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Season's Greetings
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Good News
We've been trying to be "nice" all year... nothing naughty here! This section will update you each
month on company news from IDELIX.
December 10, 2002
IDELIX releases Pliable Display Technology SDK 2.1 & PDT 3d SDK! [more]
PDT Critical Component for Eastman Kodak Company Consortium
Rochester, NY—IDELIX is pleased to announce that they have been selected to be a partner
of a consortium lead by the Eastman Kodak Company to fulfill the requirements of the National
Image and Mapping Agency's (NIMA) Soft Copy Search Program. Pliable Display Technology has
been chosen to deliver critical component capabilities to maximize performance against NIMA's
requirements. [more]
Business 2.0—PDT is a "Natural" Fit
"Once you've seen it, the technology appears natural, almost boring — an indication that it works...
I'd like to see this technology in car navigation systems and on sites like MapQuest.com."
—Rafe Needleman, Business 2.0
Dr. David Baar, IDELIX Founder and CTO, recently presented Pliable Display Technology to a distinguished audience of technology leaders at TTI/Vanguard's "NextGens Technologies" Conference in San Diego where Rafe Needleman, Technology Columnist for Business 2.0 met with Dr. Baar. Read the resulting article in Mr. Needleman's "What's Next" column in Business 2.0. IDELIX Opens Up to New Worlds...
Vancouver, Canada—IDELIX Software Inc. became the first Vancouver tech company to donate
stock options to Vancouver's Science World as part
of a new initiative developed by leaders of
the technology industry to establish ongoing financial sustainability for this institution.
"BC's future is being built on a knowledge-based economy," says Science World's President and
CEO Bryan Tisdall. "High tech is the fastest growing sector of our economy and we have a role
to play. Our mission is to engage youth at an early age to help them realize that science is cool,
and that there is an exciting future in sciences, engineering and technology."
IDELIX Wins BIG...
IDELIX is the proud recipient of Advanced Imaging Magazine's "Imaging Solution of the Year" award.
Pliable Display Technology was nominated by Boeing Autometric, and will be featured in the January
2003 issue.
Quote of the Month:
"It is not mass, it is dominant knowledge that is most important to
our military success and capability to be flexible and responsive," explains IDELIX Advisory Board
Member, former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Bill Owens. "IDELIX Software Inc.'s Pliable
Display Technology (PDT) is an example of commercially developed technology that can increase the
precision and efficiency of the military. PDT surpasses existing methods for viewing and interacting
with data in increasingly complex digital environments. The ability to pinpoint detailed information
while maintaining a complete view of the region of interest is technology that is important across
many military, government and commercial applications."
IDELIX is pleased to announce that Admiral Owens joined the IDELIX Board of Advisors in mid-October. [more] See our Testimonials Page to read what others are saying about PDT! |
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Technology Update
December 10, 2002—IDELIX releases Pliable Display Technology SDK 2.1 & PDT 3d SDK!
[Read the IDELIX press release]
PDT SDK 2.1
PDT SDK 2.1 The Pliable Display Technology SDK is IDELIX's core product for two dimensional data,
and also contains the nuts and bolts which much of our future PDT development, such as PDT 3d, will
stem from. Available to OEMs and Systems Integrators interested in providing efficiency gains to
their end users, the PDT SDK 2.1 is platform and data format independent opening broad integration
opportunities. The new release features extended platform support for Mac OS X and the addition
of classes to handle the creation and duplication of lenses with definite parameter values.
[more]
X-Ray Vision? PDT Goes 3D!
PDT 3d may not make you Superman, but it does provide you a clear line of sight inside 3D models
with minimal disruption to the outer layers. PDT 3d technology builds on the core geometry of the
PDT SDK and introduces new classes supporting PDT 3d lenses.
[more]
Check out the PDT Demos. We value your feedback. For more information on PDT, visit our Technical Descriptions, White Papers, or Integration Overview.
We Want You!
90 Day evaluation copies of the PDT SDK and PDT 3d SDK are now available for qualified applicants.
If you are interested in finding out more on how you can integrate PDT within your products, visit
the IDELIX Partner Program.
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New Demos
The PDT SDK 2.1 and the PDT 3d SDK feature two new demo applications. Included with the SDKs is PliablePIX for Windows, a fully functional demonstration of PDT that includes multiple lens shapes, editing, shoulder and scoop controls, and in-place lens controls. Also included is the PDT Editing Demo for Mac developers. Try out the rest of our demos. New Demos Coming Soon... Be sure to check for our new video demos in January! |
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Function Junction
Each month we will explore a different function of PDT, give helpful tips, and answer commonly asked questions.
If you have a question you'd like us to address in Function Junction, please send us an
email and we'll do our best to address it in the next issue.
PDT: Improving Workflow through Alternative Viewing Techniques
In a recent usability study entitled "Fisheye Views are Good for Large Steering Tasks", Carl Gutwin
and Amy Skopik of the Computer Science Department at the University of Saskatchewan tested the effects
of magnification and representation on user performance in a basic pointing activity called
steering—where a user moves a pointer along a predefined path in the workspace.
They looked specifically at magnified steering, where the entire path does not fit into one view, and tested various interactive focus & context techniques, including PDT, that use distortion to show both local detail and global context in the same view. Findings indicated that increasing distortion did not reduce steering performance, and that the "fisheyes" were faster than the non-distorting techniques. "...fisheye representations should be considered as viable alternatives for interactive tasks. In particular, in situations where steering tasks are common and where magnification is needed—such as aerial map digitizing, editing and touchup of large photographs, or schematic chip design—users may well see performance gains with a fisheye representation." —Carl Gutwin and Amy Skopik,
Computer Science Department, University of Saskatchewan Read on to find out how alternative viewing techniques such as PDT can be an effective representation for interactive tasks. [Download the complete report] |
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Getting Graphic
IDELIX Senior Developer, Cathy Montagnese discusses the geometry engine behind IDELIX's Pliable
Display Technology. If you have any questions for Cathy or the members of our dev team, please
email us
and we'll do our best to answer them.
PDT as a Geometry Engine
At its most fundamental level, PDT is a geometry engine that acts by displacing points from a 2D data
plane into 3D in a manner that ultimately defines the appearance of PDT "lenses"; the 3D transformed
points are then projected back into a 2D presentation plane via a perspective projection. This
fundamental geometric transformation provides detail-in-context viewing enabling magnification of a
region of interest within a dataset while maintaining the connectivity to the rest of the data. The
PDT geometry engine can also be run in reverse, essentially mapping displaced points back to undisplaced
points, and thereby enabling advanced PDT-based capabilities such as in-place editing and measuring
within lenses.
In practice, given an application, consideration must be given to where and how to perform the PDT transformation. Therefore, the design of a complete integration of the PDT SDK into an application might need to consider not only where to insert the geometric transformations that produce lenses, but also how to feed the user's input backwards through the PDT geometry engine if displaced points need to be mapped back to undisplaced points. In general terms, two typical alternatives as to where to integrate the PDT geometric transformation exists. The two primary alternatives can be described as 1) Pre-rendering integration and 2) Post-rendering integration. 1) Pre-rendering Integration In the first case, objects to be displayed exist as elements in a display list, but have not been rendered to a complete raster "scene". The PDT transformation is applied to displace the locations of the elements, and an additional design choice must be made as to whether to apply the transformation to the shapes of the elements. This choice impacts the appearance of the output. 2) Post-rendering Integration In the second case, a raster containing the information to be transformed with PDT has already been produced by the application. The PDT transformation can be applied to the raster in one of two ways, either on a point-by-point basis, or through the use of texture mapping the raster onto a mesh. The latter technique, while conceptually more complex, is facilitated in practice by graphics technology sets such as OpenGL. If you are interested in learning more on how to apply for evaluation copies of the SDKs or in joining the IDELIX Beta Program, email us at partners@idelix.com. |
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The Soapbox
Embracing Change
Dassault Systemes CEO Bernard Charles predicts that in less than three years, the UI [user interface] of software being utilized in the CAD industry will change completely—not just icons, etc, but the whole approach, because breakthroughs can still be made in this area, changing from shape-centric to something based on collaboration (source: upFront.eZine). What other factors do you see driving changes within CAD software, and what are some of the key areas where you would like to see these changes applied? Let us know what you think. |
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Market Spotlight
This month we turn the spotlight on the Digital Image Processing (DIP) market and the strategic advantages of PDT for DIP Applications. |
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IDELIX at Play
Life in the Fast Lane
Henry Yee, IDELIX Vice-President of Business Development, likes life in the fast lane. Prior to
entering the technology industry, Henry raced in the Formula 1600 racing series and was a winner
at both the amateur and professional levels. Henry's career as a Canadian race car driver included
a third place finish in the 1982 Alberta Pro-Ford Championship as well as a third place finish in
the 1992 CASC Ontario F1600 championship. He recorded numerous podium finishes during the intervening
years and notes one of his career highlights as "having my clock cleaned" by the late Canadian
racing great, Greg Moore.
Henry will be a favorite when he takes on the other IDELIX speedsters at the next company indoor Kart race!
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Events
Find us at...
January 22, 2003
February 13, 2003
March 5-7, 2003
March 11, 2003
March 16-19, 2003
Would you like to meet us? Find out more about PDT? Find out more about these events? Email Tiffany Chester, Communications Coordinator, at tchester@idelix.com to set up an appointment for any of these events. |
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Stand up and speak loud... we want to hear what you have to say!
There is a growing demand for viewing and presentation tools that help a
wide range of people, from professionals to casual users, to view
high-density digital images in an intuitive manner, both online and locally.
PDT provides both an efficient and intuitive alternative to current zoom, pan,
and inset window viewing tools for people working professionally or casually
with digital images. Imagery Analysts and creative professionals such as artists,
designers and publishers that are intereseted in improving image management
and shortening the current creation and editing workflow processes should
definitely read on...
