August 3, 1999

New York State Theater, home to New York City Opera and New York City Ballet, is installing electronic sound-enhancement system on experimental basis in time for September 11 opening of City Opera's fall season; the companies say system, which involves stationary microphones and more than 100 inconspicuous speakers of various shapes and sizes throughout auditorium, is more akin to 'electronic architecture,' enhancing acoustics of space but not amplifying voices; system was developed by a Dutch company, Acoustic Control Systems, which is lending the equipment to the theater at no charge for the experiment; diagrams (M)

Louis Armstrong House and Archives at Queens College will make available hundreds of tape recordings made by Armstrong, capturing thousands of hours of raw and intimate chatter, bawdy stories and noodlings on his trumpet; Michael Cogswell, director of archives, says tapes provide unmatched window into psyche of improvisational genius who molded jazz from its ragtime origins, popularized scat singing and captivated nation and world; Armstrong died in 1971; photos (M)

House Appropriations Committee has approved 2000 spending plan that would cut Securities and Exchange Commission budget to $324 million, 7.6 percent below $351 million SEC says it needs to maintain current staffing and activities; SEC says smaller budget would force it to cut work force by 10 percent, jeopardize its ability to bring new fraud cases and embolden swindlers; Senate has approved $370.8 million, with Sen Judd Gregg holding added money is needed for SEC to combat Internet stock fraud (M)

Agriculture Sec Dan Glickman declares West Virginia and parts of Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia to be drought-disaster area, making low-interest Federal loans avilable for its farmers; Pres Clinton and Congressional Democrats are proposing broader package of emergency farm relief totaling $10.8 billion; photos (S)

Human-shaped, legless robot called Cog is creation of Dr Rodney Brooks, director of Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cog can distinguish humans from other objects and track motion by swiveling head and eyes; Cog seems to make eye contact with visitors; Brooks sees this as first important step toward creating truly intelligent machine, which can experience world same way human being does; others in artificial intelligence field disagree with his approach; their robots are based on data input; photos (M)