Do it by the numbers—digital shorthand

ABSTRACT

Present communications systems transmit single characters in groups of coded pulses between simple terminal equipments. Since English words form only a sparse set of all possible alphabetic combinations, present methods are inefficient when computer systems are substituted for these terminals. Using numeric representations of entire words or common phrases (rather than character-by-character representations) requires approximately one-third of present transmission time. This saving is reflected in overall costs. Other benefits accrue in code and language translation schemes. Provision is made for transmission of purely numeric and/or binary streams, and for single character-transmission of non-dictionary words such as the names of people of places.

REFERENCES

• 1: Draft Standard 7233: 1-4: 5/60, Electronic Industries Association, Committee TR 24.4.
• 2: SHANNON, C. E., Bell System. Tech. J. 80 (1951), 50-58.
• 3: BRILLOUIN, L., Science and Information Theory, pp. 24-58 (Academic Press, New York, 1956).
• 4: DEWEY, G. C., Relative Frequency of English Speech Sounis (Harvard University Press, 1923).
• 5: WYLE, ERB AND BANOW, Reduced-time Facsimile Transmission by Digital Coding, Preprint at National Symposium on Global Communications, August 1960. (Ford Instrument Co., Long Island City 1, N.Y.)