view@canon.co.uk (View station s/w) (05/31/91)
The VIEW-Station Software Distribution : Tools for
a Platform-Independent Image Processing Workstation
Canon Information Systems Research Center in Japan has been
involved in developing UNIX workstation-based image process-
ing software called "VIEW-Station" (Vision and Image
Engineering WorkStation). As of September 1990, we announced
its test release in Europe and received a number of
enquiries, and now several groups are using the software.
This is the second announcement for calling for users, as
ISRC has completed an additional tool since the last
announcement.
We would like the software to be used by many people and
distribute for a small handling charge, though agreement
with Canon Inc. will be necessary. At the current stage, in
Europe, the distribution will be restricted only to academic
sites.
As Canon Research Europe is representing the project in
Europe, if interested or any queries, please e-mail to the
following:
view@canon.co.uk (or view@canon.uucp)
Please make sure to include your name and address (e-mail &
postal). In return, we will send you more information.
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1. What is VIEW-Station?
The principal aim of the project is to provide a common base
for image processing applications in order to avoid unneces-
sary duplication of work.
The VIEW-Station software comprises:
+ V-Sugar:
A C++ based image processing programming tool with
image-oriented data type facilities.
+ VSugarLib:
A set of image processing modules. The users can cope
with different image processing hardware just by
replacing this library.
+ VIEW-Windows:
A window tool for image processing based on the X Win-
dow System (X11R4). It provides a set of various widg-
ets specialised for dealing with images on X.
In addition, a new module called "uV-Sugar (microV-Sugar)"
for interactive image processing has been added.
+ uV-Sugar:
A command interpreter designed for easy-to-use and
interactive image processing experiments. It provides
an interactive environment for users who wish to pro-
cess images by combinations of ready-made commands in
an exploratory manner.
2. Which Systems the Software Runs on
+ Workstation and OS
The software runs on the configurations of either a
workstation + image processing hardware, or a stan-
dalone workstation. The software has been tested to run
on Sun workstations (3 and 4) under OS up to SunOS4.1.
However, the distribution will be in a source form so
that it may be possible to port to other machines with
some effort. Actually, it runs on HP9000.
+ Which X Windows?
VIEW-Station runs with X11R4. R5 will be supported in
due course.
+ Which C++ ?
V-Sugar was designed based on AT&T C++ Release 1.2, but
now runs with Sun C++ 2.0 and AT&T C++ Release 2.1, as
well.
+ Which image processing library?
VIEW-Station's image processing functionalities are
provided as VSugarLib which is implemented by writing
some interface code in C++ to VSugarLib-ise the under-
lying SPIDER routines. But the design philosophy of
VIEW-Station is to be able to cope with various
hardware by replacing the low-level libraries, and
SPIDER is just an example.
After the last announcement, we got quite a few queries
whether SPIDER is essential. As described above, the
answer is "No". For those who already have your own
image processing subroutines, you can make your stuff
incorporated in VSugarLib in the same way and use them
in much higher level such as V-Sugar and uV-Sugar.
Unfortunately, Canon has no right to distribute SPIDER
(although the head of the VIEW-Station project, H.
Tamura, is the author of SPIDER) and it is rather
expensive (~3000 pounds for academics) in Europe.
Moreover, FORTRAN compiler is not cheap these days. As
a remedy, ISRC has already started development of an
image processing package written in C - they call it
"REDIPS (Re-Edited Image Processing Software)".
3. Future plans
As well as developing REDIPS, ISRC is working on the project
to make the software more attractive. While uV-Sugar pro-
vides the same "feel" as V-Sugar, a module called VS-Shell
which utilises much more graphical user interfaces is under
development. Also, an interface builder for VIEW-Windows to
customise the environment, as well as VPL (Visual Program-
ming Language) which allows interactive and exploratory pro-
gramming in a graphical manner are under way. In the future,
VIEW-Station will be linked with principal graphics
libraries, as well as geometric modelers and image database
systems.
4. Last words
VIEW-Station is not a finished product, but a common plat-
form to accumulate and interchange image processing
software, which will encourage and promote the community as
a whole. For this reason, the software is always evolving.
To make the software more attractive, ISRC is looking for
academic partners, as well as users. If you are interested,
please contact Canon Research Europe at view@canon.co.uk (or
view@canon.uucp).