How I Created The Technology

I have been an avid reader all my life. I often went to libraries to read magazines and newspapers because it would be too expensive if I subscribed to all the publications I read.

Today most people read news and articles online. One major event leading to the online revolution was the breakup of the Bell System in 1982. Before 1982 the whole telephone system, from equipment to services, was controlled by Bell. The breakup opened up opportunities for outside companies to develop new equipment and services that used the telephone system. Competition led to lower prices. Telephone modems became affordable. Companies such as Prodigy, America Online (AOL), and GEnie launched services to provide ordinary people online access to newspapers, magazines, weather reports, stock market information, etc. I subscribed to one of these online services. However, it was slow and expensive. The speed of the modems was less than 2,400 bits per second (compared to over 50 Megabits per second today). To give an example to contrast the speed difference, a newspaper article that can be downloaded in one second today would need about half an hour in 1990. Also, both the service providers and local phone companies charged per minute connection charges. Thus reading newspapers/magazines online was frustrating and expensive.

A major event for my invention was a presentation I attended. I was on a business trip, and it was by chance that I attended a presentation by a person named Ted Nelson. He is a colorful and innovative person who is ahead of his time. He coined the word "hypertext" in 1963. You can read more about him from his official site, Wikipedia, and a colorful biography. It was fun to watch him in action, and I still have a vivid image of it. He opened up my eyes to “hypertext.” I was intrigued by this concept and I thought about it from time to time.

Today we are used to “links” that allows us to jump from page to page. The World Wide Web is similar to a large library that contains massive number of linked multimedia documents for visitors to browse. In the old days the libraries I visited used “microfilms” to provide mass storage of documents. A microfilm is a roll of film that contains diminished images of several thousand pages of documents. One roll of microfilm can be used to store the images of more than ten books. Users loaded a roll of film on a microfilm reader that could enlarge and rotate the images. The pages were arranged and accessed sequentially. I had used this type of readers to read old magazines in libraries. The concept of “hypertext” was a revelation to me.

For those of you who have never seen and used a microfilm reader before, I provide a link below so you can see how to use it. You will definitely appreciate the convenience of "links" after watching the video:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gic0pXrgJF8

One day a few months later, I was trying to find online a piece of information that was embedded inside a long article. I was in a hurry and frustrated by the slow modem speed. It started my desire to improve online information delivery. I began to develop such technology.

I looked at alternative ways that could deliver large amount of information fast. I visited a number of wireless companies in Silicon Valley. I was familiar with wireless because I had taught physics and electrical engineering courses in universities. I decided that satellite was the most efficient delivery means. It could deliver lots of data to a large number of subscribers at the same time. Even though satellite delivery charges were expensive, the cost per subscriber could be low if enough subscribers shared the costs.

After completing the conceptual design, I asked myself how to add (or subtract) features to improve user experience. I had a M.B.A. degree and the education stimulated me to look at designs from a business angle in addition to engineering angle. The presentation by Ted Nelson came back to me. I realized that I could improve the design by adding his "hypertext" feature. I then started to develop the details.

The hypertext of Ted Nelson is best implemented digitally. I was familiar with digital systems. One of the courses I taught in university was digital system design. Also, In 1978 (during the dawn of the PC revolution) I bought a KIM-1 single-board computer kit and did assembly language programming on an old 6502 microprocessor. (Note: 6502 was the microprocessor used by many first generation microcomputers, including the first microcomputer sold by Apple, the Apple-1). I wrote a short computer program and it was published by a magazine called "MICRO -- The 6502 Journal" in October 1979. This magazine is still archived on the Web more than 40 years after it was published (http://archive.6502.org/publications/micro/micro_17_oct_1979.pdf). You can see my program on page 43 (for browsers that don't show page number: the magazine has a page numbering system on the bottom of the pages and my program is on page 17:41 -- "17" is the issue number designating the October 1979 issue and "41" is the page number of that issue).

If you are too busy to flip through the pages of the magazine, you can read my program here.

After I went down to the details of the design, I realized that I needed to develop a new digital protocol to apply Ted Nelson’s hypertext concept to my design.

The protocol I developed was similar to the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) protocol used in the World Wide Web. At that time I had never heard of HTML and the Web. 

I liked the design very much. I wanted to protect my design. I knew that patents could offer strong protection. Thus I took steps to apply for patents to my design.

Click here to find out more about my patent applications.