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Document image processing project launched
OisploLJS news Document image processing project launched Development of a major document image processing (DIP) system has b e e n announced by Xionics. The d e v e l o p m e n t is be i ng jointly funded with British Petroleum's Information Systems Services department, which has identified a range of applications for a s ecur e and modular system. Phase one of an ambitious fourphase project has b e e n unveiled to potential users, which brings together the elements for a lowcost, high-resolution, DIP system b a s e d on IBM's PC/AT. The system is the result of a two y e a r study b y Xionics and a major US communications corporation to determine the suitability of the IBM PC family for hosting low cost distributed DIP. Later phases of the project will include integration of DIP systems into local and wide area networks, with the aim of p r o duc i ng a highp e r f o r m a n c e document file s e r v e r for office and corporate use. Aside from o v er co min g the technical hurdles involved in creating a n e t w o r k ed DIP system, Xionics is also committed to making the system meet UK and international standards including X.400, CCITT groups 3 and 4, DCA/DIA, ODA and IBM's Systems Network Architecture (SNA). Other major companies have b e e n invited to participate in evaluation of the system through its C h a r t e r e d Users Group. This offers companies interested in DIP applications the opportunity to gain valuable early e x p e r i e n c e in the application of DIP and to assist in refining the system in later phases of the project. The pilot standalone system for c h a r t e r e d users comprises a document scanner or facsimile machine, PC/AT system unit with a 400 Mbyte optical disc storage subsystem, s c r e e n and printer. In addition to the h a r d w a r e elements, Xionics is placing consid194
e r abl e emphasis on high-integrity software to control all aspects of the image processing system. The technology allows p a p e r documents to be scanned electronically to p r o d u c e a c o d e d 'photographic' representation which may b e stored on Winchester or optical disc, displayed on a highresolution screen, edited using cut and paste techniques, m e r g e d with data from other sources and printed or communicated to other users. Fax may also b e r e c e i v e d from other devices for processing or storage. The individual h a r d w a r e components - - document scanners, facsimile transceivers, optical discs, laser printers - - are all available with a limited range of software support. The first part of Xionics' d e v e l o p m e n t therefore covers the applications and systems software to integrate these elements. It will b e written in C and Intel Assembler and will run on an IBM PC AT or a compatible machine. Two different scanning systems are bei ng offered: a facsimile machine operating at about 200 dots p e r inch (dpi) or a dedicated document scanner operating at 300 dpi. In either case, the document is examined at each scan point to see whether the local area
is black or white, and the resulting information fed to the PC AT. For an A4 page, this p r o d u c e s about 400 kbyte of data from a fax machine or 900 kbyte from a scanner. Compression algorithms are to b e d e v e l o p e d to r e d u c e this quantity of data, with no loss of information, to b e t w e e n 30 and 300 kbyte, d e p e n d i n g on scan resolution and document content. Scan s p e e d s will range from about 30 s for an A4 p a g e to less than 10 s, including compression and transfer to the processor. A display with a s c r e e n resolution of about 1 000 b y 1 000 pixels will b e selected. This will b e sufficient to display a full A4 pag e (in portrait mode) containing 12 point characters in such a way that at least the general layout of the p a g e (the positions of paragraphs, headings etc.) is clear. The facility will be p r o v i d e d to display portions of the p a g e using a software-controlled zoom feature, allowing the smallest captured details to b e seen. The screen, which will be not m o r e than 15 inch diagonal, will p r o v i d e an emulation of the IBM colour graphics adaptor, interpreting colour as various shades of grey. It is further h o p e d to provide emulation for the enhanced graphics adaptor, the IBM m onochrom e display b o a r d and Hercules m onochrom e graphics board. Xionics Ltd, 48 Mortimer Street, London W I N 777), UK.
Colour for Honeywell users Honeywell users have colour display facilities for the first time. Gresham Lion has introduced a low-cost colour terminal, GL 8003 MRC, which uses the m onochrom e attributes to p r o d u c e an eight colour display. It features a 15 inch CRT console with tilt and swivel, alternative character sets, English language set-up page, double height and
double width characters, four or 16 p a g e text memory, 80 column mode, asynchronous and synchronous operation, printer interface and p r o g r a m m a b l e function keys for local or transmitted mode. Gresham Lion Electronics Ltd, Gresham House, Twickenham Road, Feltham, Middlesex TW13 6HA, UK. Tel: 01-894 5311.
DISPLAYS, OCTOBER 1986
e r abl e emphasis on high-integrity software to control all aspects of the image processing system. The technology allows p a p e r documents to be scanned electronically to p r o d u c e a c o d e d 'photographic' representation which may b e stored on Winchester or optical disc, displayed on a highresolution screen, edited using cut and paste techniques, m e r g e d with data from other sources and printed or communicated to other users. Fax may also b e r e c e i v e d from other devices for processing or storage. The individual h a r d w a r e components - - document scanners, facsimile transceivers, optical discs, laser printers - - are all available with a limited range of software support. The first part of Xionics' d e v e l o p m e n t therefore covers the applications and systems software to integrate these elements. It will b e written in C and Intel Assembler and will run on an IBM PC AT or a compatible machine. Two different scanning systems are bei ng offered: a facsimile machine operating at about 200 dots p e r inch (dpi) or a dedicated document scanner operating at 300 dpi. In either case, the document is examined at each scan point to see whether the local area
is black or white, and the resulting information fed to the PC AT. For an A4 page, this p r o d u c e s about 400 kbyte of data from a fax machine or 900 kbyte from a scanner. Compression algorithms are to b e d e v e l o p e d to r e d u c e this quantity of data, with no loss of information, to b e t w e e n 30 and 300 kbyte, d e p e n d i n g on scan resolution and document content. Scan s p e e d s will range from about 30 s for an A4 p a g e to less than 10 s, including compression and transfer to the processor. A display with a s c r e e n resolution of about 1 000 b y 1 000 pixels will b e selected. This will b e sufficient to display a full A4 pag e (in portrait mode) containing 12 point characters in such a way that at least the general layout of the p a g e (the positions of paragraphs, headings etc.) is clear. The facility will be p r o v i d e d to display portions of the p a g e using a software-controlled zoom feature, allowing the smallest captured details to b e seen. The screen, which will be not m o r e than 15 inch diagonal, will p r o v i d e an emulation of the IBM colour graphics adaptor, interpreting colour as various shades of grey. It is further h o p e d to provide emulation for the enhanced graphics adaptor, the IBM m onochrom e display b o a r d and Hercules m onochrom e graphics board. Xionics Ltd, 48 Mortimer Street, London W I N 777), UK.
Colour for Honeywell users Honeywell users have colour display facilities for the first time. Gresham Lion has introduced a low-cost colour terminal, GL 8003 MRC, which uses the m onochrom e attributes to p r o d u c e an eight colour display. It features a 15 inch CRT console with tilt and swivel, alternative character sets, English language set-up page, double height and
double width characters, four or 16 p a g e text memory, 80 column mode, asynchronous and synchronous operation, printer interface and p r o g r a m m a b l e function keys for local or transmitted mode. Gresham Lion Electronics Ltd, Gresham House, Twickenham Road, Feltham, Middlesex TW13 6HA, UK. Tel: 01-894 5311.
DISPLAYS, OCTOBER 1986