Invention Story of Lie detector Microchip and Walkman

 Lie Detector
Inventor of Lie detector called it cardie-pneumo-psychograph. It was a magic box that had the power to peep in one’s mind and figure out who was pilfering jewelry and cash at college boardinghouse. But to future generations and newspaper reading people, this magic box was lie detector, a machine to help a way out of doubtful scientific credentials and dubious ethical aura.

 

In the era that led to birth of scientific industrial management, I.Q. test and time motion study, a group of American Inventors and the social reformers had dreamt of a device that could separate truth from the deception by measuring body responses like pulse rate, blood pressure.

 

One of the early proponents claimed that this ‘mechanical instrument of future’ would replace jury deliberations, conventional police interrogations. It would also lend a hand to government and private companies in weeding out spies, thieves. It would beam in deepest corners of human psyche and advancing works of psychiatrists. But the man behind the invention, John Larson despaired while taking his breaths and called it a Frankenstein’s monster that had sucked 40 years of his life.

 

The persistent as well as unusual grip of the lie detector on American thoughts provided rich material for Lie Detector’s invention. Various cases including that of Torso Murderers, Cleveland, story of Dick Tracy or William James stirred with scientific visions led to invention of lie detector.

 

Earliest antecedents of modern lie detector come from device that used trial by torture or ordeal. During Middle Ages in the Europe, torture was the practice that rooted from theory that stated - an agonizing body could oblige a lying mind to croak the secret out. But in 1730, this method of torture for extracting the truth from a person made an exit and a new lie detection method took over. Daniel Defoe was the earliest of men to suggest such a method through evaluation of heart rate. In 18^th century, the torturous methods declined completely due to continuous campaigns against the judicial torture in the Europe. This humane way of detecting lie through lie detector was accepted by majority during this time.

 

The evolution of lie detector was slow but was a pioneering invention for the entire mankind. The emergence started slowly with the initial tests for determining the physical responses during act of deception. Cesare Lombroso also known as Father of the Modern Criminology was the first one to try of application of science for detecting deception. He made use of device known as plethysmograph that monitored changes in blood flow of person at the time of interrogation.

 

Another breakthrough came in the year 1897 with development of method to measure galvanic responses by B. Sticker. This method used amount of sweat produced on skin with the help of electric conductibility during the test. And in 1914, breathing rate measurement using the pneumatic tubing was done by Vittorio Benussi. This device was draped around the person’s chest for measuring the rate and depth of breath. Benussi discovered ratio of expiration and inspiration was usually greater at the time of truth telling than lying. This method of truth discovery by Benussi gave an important revelation that it was not just pulse rate, sweat production and the blood pressure that helped in lie detection but the breathing rates too. All these findings amalgamated together formed the modern day lie detector known as polygraph.

 

Microchip

 

 

Jack Kilby is one of the heroes from the success story of microchip. Among very few who really thought of giving something to the society that could truly transform the way it works, Kilby was one of them. He had an important role in offering a breakthrough to the technological world. Like all other champions, Kilby was keen to explore the world. His world of exploration was the world of technology where he developed ceramic base circuits with silk screen to fit the electronic products. And soon his zeal to improvise led to earliest electronic circuit which almost half of paper clips’s size. While working at the Texas Instruments, he had designed thing platform made of crystal and this worked as sole processing system for connecting various components like capacitors, resistors and transistors. Earlier connected with wires, the chip helped in avoiding entangling, enhancing processing speed. He kept a foundation stone in the invention of microchip in 1958.

 

Jack Kilby initiated various commercial, industrial and military microchip applications. He lead the teams that were involved in earliest computer with integrated circuit and military systems. Not just this, Kilby has around 60 patents in his name. National Medal, hall of fame and so many patents, he had everything a person could ask for. But microchip’s success is not just his; there are others also who had the same curious mind and wisdom that made journey of the integrated circuit from a crude invention to a huge market.

 

Before big shots like Google, Apple, Microsoft or any other dotcom contributed to microchip, a group of young fellows sowed its seeds. Interestingly, it all started with their hatred; hatred towards their boss. Many of us dislike our bosses but what was different in these young fellows’ case was that the hatred worked as an inspiration for them to come up with something as great as an integrated chip. It was group of eight men, all with one thing in common- dislike against their boss, who decided to start a transistor company. And the leader of group was Robert Noyce. The young fellow was known as Rapid Robert due to his fast and witty mind which was proved right when came up company called Fairchild Semiconductor. By polishing his business skills, he along with his team had made huge profits and a company with around 11,000 employees in just a decade.

 

Then in 1959, this ordinary man with extraordinary passion gave earliest integrated circuit to the world. It was just one of the 17 patents that are awarded to him. The earliest integrated chip which was commercially available also came from his company. Individual transistors in computers were replaced by chips.  And In 1968, this young man along with his co-founder friend Gordon Moore from the company started a small company known as Intel. It was his leadership skills and hardwork that helped Intel drive from a small company to one of largest companies of semiconductor chip today.

 Walkman

Walkman, the name itself arouses curiosity. And not only does it have an interesting name but is an interesting gadget too. Walkman got its name from brand Sony. It brought a revolution in the music listening habits by allowing people to carry their favorite music while they were on move. Launch of pre-recorded tapes towards the end of 1960s had unwrapped new market already. And Compact tape size worked for Walkman and made it fit for mobility and car stereos as compared to 8 –tracks or vinyl.

 

In July 1979, Sony Corporation launched Sony Walkman, silver and blue colored portable player with flashy buttons, leather case and headphones. It also offered an extra earphone jack to let two people listen music at the same time but was a little bulky. One day Sony’s co-founder, Masura Ibuka while travelling for business, asked his executive deputy president to design a model that could be used with headphones. And then high quality, compact music player was launched.

 

This device now needed a name. Originally Walkman was launched in US with the name of Sound- About and in UK with Stowaway. But the only problem was that coming up uncopyrighted , new names for each country proved expensive. However Sony chose ‘Walkman’ as the name. Released first in Japan, the production proved to be a big hit. While the company had predicted sale of only 5000 units in the month, Walkman was sold, more than 50,000 in first two months.

 

Sony was although not the first company to launch portable audio or the portable transistors. Regency TR 1 which was of size of index card made its debut in 1954. But unique combination of privacy and portability offered by Walkman made it ideal product for consumers looking for portable stereos. TPS L2 was launched later in June 1980.

1980’s can be very well known as the decade of Walkman. Apart from Sony, brands such as Toshiba, Panasonic and Aiwa helped tapes to outsell the vinyl records in year 1983 for the first time. And by year 1986, word ‘Walkman’ had made a place in Oxford Dictionary. Fortunately, its invention clashed with beginning of aerobics craze among people and millions of them used it for keeping themselves entertained while working out. Between years 1987-97, popularity of Walkman reached to its highest.

Sony did not stop rolling out variations of the product in the market. Innovations such as bass boost, FM/ AM receivers, auto reverse were a part of later models. The company even launched water resistant Walkman, device with two cassette players and one that worked with solar energy.

 

But capturing such a large part of the market was not a cakewalk for the company. Sony had to face many entry barriers. Just before Walkman was making an entry into market, its image was stained by press, which considered a cassette player without recorder worthless and letdown to the company. Sony without paying attention at negative comments, geared up for the product launch. Management of the company did not want to promote the product in traditional manner. So they organized a bus tour with journalists.