6

Experiment 6

ScratchpadTrain timetableSouthampton toDep.000504270643080008090901100411081204130813531404

Arr.024507240858095010241054122713191429152115581630

6513161a (

LondorDep.145315091555160116501726175018151914201522062305

l WaterlooArr.172517321739175018441935194420102120230100330124

Op

Experiment 7

Scratchpad 6513160a OpInteractive page

Please answer the following questions:How many seconds in a minute?How many months in a year?How many hours in a day?How many days in a week?How many minutes in an hour?

What is 5 + 5?What is 2 + 2?What is 4 + 4?What is 1 + 1 ?What is 3 + 3?

334 IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 131, Pt. A, No. 5, JULY 1984