Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Chemistry
Mattel Future Phone

Title:

Odd Jobs / Barnyard Phonics

Date:

early 1970s

Material:

Plastic disc, polyester film

Dimensions:

Disc 6⅝ in. (168 mm)

Company:

Mattel, Inc.

Location:

Los Angeles, California, United States

Slide and audio disc for the Mattel Future Phone toy. The discs hold 20 film slides with 10 audio snippets on each side stored in interleaved grooves. Likely inspired by the AT&T Picturephone, which was demonstrated in 1964 at the New York World's Fair and unsuccessfully commercialized in 1970. The Future Phone was also introduced in 1970 and seems to have been no more successful than the AT&T version.

Each side of the disc stores 10 audio snippets in interleaved grooves
The stylus is positioned automatically in one of 10 starting slots to guide it into the corresponding groove.