Atari E.R.I.C. P.O.P. kiosk

Atari's E.R.I.C. (Electronic Retail Information Center) POP (Point Of Purchase) store kiosk machine was used on location to educate use of and promote sales of the Atari 400/800 home computers.

From Harry Brown: "I also worked on a laserdisc project that made it into a few retail stores. It used an Atari 800 with a custom interface to control a Pioneer VP-1000 laserdisc player. Atari's "Grass Valley" did the laserdisc interface, and I was in contact with the board designer to learn how to "talk" to it. Atari put the setup in a coin-op cabinet, and a special laser disk was made and the customer could click around and play different sections off the laserdisc."

From a 1982 Atari Research press kit:

ERIC - Video Disc Point of Sale Terminal

This joint project with Atari Design Research was undertaken to demonstrate that a consumer video disc can be interfaced to an Atari Home Computer and used as an interactive video terminal for the general public. ERIC was demonstrated successfully at the June CES and is now being productized.

The potential of video discs as data and image storage media for interactive terminals is just starting to be developed. One of the first major uses is in Disney's EPCOT park which opens in October of this year. Interactive video terminals and video discs are used for public access to the park directory.

In terms of data distribution, a video disc has tremendous potential. For example, a disc of data shipped via US mail has an effective data rate of 6000 bits per second! With this kind of storage density and with mass distribution possible at a low cost, this technology will be very important in the coming years.

As a side note, Brooke Alderson plays the "mom" in the footage.