I'm the man operating VOTEM, the Voice Operated Typewriter Employing Morse Code in that 1969 video. (I look somewhat different now, some 52 years later.) I wasn't the inventor of the machine but I developed it whilst working at STL in Harlow. Despite what Raymond Baxter says, it wasn't actually a computer, but a machine made out of discrete logic gates, although we did simulate the idea on a PDP8 minicomputer before developing the hardware. When I arrived at the BBC studio, for two reasons, I was somewhat horrified to learn that the program was scheduled to be broadcast live. Firstly, my command of Morse Code was not perfect and secondly, the machine was somewhat temperamental and I was concerned that the heat from the studio lights would effect it. You may have noticed that I had to repeat one of the commands because the machine failed to recognise it. Anyway, apart from that, luckily everything worked fine. VOTEM was the first reliable voice controlled machine ever developed, but of course, we've come a long way since then and I marvel at modern speech recognition machines,. In 1969, it was thought to be impossible for machines to ever understand natural speech.
Incredible. This technology might seem primitive by today's standards, but it is innovations like the one you worked on that we have to thank for everything we have now. They are also fascinating in their own right, and truly remarkable. Your voice as expressed here would have been a delight on Doctor Who, as it is hypnotically robotic, yet full of character.
The sequence 'starring' yourself and VOTEM somehow put me in mind of the film Star Trek IV (1984~ish; the one with the whales, and one of the best 2 or 3 from the entire franchise, though largely played 'with tongue in cheek'.) Anyway, at one point in the film, for reasons we needn't go into here, Scotty, who with the rest of the crew has had to time - travel back to the 1980's, needs to use some high - powered computing tech. of the day. _"Computer!"_ he addresses the, um, computer, to the bafflement of contemporary observers. Hilarity ensues, naturally. (Actually, it wasn't a bad gag). Well, you and your colleagues had obviously had obviously been hard at the problem in 1968, and had made significantly more progress than I would have supposed; but speech recognition technology has moved on so much since even the '80's that I honestly wonder if there would be a sizeable cohort in a modern audience upon whom the joke would be quite wasted.?! I suspect there would; but while many would no doubt take that as evidence of how 'dull' Millennials and Gen. Zee'ers are, I shall take it as an indication of how progress in the field has made *>`koff!’
As a kid this was some of the most exciting music I could hear, because it introduced one of my favourite programmes. Used to be glued to the black and white TV screen!
Agree, this programme whether by accident or design plugged straight into the consciousness and minds not of parents but their children who looked forward to the future and the bright new exciting technological ahead, it certainly did mine with my own lifelong career in electronics.
Sorry for the late reply but yes I know what you mean - it was John Dankworth and his jazz band and when I was at College in 1975 (Piano Technology) a student colleague and I used to sing that theme in unison just for a laugh and we both included the chase-out ending which was 5 notes on a bass saxophone which sounded rather rude so we sang it as blowing raspberries !! Da dam dada dunk. Good fun days it got a good laugh from the others.
Growing up in the 60's this was the best science program the BBC ever made, it's no wonder I love science and technology. No fancy graphics, no waffling, just straight talking - hands on explanations. Happy days!
A whole generation of engineers and scientists were inspired by Tomorrow's World and Horizon (and Dr Who, Blakes 7, et al). I have nothing but contempt for people who criticise the TV Licence Fee.
No one would watch it. A world of micro news-bubbles and personal self-absorption, of 'married at first sight' and 'the masked singer' does not want facts it just wants someone else to sort things out while 'I post photos of every meal I eat and videos of putting on my makeup'
Tomorrow's World covered so many new ideas and inventions in technology and science over 3 decades that recordings of the show will eventually become an interesting historical record. The BBC weren't afraid back then to broadcast what, on the face of it, might appear to be a show which would only appeal to a tiny audience. The fact that it was so popular for so many years is a testament in itself of the curious nature of the British public, and the person within the BBC, who had the guts to commission the show.
Raymond Baxter epitomised the professional reporter. How fortunate we were, to have experienced his undoubted contribution to broadcasting. If only contemporary presenters possessed such clear diction.
I remember when they drove a steam roller over this new invention called a 'CD' claiming it was virtually indestructable and it was true, the steam roller wasn't harmed in the least.
TW, Panorama, Old Corrie with Mrs Sharples, The Avengers, The Saint, Benny Hill, Monty Python, News At Ten (with the iconic Big Ben bongs), etc. Far too many to mention.
@@misst.e.a.187 What about Top Of The Pops with Pans People !! Tomorrows World was brilliant education but I looked forward to the light entertainment afterwards .
Now we get BBC Click and the Gadget show, the technology has come on leaps and bounds but the TV shows demonstrating them have become seriously dumbed down.
@IanFromCalifornia check bbc horizon from the 80s(on archive.org) for example, and then detritus they do today(alcohol, diets, fringe science). Amount of dumbing down is unbelievable.
That’s because the audience has the attention span of a goldfish. It’s been shown time and again that, when it comes to explanations, most people just switch off. It isn’t true for people like us but that’s the way it is.
@@thethirdman225My attention span is much better than that - I am 54 and grew up with plenty of intellectual stimulation, even though at this point I was minus one year old!
I used to watch this as a kid. It still seems ahead of it''s time. James Burke can be found here on YT on some current documentaries. I always loved the theme music to this program. Cheers.
@@gamexpk4r01 You are way off beam. Class divide wa even bigger then in the UK, as was the gap between disposable money for the rich and the poor. A year after this I was earning £7 for a 43 hour week, and I was better off than a lot of my friends who were on £5.
This is from the generation that put a man on the moon. I love their enthusiasm and optimism, they were truly a generation of visionaries and forward thinkers. For them, literally anything was possible. Voice recognition, we only just mastered it in the last 10 years.
Depends what you mean by “mastered”. Over a limited range of discourse we’ve had computerised speech recognition for a bit longer than that - for example, I did a piece for my newspaper, the Auckland NZ-based National Business Review, about how one of our taxi companies was introducing an automated phone ordering system - you rang the number, told the system where you were, the system would look up the address and despatch a cab. This has been going on for about 15 years now, and it still works well. But nobody tries to have a chat with the system about anything but street addresses.
It was a very positive time and full of ideas and idealism. We are materially much better off now, and I wouldn't change that. But the optimism which comes from a cohesive society that believes in itself has gone from UK. I think some countries in other parts of the world are much more optimistic than we are now, e.g. Australia and South East Asia.
@@martyzielinski2469 When he retired from TV, James did something in his late 50's early 560's that he'd always wanted to do which was learn to play Classical Spanish Guitar. Not too bad he was as well. ua-cam.com/video/amJGvbqbJwk/v-deo.html
Ah, Horizon! I defenestrated my TV set more than 20 years ago, so I'm not current on the series, but back then they were the best documentaries in the world, compared to what was on American channels, which were childish at best.
I totally loved Tomorrow's World when I was a kid. I was 14 when this episode came out and can remember it! I think more than any other TV program this fired me up with enthusiasm for science and technology 😁😁
Here I am wasting my time with UA-cam, e-mail, Facebook, and Instagram when I could be spending my time talking to an old typewriter, saying, "Dah dit dit dah dit dah dit dit dah."
@@misst.e.a.187 Absolutely! I've watched it for decades, part of that time under the pretense of being studying. (I studied engineering.) I often wonder what happened to those ingenious ideas which were simple enough to Actually Work™. Just one: the wheelbarrow that used a ball as a wheel to prevent it from tipping over. Most Useful Idea™... never seen it since. (Yes, it's been a long time...)
Pardon me whilst I laugh at the idiot comments here. In 1969, to get a voice to control a computer was literally 'rocket science' . About the same time gap as James T Kirk's communicator and our iphones!
That, and - Let's be honest - It's gonna be a hell of a lot quicker/easier to have a computer accept input in Morse compared to dropping in an entire speech synthesis suite. :-) It's also worth pointing out that Morse was invented for human-to-human communication in days well before electronic computers were invented! :-)
The first integrated chips, and first software were used in the Apollo 8 mission two years before. The device at best was of transistors. This was the time of core memory.
It's not a computer as not a single instruction is executed. It's a tone decoder to transform this kind of human FSK signal made of "da" & "di" to 0 & 1 and send the bytes with start & stop added at correct speed like 45.45 bps to the teletype. So it's made with logic gates, shift register, etc from the 7400 series.
And at this point I was minus one year old! Remember the music well when junior school age. The theme tune is in C major. God created music, after all!
How dare you! I speak more accurately than like what you can, and my speling is impekable, gleaned as it has wot been from fasebok and something else I can't rememberer
The BBC is still a perfectly believable source of reliable information. People's general level of proper grammar and diction, on the other hand, does leave much to be desired these days.
I loved Tommorrows World, I used to watch the episodes with Peter Snow and Phillipa Forrester - who I thought was fantastic. I also vaguely recall the Judith Hann years as a very small child. There wouldn't be need for such programmes now as we seem to have invented everything and yet seem so backward. Science was exciting, always was, far more so than art which I ended up doing as a career. They made science enjoyable but never dumb. As I've never seen these episodes I find them fascinating. I love to see if any of these inventions are in use today.
Ink Jet printing was demonstrated on TW. It was originally designed to print on delicate surfaces by blowing/depositing tiny droplets of ink. They demonstrated it by running a raw egg sitting on a plate through the printer and printing the TW logo on the surface of the yolk without breaking it.
@@graemejwsmith That's interesting, reminds me of when they demoed the CD and spread jam on it to show it's durable qualities! That's why I liked TW as it made science fun and accessable, and relatable to day to day life!
I hadn't been born when this programme came out - I had to wait until the following year. Raymond Baxter was well known for the programme and I remember watching when old enough to do so.
For me when growing up Tomorrow's World was one of many great programs on the then worthy BBC and I would look forward to them, with worthy gentlemen and Ladies for presenters, no celeb wast of times just education made entertaining. Many greatly missed presenters RIP.
To put this in perspective, controlling a machine with your voice was considered noteworthy enough to make it onto a prime time BBC programme. At the same time NASA got to the moon with the same level of technology. Now that is impressive!
Mr Baxter did a lot of work as a voice actor doing presentations for various manufacturing companies. Many such actors would just learn their script and read it. Raymond would want to learn everything there was to know about the product, which made a whole lot of difference in his presentation.
I worked as a lab technician in 1970 just as pocket calculators were appearing. If you could afford one, that is. Viewed with no small suspicion by those who had been doing most arithmetic in their heads since forever.
Thermal infrared is mainly 8 to 25 μm, I presume the curtains block thermal infrared as the long wavelength IR cannot pass though the narrow gaps between the fibres but shorter wavelength visible light can.
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window ? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"
We had a teletype machine network at Snowden dormitory in Columbia 6th floor in 1975 at USC. Used about five teletype machines (big and heavy) connected by TV wire run around outside of building. Fred Collins had the ham radio and snatched signal from news networks broadcasting-upi and sp etc- we got the news a day before the newspaper on special roll paper printed in room. No ones roommate could stand sound more than an hour. Bought used surplus teletypes from Western Union surplus. Massive nachines.We thought we were tech geniuses.
so basically he was about half a century ahead of the likes of Echo/Alexa, Google Home, Siri and if modern day or widespread internet existed back then.. then he was already onto IoT¡ and as the host said: modified morse code... so that means, having an entirely different/ unique code was plausible too (over time): aka encryption aka secure transmission of sorts!
Weirdly enough Tommorrows World had Kraftwerk on the show showing what the future of music sounded like! I thought he looked more like a young Christopher Lloyd but I do see the Kraftwerk stare and linguistics thing!
Frank Burns 1969, we did own color TV, Sony Trinitron! I still have it, still works! Fiber is still produced, many more, Nike their biggest client! autobahn, you love old music?
Anyone remember the episode with the guy that invented a heatproof paste? Painted it on an egg, took a cutting torch to it, & the egg remained uncooked...seemingly the old guy died & took the secret with him to the grave. The shuttle could've used some
J.Cheever Loophole it wouldn't work as the paste would just blow off. I think that is why he never released it except for a couple of simple experiments. Only something solid would work as a heat shield on a shuttle as it hits the atmosphere at over 20,000km/h. The product is called starlite.
No, but I do vividly remember the TW where they first demonstrated the ceramic tiles used on the surface of the Shuttle. He stood in front of a very large furnace, an operative opened the door and took out a glowing white-hot cube about 1.5" across and placed it next to him - within 20 seconds he had completed his introduction and calmly picked the cube up with his bare fingers, still glowing white-hot. It was, and still is, astonishing. Something like only the surface 10-20 thousandths of an inch of the cube had cooled, but that was enough as it was such an amazing insulator.
Great program, though I would like to know the name of aluminum coated cloth(textile) or the company / university wich invented it..., I would even be pleased with the name of the town where said fabric (cloth/textile or however you want to call it) is being made... Maybe the anti commercials rules were to strict..., I can't help wonder why the BBC couldn't provide that information.. Anything else of this program t very well done! Greetings bibia.
I'm the man operating VOTEM, the Voice Operated Typewriter Employing Morse Code in that 1969 video. (I look somewhat different now, some 52 years later.) I wasn't the inventor of the machine but I developed it whilst working at STL in Harlow. Despite what Raymond Baxter says, it wasn't actually a computer, but a machine made out of discrete logic gates, although we did simulate the idea on a PDP8 minicomputer before developing the hardware.
When I arrived at the BBC studio, for two reasons, I was somewhat horrified to learn that the program was scheduled to be broadcast live. Firstly, my command of Morse Code was not perfect and secondly, the machine was somewhat temperamental and I was concerned that the heat from the studio lights would effect it. You may have noticed that I had to repeat one of the commands because the machine failed to recognise it. Anyway, apart from that, luckily everything worked fine.
VOTEM was the first reliable voice controlled machine ever developed, but of course, we've come a long way since then and I marvel at modern speech recognition machines,. In 1969, it was thought to be impossible for machines to ever understand natural speech.
I for one was very impressed with your skill there, remembering all this audible codes
Ah the joys of live demos. I'm sitting here with a computer that easily decodes Moses from audio in real time
Incredible. This technology might seem primitive by today's standards, but it is innovations like the one you worked on that we have to thank for everything we have now. They are also fascinating in their own right, and truly remarkable. Your voice as expressed here would have been a delight on Doctor Who, as it is hypnotically robotic, yet full of character.
What ever happened to the Votem project? Was it ever commercialized? Was it ever used for the stated purpose of helping paralyzed people?
The sequence 'starring' yourself and VOTEM somehow put me in mind of the film Star Trek IV (1984~ish; the one with the whales, and one of the best 2 or 3 from the entire franchise, though largely played 'with tongue in cheek'.)
Anyway, at one point in the film, for reasons we needn't go into here, Scotty, who with the rest of the crew has had to time - travel back to the 1980's, needs to use some high - powered computing tech. of the day. _"Computer!"_ he addresses the, um, computer, to the bafflement of contemporary observers. Hilarity ensues, naturally. (Actually, it wasn't a bad gag).
Well, you and your colleagues had obviously had obviously been hard at the problem in 1968, and had made significantly more progress than I would have supposed; but speech recognition technology has moved on so much since even the '80's that I honestly wonder if there would be a sizeable cohort in a modern audience upon whom the joke would be quite wasted.?! I suspect there would; but while many would no doubt take that as evidence of how 'dull' Millennials and Gen. Zee'ers are, I shall take it as an indication of how progress in the field has made *>`koff!’
Raymond Baxter fought as a Spitfire pilot during the Battle of Britain. Loved this programme growing up.
Apparently a V2 rose up into his gunsight one time, and he successfully resisted the impulse to fire. His own words....
Followed by Top of The Pops ,Thursday evenings were good then.
@Tom Dick You don't live in Scotland by any chance Tom?
@Tom Dick Airdrie by any chance? Are you the Advertiser photographer?
@Tom Dick Co-incidental. The photographer for the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser is called Tom Dick (no Harry.)
As a kid this was some of the most exciting music I could hear, because it introduced one of my favourite programmes. Used to be glued to the black and white TV screen!
Judith Hann took it over and all they did after that was medical stuff. It got boring.
Agree, this programme whether by accident or design plugged straight into the consciousness and minds not of parents but their children who looked forward to the future and the bright new exciting technological ahead, it certainly did mine with my own lifelong career in electronics.
Yes, such memories.....or is it nostalgia?
@@mikeonfreeserve2926 yeah it's nostalgia, haven't you felt it?
Sorry for the late reply but yes I know what you mean - it was John Dankworth and his jazz band and when I was at College in 1975 (Piano Technology) a student colleague and I used to sing that theme in unison just for a laugh and we both included the chase-out ending which was 5 notes on a bass saxophone which sounded rather rude so we sang it as blowing raspberries !! Da dam dada dunk. Good fun days it got a good laugh from the others.
Growing up in the 60's this was the best science program the BBC ever made, it's no wonder I love science and technology. No fancy graphics, no waffling, just straight talking - hands on explanations. Happy days!
Don't blame the producers of today's programs. The viewing public now demand dumbing down and fancy effects.
what a great time to be growing up!
🐱👍🏿
@@fidelcatsro6948I wouldn't know as I was born in 1970!
@@angelacooper2661 its ok i was born 4 yrs after u..
A whole generation of engineers and scientists were inspired by Tomorrow's World and Horizon (and Dr Who, Blakes 7, et al). I have nothing but contempt for people who criticise the TV Licence Fee.
I've just shown the dit da machine to my Amazon Alexa...she got very emotional...she had never seen any footage of her great grandparents before.
😂👍
:-)))
@Rebel Historian something to occupy your mind ?
di-dah di-dah-di-dit dit dah-di-di-dah di-dah?
🤣🤣 Post of the day for me except that now Siri thinks I’m being unfaithful for replying positively on an Alexa comment.
This programme was way ahead of its time - we need this kind of TV more than ever now!
I think that was the general idea 🤣
No one would watch it. A world of micro news-bubbles and personal self-absorption, of 'married at first sight' and 'the masked singer' does not want facts it just wants someone else to sort things out while 'I post photos of every meal I eat and videos of putting on my makeup'
I wasn't born until the following year, so unaware of it until years later!
By the left, this takes me back. As a youngster, I lived on Tomorrow’s world, wickers world and Colditz. 👍😁
Catweazle!!!
And BBC2 car programme Wheelbase!
no 'Horizon'?
This footage is a year older than me, as I am now aged fifty four!
Tomorrow's World covered so many new ideas and inventions in technology and science over 3 decades that recordings of the show will eventually become an interesting historical record. The BBC weren't afraid back then to broadcast what, on the face of it, might appear to be a show which would only appeal to a tiny audience. The fact that it was so popular for so many years is a testament in itself of the curious nature of the British public, and the person within the BBC, who had the guts to commission the show.
I used to love this show back in the late 80s/early 90s.
The BBC constantly dumbs down their audience.
@@Spookieham Exactly. And the tail starts wagging the dog.
Raymond Baxter. The best ever reporter.
His coverage of any subject was complete and clear.
His knowledge at air shows was the best ever.
Raymond Baxter epitomised the professional reporter. How fortunate we were, to have experienced his undoubted contribution to broadcasting. If only contemporary presenters possessed such clear diction.
Raymond Baxter was a RAF pilot, you just know how good he was by his voice. Total legend.
He was ten years older than my father, also Raymond!
I remember when they drove a steam roller over this new invention called a 'CD' claiming it was virtually indestructable and it was true, the steam roller wasn't harmed in the least.
Richard Humphreys Very good
I still spread jam on mine
Listening to that signature tune brings back some many memories
Does anyone know the name of the tune and who performed it?
Stephen Montague Tomorrow’s World Theme by John Dankworth
like what ?
The theme tune still makes me feel warm and happy. Animal Magic makes me think of fish and chips for some reason!
In the days when there was something good to watch on Tv.
ESPECIALLY on a Thursday evening
TW, Panorama, Old Corrie with Mrs Sharples, The Avengers, The Saint, Benny Hill, Monty Python, News At Ten (with the iconic Big Ben bongs), etc. Far too many to mention.
Not really you only had three channels LOL
@@misst.e.a.187 What about Top Of The Pops with Pans People !! Tomorrows World was brilliant education but I looked forward to the light entertainment afterwards .
Shame that I was minus 1 year old - now 54!
Now we get BBC Click and the Gadget show, the technology has come on leaps and bounds but the TV shows demonstrating them have become seriously dumbed down.
The public watching have been dumbed down...
Yes
@IanFromCalifornia check bbc horizon from the 80s(on archive.org) for example, and then detritus they do today(alcohol, diets, fringe science). Amount of dumbing down is unbelievable.
That’s because the audience has the attention span of a goldfish. It’s been shown time and again that, when it comes to explanations, most people just switch off. It isn’t true for people like us but that’s the way it is.
@@thethirdman225My attention span is much better than that - I am 54 and grew up with plenty of intellectual stimulation, even though at this point I was minus one year old!
I used to watch this as a kid. It still seems ahead of it''s time. James Burke can be found here on YT on some current documentaries. I always loved the theme music to this program. Cheers.
Such an optimistic time. The complete lack of cynicism and political spin is profoundly refreshing.
Are you kidding?
Becouse there wasn’t such gap between classes
@@gamexpk4r01There has always been a gap. Easy to understand access to that information is what is new.
@@gamexpk4r01 You are way off beam. Class divide wa even bigger then in the UK, as was the gap between disposable money for the rich and the poor. A year after this I was earning £7 for a 43 hour week, and I was better off than a lot of my friends who were on £5.
Umm, late 60s were pretty politically divisive
Raymond Baxter and James Burke in the same programme. How spoiled we were.
Still enjoying my aluminium coated curtains today in Amsterdam.
Keep them away from open fire.
try adding some silicon it might convert heat into solar energy! 🐱👍🏿
A LOT of kids in the UK made entire careers in Science and Engineering thanks to being inspired by Tomorrow's World.
1
But move abroad to get a decent job
Wow
What a brilliant programme it was . Loved watching it
I loved this show when. I was young.
you must be a nuclear scientist by now growing up watching these great shows!!
This is from the generation that put a man on the moon. I love their enthusiasm and optimism, they were truly a generation of visionaries and forward thinkers. For them, literally anything was possible. Voice recognition, we only just mastered it in the last 10 years.
Depends what you mean by “mastered”. Over a limited range of discourse we’ve had computerised speech recognition for a bit longer than that - for example, I did a piece for my newspaper, the Auckland NZ-based National Business Review, about how one of our taxi companies was introducing an automated phone ordering system - you rang the number, told the system where you were, the system would look up the address and despatch a cab. This has been going on for about 15 years now, and it still works well. But nobody tries to have a chat with the system about anything but street addresses.
Now they call us Boomers, and dismiss anything we think or say as hopelessly antiquated, just like we did to our parents.
Life is a big circle.
This current generation are using all this technology to spread misinformation about vaccines and flat earth
It was a very positive time and full of ideas and idealism. We are materially much better off now, and I wouldn't change that. But the optimism which comes from a cohesive society that believes in itself has gone from UK. I think some countries in other parts of the world are much more optimistic than we are now, e.g. Australia and South East Asia.
Is that James Burke, of Connections fame? it is! Wow!
Yup....
@@martyzielinski2469 When he retired from TV, James did something in his late 50's early 560's that he'd always wanted to do which was learn to play Classical Spanish Guitar. Not too bad he was as well. ua-cam.com/video/amJGvbqbJwk/v-deo.html
I loved that show.
Excellent. Many Thanks. I watched this last when I was eleven.
Great days for scientific minds with Tomorrow's World and HORIZON.
Ah, Horizon! I defenestrated my TV set more than 20 years ago, so I'm not current on the series, but back then they were the best documentaries in the world, compared to what was on American channels, which were childish at best.
@@stevenvanhulle7242 yea, it's shite nowdays. I can recommend old programmes on archive.org
I totally loved Tomorrow's World when I was a kid. I was 14 when this episode came out and can remember it! I think more than any other TV program this fired me up with enthusiasm for science and technology 😁😁
I was minus one at the time, born the following year. Watched the programme some years later when old enough to understand it!
Here I am wasting my time with UA-cam, e-mail, Facebook, and Instagram when I could be spending my time talking to an old typewriter, saying, "Dah dit dit dah dit dah dit dit dah."
I wish they brought this show back, I watched as a kid in the 90s and it was awesome
Absolute genius, I am genuinely in awe of what was achieved. We would not have what we have now if it was not for all of these innovations.
Presented by adults, something you no longer see.
Compare this prime time tv offering with the drivel they produce nowadays.
Which is why Raymond Baxter quit. They started dumbing it down.
Tomorrow's world was addictive weekday TV
I'd rather not---too many examples already, to depress me. The return of such a programme, would NEVER get a snifter.
@@misst.e.a.187 Absolutely! I've watched it for decades, part of that time under the pretense of being studying. (I studied engineering.)
I often wonder what happened to those ingenious ideas which were simple enough to Actually Work™. Just one: the wheelbarrow that used a ball as a wheel to prevent it from tipping over. Most Useful Idea™... never seen it since.
(Yes, it's been a long time...)
But the drivel is in COLOR!!
Pardon me whilst I laugh at the idiot comments here. In 1969, to get a voice to control a computer was literally 'rocket science' . About the same time gap as James T Kirk's communicator and our iphones!
That, and - Let's be honest - It's gonna be a hell of a lot quicker/easier to have a computer accept input in Morse compared to dropping in an entire speech synthesis suite. :-)
It's also worth pointing out that Morse was invented for human-to-human communication in days well before electronic computers were invented! :-)
Even by today's standards it was really quite clever the phone bit was superb.
There's no voice control at all and not even a computer. Just a teletype and audio filters.
The first integrated chips, and first software were used in the Apollo 8 mission two years before. The device at best was of transistors. This was the time of core memory.
It's not a computer as not a single instruction is executed. It's a tone decoder to transform this kind of human FSK signal made of "da" & "di" to 0 & 1 and send the bytes with start & stop added at correct speed like 45.45 bps to the teletype. So it's made with logic gates, shift register, etc from the 7400 series.
God - the opening music - and I'm a child again.
And at this point I was minus one year old! Remember the music well when junior school age. The theme tune is in C major. God created music, after all!
This is from when the BBC could be believed and people spoke properly.
How dare you! I speak more accurately than like what you can, and my speling is impekable, gleaned as it has wot been from fasebok and something else I can't rememberer
Ok boomer
Especially right at the start! (Thus providing the inspiration for the song by The Police about ten years later).
The BBC is still a perfectly believable source of reliable information.
People's general level of proper grammar and diction, on the other hand, does leave much to be desired these days.
@@ethyhayes You believe the BBC?
6:24 Raymond Baxter "stop feeling my knob"
I could watch these fascinating time capsules all day long.
I loved Tommorrows World, I used to watch the episodes with Peter Snow and Phillipa Forrester - who I thought was fantastic. I also vaguely recall the Judith Hann years as a very small child. There wouldn't be need for such programmes now as we seem to have invented everything and yet seem so backward.
Science was exciting, always was, far more so than art which I ended up doing as a career.
They made science enjoyable but never dumb. As I've never seen these episodes I find them fascinating.
I love to see if any of these inventions are in use today.
Ink Jet printing was demonstrated on TW. It was originally designed to print on delicate surfaces by blowing/depositing tiny droplets of ink. They demonstrated it by running a raw egg sitting on a plate through the printer and printing the TW logo on the surface of the yolk without breaking it.
@@graemejwsmith That's interesting, reminds me of when they demoed the CD and spread jam on it to show it's durable qualities! That's why I liked TW as it made science fun and accessable, and relatable to day to day life!
Before my time, but wow, this was great TV. Not even Click comes close! Thank you for the upload.
This takes me back to Tuesday nights in the 70s in-between doing my homework, early multi tasking.
I was 13 when I watched this live. It was heady stuff back then.
OMG It's James Burke! Still innovating in 2020!!!
“Hello, who dat?” 😂😂😂
its didit...
Dah!
I saw what you did there!
The Goon Show reference, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. A meme before memes.
Ah yes, the year of captain Kirks Startrek, the moon landing, the Beatles. What a great time. 😊
I used to watch this when in the 70s
I hadn't been born when this programme came out - I had to wait until the following year. Raymond Baxter was well known for the programme and I remember watching when old enough to do so.
WHAT A GREAT SHOW , I LOVED IT 😊
LOVED the Theme Tune!
For me when growing up Tomorrow's World was one of many great programs on the then worthy BBC and I would look forward to them, with worthy gentlemen and Ladies for presenters, no celeb wast of times just education made entertaining. Many greatly missed presenters RIP.
The breeding ground for our modern computers, internet, voice recognition. The dit dat dah guy here is a pure visionary, thank you sir.
Ah, the authoratative voices of Raymond Baxter and Derek Cooper - If they'd told me the world was flat I would've believed them!
You mean it's not?
They were such good presenters. Where has all the professionalism gone.
@@jeffzuess9149 Given in to the 'triff init John's' and general dumbing down of society. By design, as always.
To put this in perspective, controlling a machine with your voice was considered noteworthy enough to make it onto a prime time BBC programme. At the same time NASA got to the moon with the same level of technology. Now that is impressive!
or so they have you believe - The Van Allen belt tells a different story
@@mattsan70 Believe what?
@@mattsan70One of you crackheads has got to reply, of course.
Mr Baxter did a lot of work as a voice actor doing presentations for various manufacturing companies. Many such actors would just learn their script and read it. Raymond would want to learn everything there was to know about the product, which made a whole lot of difference in his presentation.
The year I was born, and have a tomorrows world book signed by Raymond Baxter and James Burke.
I remember my late aunt holding my hand as she and my Dad walked me thru that exhibit. She was Walts private secretary for many years.
Nice
Now I know where Sting got the lyrics........
😆😆😆 TRUE!
Wonderful memories thank you.
Voice recognition of any kind in 1969 is impressive. I tried this morse code technique with Alexa and she didn't get it. ;)
Lol.
I worked as a lab technician in 1970 just as pocket calculators were appearing. If you could afford one, that is. Viewed with no small suspicion by those who had been doing most arithmetic in their heads since forever.
Alexa is based on todays nonsense programming curriculum...
Amazing to think 1969 was Moon Landing, 747 debut and Concorde’s first flight. Must’ve been exciting growing up in those times.
Arpanet, the predecessor to the Internet, was also launched in 1969!
It was, and with loads of freedom, too.
@@misst.e.a.187 I had a German girlfriend slut too. Liked swallowing cum
Thermal infrared is mainly 8 to 25 μm, I presume the curtains block thermal infrared as the long wavelength IR cannot pass though the narrow gaps between the fibres but shorter wavelength visible light can.
Great upload, THANK YOU!
Excellent! Yes, this is how we invented, produced, and distributed some of the World’s most exciting products.
British Motor Company left the chat..
Use to watch this programme in the 1980's,and it was brilliant show different future technology.
Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !"
Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ."
Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!"
Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window ? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..."
Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!"
Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky."
Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction."
Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"
Burke: “Hello - who dat?” I think I wet myself with laughing. Love that dude!
He left, and had his own, excellent series 'CONNECTIONS'', for several years. It took him all over the world. a great show, and presenter.
@@MrDaiseymay I have the DVDs. Super fine stuff.
Connections was a brilliant show. Watched it religiously as a teenager over here in Canada. James Burke would have been a great teacher.
@@MrDaiseymay Absurdly tenuous connections in most cases.
He reminded me of an old Modem I used to own.
Modem? What's your computer? A 1940s valve-powered COLOSSUS? 😂😂😂
Alexa turn on house lights. Did you say mow the lawn with a crossbow?
Yes, mow the lawn with a crossbow.
Turning on house lights.
Thanks, you made me laugh out loud! :)
8:40 "Hello who dat?" I was dying of laughter xD. This was 1969??? 😂
Racist now
Not racist just taking the piss out of people from certain areas of Sheffield. .......deedaaas.
@@vernonfrogbottle1614 I thought Liverpool..."Dey do dat dere don't dey doh?"
Isn't DAT how we all answered the phone, before caller ID?!?!? ;)
That's James Burke himself. Nice.
What happened to the Metallic Heat-Reflecting curtain I wonder. Would be perfect for today.
Looks more intellectually advanced than the crappy documentaries we see today 50yrs on!
Thanks for sharing!
🐱👍🏿
A time of great optimism, for the advances of science and for a better future.
This was when Great Britain, as it was called back then, was at the forefront of design and technology.
@Martin Solomon shut up
It's still called Great Britain. Great as in 'big,' to differentiate between itself and Brittany.
Great Britain is now called Akbar Britain.
Martin Solomon lmfao
@@alexandriaoccasional-corte1346 But it isn't though, is it.
We had a teletype machine network at Snowden dormitory in Columbia 6th floor in 1975 at USC. Used about five teletype machines (big and heavy) connected by TV wire run around outside of building. Fred Collins had the ham radio and snatched signal from news networks broadcasting-upi and sp etc- we got the news a day before the newspaper on special roll paper printed in room. No ones roommate could stand sound more than an hour. Bought used surplus teletypes from Western Union surplus. Massive nachines.We thought we were tech geniuses.
He's literally speaking droid
THIS is the original music that has always stuck in my mind.
Great programme I remember watching this long time ago, Raymond Baxter also promote Rover cars and BL cars too during the 70s . Regards mark
Love that music.
so basically he was about half a century ahead of the likes of Echo/Alexa, Google Home, Siri and if modern day or widespread internet existed back then.. then he was already onto IoT¡ and as the host said: modified morse code... so that means, having an entirely different/ unique code was plausible too (over time): aka encryption aka secure transmission of sorts!
Wasn't that guy doing Morse code a member of Kraftwerk?
That's what it reminded me of too.
Weirdly enough Tommorrows World had Kraftwerk on the show showing what the future of music sounded like! I thought he looked more like a young Christopher Lloyd but I do see the Kraftwerk stare and linguistics thing!
He’s the operator. Of his pocket calculator.
Frank Burns
1969, we did own color TV, Sony Trinitron! I still have it, still works!
Fiber is still produced, many more, Nike their biggest client!
autobahn, you love old music?
Umm, Trio also...
So glad HD came along ..
He's an alien from planet Dida
I sure I've seen him years later with Patrick Moore claiming he talked to aliens ?? Dida language seems very similar
When people spoke properly
Fukin rite mang
Some people still do.
In 1969 that was a sign of being well educated. In 2019 it makes you a "toff", like people accuse Jacob Rees Mogg of being.
La di da
"Hello who dat"
06:25 _"...and I will just adjust the host with my right hand so he is more comfortable!"_
Anyone remember the episode with the guy that invented a heatproof paste? Painted it on an egg, took a cutting torch to it, & the egg remained uncooked...seemingly the old guy died & took the secret with him to the grave. The shuttle could've used some
J.Cheever Loophole it wouldn't work as the paste would just blow off. I think that is why he never released it except for a couple of simple experiments. Only something solid would work as a heat shield on a shuttle as it hits the atmosphere at over 20,000km/h. The product is called starlite.
@@Martian74 It's also been featured recently on the BBC website, if you care to look.
No, but I do vividly remember the TW where they first demonstrated the ceramic tiles used on the surface of the Shuttle. He stood in front of a very large furnace, an operative opened the door and took out a glowing white-hot cube about 1.5" across and placed it next to him - within 20 seconds he had completed his introduction and calmly picked the cube up with his bare fingers, still glowing white-hot. It was, and still is, astonishing. Something like only the surface 10-20 thousandths of an inch of the cube had cooled, but that was enough as it was such an amazing insulator.
China mass producing ceramic floor tiles today at a fraction of the cost!
Me: di da dida didit dit dit
Siri: 😑
Why cant they just ask it what to type.
That capability was still 20 years ahead. Machines in the 60's didn't have the processing power nor memory storage and speed to do that.
+Darth Maul
Me: What is 1 + 1
Siri: Take a left turn on Maple street 😑
Use Google!
because it is 1969
Best. Comment. On. UA-cam! \m/ >:-)
Ahh memories. What a program this was.
True Fact: All modern Virtual Assistants like Siri, OK google, and Alexa still have the morse code speech recognition at their core. Try it now kids!
James Burke: "On Earth, At the *Hooo-ston* receiving laboratory"
lol
?did offer a Mr. Navabi with each machine sold??
Is he standing in the quarry that Dr. Who films in?
Gravitas in an adult world (without the omnipresent Prof Cox with his inane and irritating grin). God how I miss the 60s and 70s.
He stopped grinning!
@Norm T Yes it's awful isn't it. People smiling when there's so much serious work to be done!
Can someone please tell me the name of the jazz track at the beginning of the video?
James Ezuka anyone ??
I don't think the track was ever titled, but it was recorded by jazz composer Johnny Dankworth.
The Tomorrow's World theme is Brass Chorale by John Dankworth.
Well done
di did dada didid dada didid didi dada dada di didi dada dada da da di da da, thats my personal opinion only though
I'm sorry but how can you sleep at night!!
Sting made song
eimsmsimmeimmttett?
Nah bro this country needs real change. Didi Dada didi dada 2020
I just translated that . Absolutely disgusting .
I can't imagine why talking in Morse code didn't catch on!
I get the impression that people talking to each other has gone out of fashion.
@@PhilJonesIII I've lost count of how many young couples I see around staring at their phones!
Did the BBC preserve many of the Tomorrow's World episodes and can you watch a whole lot of them in a row anywhere?
I can't wait for the future! Oh wait... I'm already here. Disappointing.
Just wait till 2020 hits, you won't be disappointed then.
@@billtomson5791 go back its garbage marty
Great program, though I would like to know the name of aluminum coated cloth(textile) or the company / university wich invented it..., I would even be pleased with the name of the town where said fabric (cloth/textile or however you want to call it) is being made...
Maybe the anti commercials rules were to strict..., I can't help wonder why the BBC couldn't provide that information..
Anything else of this program t very well done!
Greetings bibia.
I wonder what happened to that curtaining material. . . . Commercial now and the name ?
where the world was in a better place 1969 great year
... and we were still using £sd
@@astrecksmaybe so, but 5p and 10p coins were in circulation a signal of better things to come
Why does each shot bounce before cutting to the next shot?
Back when TV programmes treated its audience like articulate adults. Unlike the dumbed down gob-shite shit that passes for Tele today.