Abstract

A management communication terminal is formed by integrating an electronic, raster scanning camera with a personal computer. The terminal has a keyboard, a Winchester disk drive, a telecommunication controller, a cathode ray tube monitor, and a thermographic, raster image printer. Two such terminals define an office information system for the exchange of information produced at the keyboards and by the cameras. In each terminal, the coded data generated at the keyboard and the raster image data generated by the camera are temporarily stored in separate data buffers and from there are routed to the monitor, the printer and disk storage. The monitor and printer are able to display and print respectively, images created from the keyboard data, the camera data or a combination of the two. The camera data is compressed prior to storage and is reduced in resolution prior to application to the monitor. The telecommunication controller, when coupled to a transmission line, transfers keyboard and camera data directly between the disk memories associated with two terminals.