Via is an ideal image archiving product for industry, education, training, medical sciences, and forensics. Via is remarkably flexible accepting virtually any video signal (Component-RGB, S-Video, Composite-NTSC) and digital formats PCX, TGA, BMP, PICT, TIF, GIF, JPEG as input-output.

Via captures high-resolution still images from live video and digital image sources. Via then archives the captured images internally storing up to 10,000 local images per system. Via can also store images externally or from a network for infinite image archiving. Via's image database allows you to manage your images by associating structured information with the captured image.

Not only can you associate data and notes with your images, you can record and link audio with your images.

After capturing and archiving your images, Via gives you a host of graphic annotation tools to markup your images with sizeable text, lines, arrows, symbols, rectangles, ellipses, data fields, push-buttons, and a lot more.

Via lets you analyze your images with several live/still and still/image Picture-in-Picture comparison tools that are extremely helpful in failure analysis, quality assurance, and for hands-on teaching by example applications.

Via also has a suite of measurement tools to aid in articulating details about size, shape, distance, radius, circumference, angles, and areas. Also, Via lets you digitally magnify your images in increments of 2x up to 8x.

Via has various communications tools allowing you to disseminate your images in a variety of ways. Present your images using our easy to setup slide-show feature. Our web authoring tool lets you place images and data onto your company intranet, or internet website.

Interactive presentations

In addition, Via treats images like thoughts by allowing you to inter-connect related images and directly interact with them. We all know the cliché, "A picture is worth a thousand words", but words are useless left by themselves. Until your words can be put together in logical order, you won't possess the full range of expression. Via gives you all this while extending your present video communications capabilities.

Via lets you enhance your video images with a multitude of interactivity using graphically overlaid hypertext, push buttons, invisible/visible hotspots, and various other clickable objects. Users receive information both visually and audibly in various ways, they can quickly jump between related images and image sections, display notes about an image, navigate among images based on user responses to Q&A, listen to narration, edit data, search for and select images based on associated data, and so much more.

Via lets you control user activity yet allows you to provide an infinite array of possibilities by attaching the appropriate action to a visual object.

The word Via literally means "by way of". It is the source which connects you to your objective, taking you where you want to be. Like the Internet’s World Wide Web, Via lets you navigate among images with a simple click. Now, using this hyper-link approach, finding a specific image from a large cache of images is made much easier. Viewing one of Via’s 10,000+ locally stored images by first looking at groups of thumbnails and loading the full-screen image is helpful but can take hours. Via’s interactive approach reduces that time to just a few clicks.

Via also supports the fast text string searches. Sometimes however, users aren’t sure what to type and thus find no matches, or like on the Internet find far too many. To solve this problem we give you the ability to group images hierarchically into not only drives, cabinets, and folders, but also desktops of related images.

In addition, Via lets you create visual environments where perspective can be controlled by the user showing images at various angles, topologies, and various microscopic magnifications, stains, contrasts, and filters.

Via is ideal for education/training because it lets the instructor capture all his/her images directly using the imaging system. It then gives them the flexibility to later organize their images into various locations such as drives, cabinets, folders, and desktops. They also enhance these images by adding visual objects like text, rectangles, ellipses, lines, etc; and adding narration (audio), textual data, scrollable notes; and finally by attaching links between them and a host of other interactive activities.

Via is the tool of choice for manufacturing engineers who are producing electronic documentation of assemblies, or assembly manuals online in compliance with ISO 9001 standards. Structured lessons on subassemblies can be viewed from each local subassembly. Layered menus of overviews of the entire assembly can be added while others take viewers right to the image of the subassembly step. One click for a parts list, another brings up an engineer’s notes on wiring, or even verbal narration can provide advice on various tips & traps while the assembly takes place so the eyes never leave the task at hand.

No more assembly manuals to print while revision control is greatly simplified. Via applications can be saved and started without clumsy setup, install scripts, or pre-mastering. In addition, Via was designed for multi-user training where one keystroke starts-up a new or existing user; allowing him/her to optionally select from various training modules or have one pre-selected and started for them.

Via’s enhanced network capabilities allow you to run any of your assembly manuals from anywhere on the assembly floor. Changing users and subassemblies is just one keystroke away. In addition, timely assembly revisions can be made from the engineers office and put online without affecting other assemblies in process.

Via’s GUI is simple and familiar, employing the popular toolbox and tool-tabs CUA (Common User Access) approach. This simple approach hides the fact that Via has over 70+ distinct features. In addition, image organization is fast and easy to work with. Most users are already familiar with our "office metaphor" approach (used in most graphical operating systems), giving you drives, cabinets, folders, and desktops to work with.

The Via image database is based on "open standards", employing true dBase compatibility for faster data entry and retrieval, while giving you access to your valuable data using other dBase compatible products. In addition, dBase query technology is faster than most PC based DBMS tools. Typical searches of a thousand images takes less than 20 seconds.

"Information is power" is so true when the wrong user has access to sensitive data. We understand that this vulnerability might make it difficult sharing Via with other users. Therefore, we designed Via with several security features. Password protection is there for you as an option -- it does not intrude upon your efficiency if you don’t use it, and even if you do, it remembers those pesky passwords you type so you don’t have to enter them over and over again. Simply by starting up a new user, the password protection security system is restored and your data is secured from prying eyes.

Via internally uses the TGA image file format for photo-realism and fast access. However, Via also gives you JPEG (JFIF) support for those of you who need to store lots of images. The JPEG format has the potential for degrading image quality, however, in most cases is not visible to the human eye. However, the performance is measurably slower when using this format. JPEG requires three major processes to compress/decompress their images, thus reducing storage requirements. This can take up to 2-5 seconds depending on the image composition. However, this performance cost does have the benefit of letting you store over 5 times more images than TGA.

Via supports the popular analog video formats such as NTSC (composite), RGB (component), S-Video (Y/C) with on the fly video switching. In addition, Via supports the Optronics DEI-750 analog camera, Hitachi VKC77U, and the Canon Powershot digital camera, and will soon support a host of other digital cameras using IEEE interconnect interfaces. In addition Via imports/exports images using the most popular image formats including: TIFF, GIF, TGA, PCX, BMP, and JPEG.

Via automatically builds websites directly from your system using your image, voice, data, and other media, then place them on the internet’s world wide web without any knowledge of HTML, Java, or complicated TCP/IP technologies.

Via object authoring is visually oriented. You can drag, drop, resize, and reshape objects appropriately. In addition, our text is fully scaleable using Windows’ familiar TrueType font technology. Simply import your favorite Windows fonts for use with Via. You simply write and drag your text in place, then size your text to fit your visual space requirements using our unique text font-sizing feature.

Via’s clipboard copies and pastes objects from image to image. Or copy/paste all your markups with a single keystroke.

Via’s enhanced color picker lets you select a color from a full palette range or if you know a color’s RGB values simply plug them in. In addition, our eyedropper lets you grab a color directly from your image giving you perfect color balance.

 Via has so many more features, there just isn’t the space here to write them all down. But here’s a few more for you.

• Preview (freeze) image before saving
• Comparative analysis: left/right, top/bottom, and video window
• Digital image analysis: brighten, contrast, and reverse video
• Various live video/image window objects: collage, panning, cropping, and zooming
• Images are Date/Time stamped automatically
• Optionally give images names
• Select representative folder thumbnails for faster retrieval
• Multiple choice data fields and pick from a list dialog boxes
• Object opacity/transparency increasing visual screen space
• Single-step automatic software updating over the Internet.

Via supports the Truevision Targa+ standard of video capture live/overlay (Analog/DAC mux) products. Via will soon be supporting a host of new technologies and features as they become available. It is just a matter of time before our next free update is released.

Suggested List Price(s):

• $3,995  Imaging Board plus the Via imaging software solution.
• $5,495  Integrated PC (Intel Pentium III 1 GHz) w/ Imaging Board and the Via software solution.
• $7,995  Complete Turn-key Solution w/ PC, Monitor, Camera, Lighting, and Stand, Imaging Board and the Via software solution.