Any speaker who has faced an audience with a complex technical presentation knows the value of good visual aids. A slide presentation of charts, graphs and other visual data adds immeasurably to the clarity and information content of a talk.
Cliff Fisk, a programmer in Advanced Techniques Division 9424, has created a program for the IBM 7090 and Stromberg-Carlson 4020 combination that may be an ideal solution for some visual aid problems. With the computers, anyone can create colorful 35mm slides of the most complex chart or graph or produce simple listings of text or any combination in between.
Cliff. a member of the team which developed the ACCEL system for creating printed circuit layouts with a computer, is usually involved in more demanding projects. His new program is a byproduct of preparing some illustrations he needed for a presentation at a computer group conference. After completing his illustrations with the computer he realized that with very little modification the program could be used as a general purpose program by anyone in the Laboratory.
He made the necessary changes and wrote a set of instructions. Programming Bulletin NO. F-47, General Plot Routines for Slide Preparation, will be issued next week. To obtain a copy, call 264-7179.
Cliff's instructions tell how to rough out an illustration using a standard grid with 1000 vertical and 1000 horizontal points representing the surface of the slide. From this rough, the program can be written easily, using Cliff's control code.
Subroutines within the program provide for geometric shapes, arrows, dotted lines, capital and lower case characters, three primary colors and any combination of colors.
His own slides prepared with the program are striking. Color is used for backgrounds, for emphasis and for information content; for example, several different colored data curves can be shown against a single grid.
The 7090 computer first plots the information contained in the program, and the SC 4020 then uses the output to expose the film with an electron beam and a cathode ray tube. A filter wheel between the cathode tube of the 4020 and the built-in camera provides the desired colors. Film is processed in the normal way after exposure by the computer.
There are a number of advantages in using the system, Cliff reports.
In the first place, the person needing the slides has full control of the illustrative material after all, he prepares the rough layout on the grid to meet his own specifications.
Second, the finished slide is a unique product. How many speakers use slides prepared by a computer? It is also a superior product able to display complex information in the colorful and easy-to-understand matter. The imagination of the programmer is the only limiting factor in making illustrations.
Third, the computer-produced slide can, in some cases, save considerable time when compared to the time an artist needs to prepare complex information charts. Photography time can also be reduced. Cliff estimates that one should be able to write a program for slides and have exposed film within two days. The film, however, would still require normal processing time.
The SC 4020 is an auxiliary computer used normally for high-speed production of plots. It was adapted to color film capabilities by Division 9424 personnel under the initiation and supervision of D K Robbins. Participating in the project were Leigh Hendricks, Cliff, and Claude Glass of Stromberg-Carlson.
Experimental work with the computer includes producing color motion pictures and other visual displays of information. A possible application of the work might be a movie which shows the progression of shock wave patterns, a precision, graphic illustration made by data recorded during an actual test.
"In the meantime," Cliff says, "we have a program which will produce graphic material for slide presentations. I'll be happy to show anyone how to use the program".