info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (09/21/84)
From: roy@nlm-vax (Roy Standing) I have been investigating video digitizers and offer the following mix of fact and impressions on the six systems I have found: 1) Micron Technology, Inc. Vision Systems Group 2805 E. Columbia Road Boise, ID 83706 (208) 383-4000 TWX: 910-970-5973 Product Name: MicronEye Price: $395.00 Availability: immediate Description: This is a complete system as delivered and connects to the Macintosh via the modem port. It uses an OpticRAM which is exposed by the light coming through the lens and then the contents of the OpticRAM are read into the Mac. The physical layout of the light sensitive elements is: 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 The 1s indicate the location of the sensors and the 0s indicate locations where there are no sensors. The Camera software provided offers a variety of ways of filling in these empty sensor locations; which works best is dependent on the picture and the desired image. Impression: I obtained the system to get some exposure (no pun intended) with video digitizing. In fairness, I did not expect this product to meet my requirements. I does not meet my requirements but was valuable as a training ground. On the plus side, the software is easy to use and I have digitized a variety of images, including handwritten labels on a magtape. Being a complete novice I had a lot of difficulty focusing on anything more than a foot from the camera, but on frontlit materials placed about six inches from the lens I obtained reasonable results. High contrast materials produce the best results. The enhancement features are very easy to use and give some impressive results. I found the greatest success when I used the Gray Scale capture mode which takes four pictures at different exposures (based on your initial exposure setting), fills in the empty sensor locations using linear interpolation and creates a dithered image on the Mac. On the minus side, I couldn't place material more than a foot away from the lens although the instruction manual says the lens is designed for viewing at a distance of AT LEAST 18 inches. This could be my fault, but points up a difficulty in using the product. The biggest frustration was in using the enhancement features, simply because they seemed so useful. The enhancement features are: Fill> 2 for each empty sensor location, count the on sensors immediately above, below and adjacent; if all three are on turn the empty sensor location pixel on Fill> 1 for each empty...; if at least two are on turn the empty sensor location pixel on Fill Horizontal for each empty sensor location, look to the nearest data sensor in the same row and set the empty sensor location to the same value Invert reverse on and off Smooth Edges turns off a pixel if less than 4 of its nearest 8 neighbors are on Clear Interior turns off a pixel if the pixel above, below, to the right and to the left are on Set Interior changes off pixels to on if at least seven of its nearest neighbors are on The problem is that you can not use any option multiple times on an image. In addition, you can not save an image to a MacPaint file, edit it in MacPaint and reload it into the Camera system for further processing. In summary, it is a rather limited system based on a novel technology. While I would not recommend it to anyone wanting to capture high quality pictures, it was a good training system. 2) New Image Technologies P.O. Box 277 Severn, MD 21144 (301) 621-9336 Product Name: MAGIC Price: $695.00 (with camera, $595.00 without camera) Availability: immediate Description: This is a complete system as delivered and connects to the modem port (I think). You can connect a video monitor (not included) to the camera output to help focus the camera. When you are satisfied you capture the image and have several processing options. The options include filling portions of the image with defined textures (like pouring, floodfilling, a texture in MacPaint). Impressions: I was frankly impressed when I saw this system. Since this was at a computer show it was not possible to get the developers to stop taking pictures of attendees and printing the images off on an imagewritter long enough to really learn about the image manipulation capabilities provided. I think this system may meet my requirements and the price seems reasonable, especially compared to MicronEye. 3) Discrete-Time Systems, Inc. 6649 e Roswell Road Suite 240 Atlanta, GA 30328 (404) 255-3629 Product Name: unnamed at this time. DTS developed this system for a company named Servodyne which thus owns it and will do the marketing. Price: not established but definately under $1,000.00 and probably a lot under $1,000.00. Availability: January, from my conversations with DTS and Servodyne they are about to get their first test run of printed circuit boards back. Description: This system does not include the camera. Any camera with an NTSC output can be used. A color camera can be used but for best results a black and white camera is advised. At the top end they have used a Ikegama camera with an 800 lines per ?scan? resolution. They expect people to use vcr cameras and have thus been developing the product using a Panasonic PK557 camera (300 lines per ?scan? resolution). The system requires approximately 30 seconds to scan and capture the image. Impression: This system may meet my requirements, but the 30 second scan time is a drag (I think). I will know more when I receive a disk of images produced by the system. They are having brochures printed now which include some reproductions. Since I have written and called several times they are sending me a disk of images. I'm sure they can't afford to give out too many disks but I have made it clear that I am VERY interested, I have inquired about being a beta test site. 4) Koala Technologies Santa Clara, CA (408) 986-8866 Product Name: MacVision Price: under $300.00 (not much under) Availability: November 15th (orders being accepted now) Description: This systems takes an RS 170 signal. This means that you can capture an image directly off a video camera, videodisc player, VCR etc. The video frame is digitized into a 512X342 matrix and placed in the clipboard. There is some ability to manipulate the image but that was all the man told me. You can save the clipboard to a file without leaving MacVision. Impression: The ability to capture images from a videodisc is important to me. I have to check if videodiscs have an NTSC output (probably a dumb question but this is not my area of expertise), if they do then this system is much like the previous two except for forcing the image into a 512X342 matrix. I would rather be ability to capture a larger matrix since MacPaint can handle this. 5) Thunderware, Inc. Orinda, CA (415) 254-6581 Product Name: ?ThunderScan? Price: $229.00 Availability: early October (not accepting orders until released) Description: This system is complete as delivered. A sensor is provided which is attached to the printhead of a Imagewriter printer (you take the ribbon cartridge out). Anything you can feed through the printer will be scanned with a resolution of 200 pixels per inch in 256 levels of gray. Impression: I asked if the following senario would work: print a MacPaint file on the Imagewriter and then scan it to create a new MacPaint file from the printed copy. The person I spoke to said "Yes, we have done that" (paraphrase). Since the Imagewriter horizontal increment is different than its vertical increment I suspect that there would be some dissimilarity. In any case this product sounds exciting since there are no cameras, lights or other apparatus to require space, special conditions or operator expertise. 6) Oberon International 5525 MacArthur Boulevard Irvine, Texas 75062 (214) 257-0097 Product Name: unknown Price: $300.00 Availability: unknown Description: This system is different from the previously listed products because it captures files in MacWrite format rather than MacPaint format. The information I have is sketchy since I have not been able to contact the company yet. I was told that their systems scans text documents and captures the text in a MacWrite file. I got the phone number from long distance and get strange results when I dial it; I intend to keep trying. Impression: If this system can really scan and extract text for $300.00 it will be the deal of the century (depending on its success rate of course). If it simply provides a legible image that MacWrite can't manipulate it might be good for capturing letterheads. Hopefully, I will get through and learn about an exciting and valuable product (then again...)