The Communications Network of the Future (1986) - AT&T Archives

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This 1986 film on packet switching was originally a videodisc presentation for an interactive display at AT&T's InfoQuest Center in New York City. The incomparable Bob Lucky, Director of Research Communications and Science at Bell Labs and Carl Sagan doppelganger, hosts the video and delivers the details of the technology in a manner that is both palatable and understandable. He's joined by a slew of Bell Labs engineers who worked on or with the technologies involved: Gottfried Luderer, Dave Berglund, Joan Bachenko, Ted Wright, Larry Rabiner, Dick Muise, Eric Petajan and Bruce Ballard.

The topics covered break down into two main parts:

Packet Technologies

advanced packet technology
how packet switches worked (with animation)
how speech, image and data is packetized
multimedia conversation as the wave of the future
how to process the avalanche of information
the packet phone
the future of conferencing
wideband packet technology
self-routing packet switching

Speech Recognition/Voice Recognition

computers and syntax trees
individual word variability and how to process
capturing visuals, i.e. videotaping lip parameters used in order to improve processing

Footage Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ