It's A Small, Small World

Manufacturers are still discovering new possibilities in the melding of electronics and publishing. Selectronics announced a forthcoming electronic version of the Physicians' Desk Reference, the standard doctors' guide to prescription medicine. The same firm offered a pocketsize translator programmed by Berlitz. Not much larger than a credit card, the TriLingual can almost instantly translate nearly 40,000 words and 900 phrases between English, Spanish and French.

Two technical advances led to the shrinking of consumer electronics. One is the increasing memory and power of computer chips. A new spelling corrector introduced in Las Vegas last week contains 80,000 words and will recognize phonetic attempts-it knows that your spelling "sensashunal" probably means "sensational." Yet the device is no larger than a credit card and weighs less than two ounces. (Hint for the college bound: just the thing to have up your sleeve when you write the essay questions on your SAT.)

The second breakthrough involves so-called flat-screen technology. Once computer information could be viewed only on the bulky cathode-ray tube found in most current televisions. Then came pocket calculators, with a single and often barely readable line of type. But Japanese manufacturers moved forward quickly with flat-screen color displays. At the Consumer Electronics Show, for example, Sharp showed a tiny color monitor, no larger than a cigarette box, that attaches to a video camera, allowing amateur videographers to watch their work. The same company also displayed a flat screen 14 inches wide-the precursor of televisions that hang on the wall like a painting. Such a set will accelerate the miniaturization of technology. Its electronics will be smaller than a brick, hidden away, tuned by a remote control.

Not everything is shrinking in the consumer-electronics business. Last year sales of the $3,000-plus "home theater," combining big-screen television and stereo surround sound, grew 22 percent. Will such big price tags go over in 1991? "We're one industry that isn't terrified by rising gasoline prices," says Gary Shapiro, a group vice president of the Electronic Industries Association. "When prices rise, people stay home and entertain themselves." But it remains to be seen whether this year's jittery consumers will fork out big bucks to view Tom Cruise nearly life size on bigscreen television. They can, of course, opt instead to buy a nice electronic Bible.

Photo: Pocket-size gadgets bring new life to a sluggish market: Sharp's video camera with detachable color monitor, Franklin's 12-ounce encyclopedia-at-your-fingertips

HIGH-TECH HELP FOR THE MISDIRECTED