Approved-By:  "EDTECH Moderator" <21765EDT@MSU.BITNET>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edtech
Date:         Fri, 2 Oct 1992 12:26:53 EDT
From:         dsmith@mcis.messiah.edu
Subject:      Re: Image database wanted

Regarding the discussion of Image databases:

We at Messiah College are also planning to implement a database of slides in
our Art department at some point, but we have not yet proceeded because of
cost and because of waiting for new programs to evaluate.

A number of PC and Mac programs, which are constantly increasing in number
allow for this capability.  Since most of our campus is PC, we will probably
implement on that platform, but that is not necessarily a forgone conclusion.

Anyway, I thought I would share my limited knowledge on the subject with the
group, and if particular members of EDTECH want to discuss these issues with
me further, I would be happy to supply any knowledge I have on products, etc.

On the PC, Clarion Professional Developer (with an add-on module) has the
capability of doing this with .PCX files.  In addition, there is a program
called "Sante Fe Media Manager"  (or something like that, I am not sure I have
this right) that looks interesting, but I have not evaluated it yet.  I have
seen others as well for which I do not know the names.

Since we have an educational site license contract with Borland International,
we will probably implement on Paradox for Windows (when it is released) or
with DBase once BLOB (Binary Large OBject) technology is fully implemented in
the program.  Paradox for Windows should support .BMP files at whatever
resolution your video hardware can handle.

Targa works, but also there are a significant number of Super VGA cards that
will work great for this application as long as you use a card with high color
capabilities, such as 32,000 (16-bit) colors or 16.7 million (24-bit) colors.
Of course, an accelerated card and large monitor (17"-21") is essential for
best quality, but smaller monitors can be used if driven at high resolutions.

For capturing images, the best thing is a "slide scanner" which generally
are priced in the $2000 - $3000 range.  We will use a HP ScanJet IIc scanner
and a video camera to supplement the slide scanner if we can't use slides.
Slide scanners scan at very high resoultions for great quality.  I have not
evaluated them yet either, but I think Microtek has one.

A very large drive is a MUST; we may look into CD technology as well, but a
1.2 Gb or larger drive does nicely.  It could be set up as a Novell server for
multiuser access if there is budget to do that.

I hope this is helpful.  I would be glad to share any product info I collect in
our evaluation process to anyone who is interested.  However, we probably will
not get serious about this until at least next year because of budget
constraints at our school.

.......................................................................

Item Subject: signature
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   |\  /|                    David K. Smith
   | \/ |essiah              Academic Software Manager
   |    | /~~~\              Computing Services
         |     ollege        Internet: dsmith@mcis.messiah.edu
          \___/
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