The Press: Audible Ink

All last week, clutching a color insert torn from the current issue of Asahi Science Magazine (circ. 90,000), subscribers streamed into Canon Camera Co. service stations in five Japanese cities. One side of the insert bore color pictures of Niagara Falls and London's Big Ben clock tower, the other a solid block of brown ink. As the subscribers listened spellbound, the insert, placed face up in a table-top device called a Synchroreader, reproduced the awesome thunder of Niagara Falls, the clangorous toll of Big Ben.

What mesmerized Asahi Science readers—and in three days sold...