tylock@sunybcs.cs.Buffalo.EDU (Steve Tylock) (02/08/90)
Hello, This is to clarify some points that have been raised on the network about two databases of digital images that the University at Buffalo USPS Research Group is distributing on behalf of the United States Postal Service. The USPS OAT has been soliciting proposals for research in Postal automation. Specific areas of interest are described in the Postal Service publication 'Research Interests in Automated Address Reading'. In order to aid the selection of proposals, the Postal Service is requesting the Offeror to demonstrate current capabilities. To that end, they are making available on request a database entitled "United States Postal Service Office of Advanced Technology Image Database for Research Announcement Proposal Preparation(1989)". This database contains 500 images distributed over machine printed, dot-matrix, handwritten as well as cursive ADDRESSES in a 300 ppi scale, (greyscale), as well as a 212 ppi (binary) scale. Jonathan Hull is in charge of this distribution. Please direct inquiries to: United States Postal Service Office of Advanced Technology Image Database for Research Announcement Proposal Preparation (1989) c/o Jonathan Hull Department of Computer Science 226 Bell Hall State University of New York at Buffalo Buffalo, New York 14260 (716) 636-3191 (hull@cs.buffalo.edu) You will need to send a $200 check payable to, University at Buffalo Foundation Specify whether you want an 8mm(exabyte), 9-track (6250/1600) or 1/4" sun tape. The tape will be in tar format and the datafiles will be in HIPS format. The tape will include a description of HIPS so that you can convert them to the format you need. The tape is roughly 30mb (files are compressed). The other database is entitled "United States Postal Service Office of Advanced Technology Handwritten ZIP Code Database (1987)". It contains about 2000 handwritten ZIP Codes scanned at 300 ppi. This database is NOT publicly available. If you think you are interested in this, do not contact myself or Jon. Please talk to: John Tan, Technology Resource Center, (202) 646-1500 Arthur D. Little, 955 L'enfant Plaza SW, Suite 4200 Washington, D.C. 20024-2119 He will be able to tell you more information. Steve Steven Tylock @ SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science (716-636-3406) internet: tylock@cs.buffalo.edu bitnet: tylock@sunybcs.BITNET uucp: ..!{ames,boulder,decvax,rutgers}!sunybcs!tylock