meï¬ï¬ Shopping by telephone is nothing new Shopping by telephone without even speaking into the receiver is or at least may soon be Several systems in which merchandise orders can be transmitted over telephone lines without any human con versation are presently in the works And one of the prototypes called Teleshopper is being developed at Georgian College Second year electronic technician students have been working on the project for two years It gives them unique research outlet something challenging to keep them in terested says teaching master John Ball Its not as if theyre just building another radio or re inventing the wheel Mr Ball brought the idea of the Teleshopper with him to Georgian when he joined the faculty two years ago He had been an engineer at Canadian General Electric in Toronto for 16 years The notion dawned on him 15 years ago as solution to get ting around one of the things hate most grocery shopping He said he hadnt heard at that time of any other projects in that vein although things started to appear three or four yearslater was 15 years too soon he says relating how efforts to get General Electric Dominion Eatons and Bell Canada in terested in what he had to offer met with little success LAY DORMANT The idea lay dormant until he joined the College two years ago Then it began to materialize in the laboratory with the assistance of the students six last year seven this year Its part of their mark though secondary to the core studies The students spend two hours week for 20 weeks work ing on the Teleshopper system The complete system as presently envisaged consists consists of six basic com ponents special merchandise catalogue personalized order cards an order preparation board home transmitter store receiver and automated warehouse The merchandise catalogue could take almost any form The important thing is that it clearly connects an item with performation on punch card The punch card is the order form it would be supplied to the customer by the store much in the same way as banks supply their customers with personalized cheques with store and home numbers prepunched The customer refers to the catalogue and pun ches for the items desired in the appropriate place on the card The card is then placed in special home device hooked up to the telephone It dials the number of the store warehouse already prepunched on it iden tifies its number then scans the card transferring to the store receiver the information of which items arcdesired The store receiver is con nected to the warehouse com puter lt decodes the date ac tivates machinery to collect the items from the shelves and totalsthebill The Georgian system isnt all of that its rough model basically intended to prove that the fundamental theories are sound Mr Ball said the teleshopper system that eventually will come into use wont be built here at Georgian by the stu dents and staff Its project that needs hundreds of engineers WORK IS RELEVANT But since that system is far from perfected yet their work is relevant something to keep us going for years he said Mr Bell isnt sure when phone shopping will come into vogue or at what cost He estimates its minimum of 10 years away although aspects of it may surface before Theres no doubt in his mind however that it will be im plemented with the saving in energy its primary advantage When the oil wells run dry thats when the public will get interested One trip to the supermarket in car would run one of these for lifetime he says patting the small cylin drical device which hooks up to the home phone Fuel would be saved by mak ing tri to the store obsolete and so by eliminatin the need to heat light an air condition stores he said Many could be replaced by one warehouse Thered be saving in space with fewer stores and parking lots and saving in time for consumers Under the Teleshopper system your phone number becomes your signture said Mr Ball An electronic lock can prevent others from using your phone Order foulups could be minimized with doublecheck from the store using the same transmission procedure but in reverse Mr Ball said the Teleshopper system is based on established principles with no new technology involved The pro cedure is similar to that which allows transmission of photographs over telephone lines think weve made fan tastic amount of progress Well soon have proved the feasibility From there on itll all be refinement he said Joe Barnett second year electronic technician student at Georgian College tests clock device that is part of the leleshopper system be ing devised at the college The system would reduce shopping to simple punch out of items on computer card The information could be fed from the card by telephone device to mer chandise storehouse with the order transmitted decod Tie Barrie Examiner Saturday Mtggh 12 1977 11 New wrinkle to shopping by telephone Punch card order forms replace human voice in sys tem being developed by Georgian College ed and assembled by ma chines ieorgians rough model of this futuristic system will be available for public viewing March 18 from 030 am to pm and March 10 from 10 am to pm during the college open house The Teleshopper will be in room 2146 applied arts and technology building Examiner Photo ROSS ARCHER ease burden ALEX ARTHLR opposed ROSS STEPHENS makes sense ROSS LYNtH two years better Twoyear terms or three years politicians split on which best Recently Cornwall city coun cil passed resolution asking the provincial government to increase the term of office for council members to three years from the present two in municipalities with 25000 or more people The resolution is the most re cent in series of such requests from various municipalities over the past few years But support for the proposed threeyear term is far from unanimous among Barriearea politicians sample taken by The Examiner shows opinion split almost down the middle think itll have to be given serious consideration says Barrie Mayor Ross Archer though he notes he has no strong convictions on the sub ject On advantage he says would be better chance for council members to get things done during their term in office Many many promises you make during an election cam paign cant be completed in two years he says He also says less frequent elections would ease the inan cial burden of holding elections and of campaigning for office 0n the other hand he says if you have some duds youre stuck with them for three years But he says better informed voters and good media coverage of municipal affairs especially in Barrie make this possibility more remote than in former days Ald Alex Arthur city finance chairman opposes the three yearterm prefer that council members be put up for scru tiny every two years he says Ald Arthur says threeyear term might allow politicians to get more work done but would also allow them to dig in to their positions too deeply Ald Ross Stephens who returned to council this year after twoyear absence fol lowing an unsuccessful bid for the mayors chair says three year term makes sense in many ways He notes that the latter half of the second year of twoyear term is largely devoted to elec tioneering and from the first of November on nothing hap pens on council On the other hand he says bad council would serve three years instead of two under the proposal Ald Ron Lynch new on coun cil this year says twoyear term is better from the point of view of newcomers like him self If they find out they dont like it they arent stuck with threeyear term he says made twoyear commitment Im not sure whether ld want to make threeyear commit ment to an unknown factor Though none of Simcoe Coun tys townships would qualify for threeyear term under the Cornwall proposal check with area reeves reveals the same split in opinion on the issue think ld have to support it Reeve Bill Gibbins of In nisfil Township says of the threesyear term think two years is plenty says Vespra Reeve Alan Johnston Reeve Gibbins says the move to twoyear terms few years ago from oneyear terms was tremendous advantage but three years would be even better As new councillor he says youre just nicely getting your feet wet during the first year During the second year of twoyear term he says coun cillor is on thin ice due to the approaching election Reeve Johnston says he would not go back to oneyear terms you never know whether youre in or outbut three years is too long Two years he says lets councillors get things done but three could let them go too far without giv ing voters chance to throw them out However he says three year term might be justified in larger municipalities such as Barrie ALAN JOHNSTON is plenty llllil illtHlNS supports Mayor won Oppose opening meetings General committee meet ings where city council does most of its work may soon be open to the public Mayor Ross Archer said all olfVth my Thursday the committee is scheduled to consider the mat ter Wednesday at special meeting called to deal with general questions OYAGEU iA BOYS 912 enjoy an individualized program in set ting of unsurpassed natural beauty They learn swimming canoeing sailing woodslore and trip ping in the friendly environment of small camp near Algonquin Park Maximum 35 boys BOYS 1318 experience the challenge of long distance wilderness canoe travel counselled and guided by experts in groups of 10 with staff The boys develop and practice the skills needed for life long enioyrnent of the outofdoors Call 1266274 Write Voyageur Camps ltd Box 996 BARRIE Ontario The mayor said he could not predict whether the committee will decide to open its meetings but added that he would not op pose such move Id be hard put right now to find good reason to exclude the public personally speak ing he said in an interview General committee which consists of all 13 city coun cilmembers has been open to the press but closed to the general public as were the smaller standing committees into which council has divided in past years This year general committee meetings have featured heated debates on controversial sub jects and have often gone past midnight after pm start By contrast regular council meetings which by law must be open have been taking less than two hours with little debate and with most commit tee recommendations gaining routine approval Mayor Archer said the general committee system in stituted this year at his sugges tion is less informal than the former small committees and therefore more suitable for public exposure TIEDEN RENTACAR AND TRUCK SERVICE RATES DAILY WEEKLY MONTHLY YEARLY FEATURING CHEVROLETS ORILLIA 93 COMMERCE RD 705 3266485 JERRY SMITH BARBIE 341 BAYFIELD ST 705 7370800 JIM RAWN barrie today Most beefs about car repairs says director of Barrie CAC Cars and car repairs are the subjects of most complaints referred to the Barrie on sumers Association of Canada says program director Bob Nickason lle advises motorists to take careful look at the kind of work done on their automobiles and not to be reluctant to shop around If one garage operators quote seems out of line do what youd do if you found quote for television repairs excessive go somewhere else said Nickason He suggested that the motorist get estimates from at least three different service stations and decide then which he will entrust with his machine Nickason is not impressed with the argument from garage operators that estimates are difficult to make Many have flatrate books and thus should be able to give the owner decent idea of the cost he said They should have pretty good idea of the cost of anything if they have any idea whats wrong with the car Nickason advises the car owner to ask the mechanic what he thinks is wrong and what he may or may not do to cor rect the problem And let the manager or mechanic know that you wont pay for any extra work em phasized Nickason He suggested that the owner draw line from the bottom of the repairs outlined on the work or der to the bottom of the page so that no repairs will be added after he signs NOT BY PHONE lont agree to terms over the phone he said explaining that most car owners likely havent been paying much at tention to the parts in question thus dont know for sure whether or not theyre defec tive or rundown in his view an owner should insist that the operator notify him if he has uncovered any other problems and thinks ex IndeX not issued from air testing The provincial en vironment ministry hopes to have air pollution monitoring equipment operating in Barrie by the end of May Andy Wcir senior en vironmental officer with the ministrys Harrie office said Thursday The equipment to be in stalled on the roof of the police and fire building on Vespra Street is part of provincewide network Barries size and potential growth rather than any serious pollution problem are the reasons for the in stallation Weir said We wouldnt expect high readings he said Weir said the equipment which will cost around $7000 will be used to keep track of pollution levels so that any deterioration or imv provement over period of time can be spotted The ministry will not be issuing air pollution index readings for Barrie such as those issued for Toronto Hamilton or Sudbury he said To be measured are sulfur dioxide mainly an industrial pollutant airborne particles of dirt and dust and haze levels Pollutants from auto exhausts are not included $100 family for ShareLife St Marys goal Barrie Catholics will be asked to dig deep into their pockets to support the Ar chdiocese of Torontos ShareLife canvass which begins Sunday Members of St Marys parish one of two parishes in the city have been asked to give $100 per family though the request is not binding Overall goal for the diocese which includes Simcoe County is $25 million compared to $933000 raised last year in the former Share Lent campaign Most of the difference is made up by $1224million goal for the support of the ar chdioceses eightagency Catholic Charities formerly funded under the Toronto United Appeal Archbishop Philip Pocock pulled Catholic Charities out of the appeal in protest against abortion referral activities of Planned Parenthood admitted to the appeal for the first time last year The rest of the ShareLife target includes $800000 for the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace an agency providing aid to residents of un derdeveloped countries and $238000 for St Augustines Seminary where priests are trained for the archdiocese Both Development and Peace and the seminary were in volved in the former Share Lent campaign Extra collections for Shareliife will be taken at masses May and June for those who cannot afford to make their full contribution during this months canvass tra work IS in order If you get work done ask for your old parts and try and determine somehow if they came from your car advises Nickason who also recom mends rebuilt partsbecause theyre cheaper and the warranty is better According to him lot of mechanics will simply slap on new parts instead of checking the older ones simple scope check will help the motorist determine if he needs new parts Sandra Dunn left and Christine Dawson were two predestrians who Friday en countered large puddles and mud while walking along lunlop Street at Blake Street Sherwood Trombley Mudd atall Nickason says to be wary of loss leaders deal onone item or operation to lure customers in but inflated prices on surrounding items 110 mentions Phil Ed monston head of 5000 member auto protection association who claimed that onethird of the three billion dollars spent annually in Canada on car repairs went into unnecessary parts and labor An example locally was walk along of 245 lunlop St and John Hayes of 251 lunlop St IC both told The Examiner about mud and water from the liayclub onstruetion site Mr Trombley said men on the site made an effort to Dunlop Street man who went to garage and got quote of $300 for front end work He then went to govern ment outlet in Toronto and was told there was nothing wrong with his car relates Nickason He said 1965 royal com mission in Alberta found that gas stations made so little money on gas that they had to make their money on car repairs dont think it pertains strictly to Alberta he com mented clean up the mess but the mud kept washing down Residents at Blake St senior citizens apartment building also complained about the mud along Dunlop Street Examiner Proto