The u n iversal 'M icrographics-to-IT' bridge by Alex Brunner - President, Blue Water Systems The c u rre n t explosion of d o c u m e n t im aging appli catio n s is clearly th e re s u lt of a com bination of a n u m b e r of new technologies w hich seem to have m iracu lously m at- u re d a t th e sam e tim e. Fax, copi er,optical tap e s,o p tic a l d isk s a n d com pact d isk s (CD’s), high p erform ance p erso n a l co m puters,new telephone technologies w ith cellular, w ireless a n d fibre optic n etw o rk s a n d new p rin tin g technologies in black a n d w hite a n d colour are now th e back b o n e of im aging technology. Realising th a t th e above technologies h a d to all come to g eth er in o rd er for im aging to “ta k e off’ in th e m a rk e t place, one m ight a s k w hich technologies have previously b e e n u s e d to achieve efficiencies in dealing w ith billions of d o c u m e n ts c reated in governm ent a n d in d u stry ? T he a n sw e r to th is q u estio n quickly leads u s to m icrofilm . Microfilm is relatively “old” technology in m ostly governm ental ap p lications. Microfilm gained a m ajor bo o st d u rin g W orld W ar II w h en all m ail for th e US Forces w as m icrofilm ed, s e n t to th e final d estin atio n in firm copy form , w ith s u b s e q u e n t lcoal p a p e r p rin t copy p ro d u ctio n for d istrib u tio n to th e soldiers in th e field. Of c o u rse sp ies u se d m icrofilm th en , a s now, extensively, w hich gave m icrofilm som e of its m ysteri o u s appeal. From th e se first large su c ce ssfu l app licatio n s of microfilm, th e in d u stry grew to becom e a billion dol-
The way to achieve
ARCHIVAL QUALITY MICROFILM
M ICROFILM EN GINEER IN G
1 Be certain you have correctly processed film by Methylene Blue testing.
2 Silverlock the image to ensure the archival quality remains for at least 100 years in general use.
3 Ring Don Abbott on 021-643-4748
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Dass (Microfilm) Limited P.O. Box 852 Birmingham B5 4DU For information Fax 021-616-1589 14
lar in d u stry by th e m id 1970's S trong grow th co n tin u ed w ith th e in tro d u c tio n of COM a n d th e u s e of co m p u ters to keep indexing inform ation linked to m icrofilm im ages or CAR. Today m illions of m icro film re a d e rs a n d h u n d re d s of th o u s a n d s of rea d e r p rin te rs a re in stalled w orldwide. Even th o u g h m any end u s e rs chose to replace th e ir co ated (dry silver) p a p e r or w et p ro cess (electrostatic)m achines in th e late 80’s a n d early 9 0 ’s w ith plain p a p e r p rin te rs, th e relative high cost of th e new m icrographics e q u ip m ent, k e p t m an y u s e rs still w ith older p rin te r te c h nology. T his is especially tru e in th e c a se of 16m m a u to m a te d roll film retrieval sy ste m s w h ich r u n betw een $ 1 0 ,0 0 0 a n d $ 2 0 ,0 0 0 each. M icrographics h a s obvious, excellent b en efits over p aper, s u c h a s space savings, cost, sp eed of retrieval, secu rity b u t ce rtain d raw b ack s if co m p ared w ith electronic im aging system s. Even m ajor “n o rm a l” d raw b ack s of m icrofilm are being resolved w ith new im aging technology on th e o u tp u t side. For exam ple, m any m icrographics sy stem s deliver poor c o n siste n t im age a n d copy quality d u e to th e com plex m icrofilm prod u ctio n cycle. T hese s u b s ta n d a rd im ages a re th e n p rin ted on (maybe su b sta n d a rd ) p rin te rs, w hich lack the technology now available to e n h a n c e im ages elec tronically. New tec h n iq u es have b e e n developed to prolong th e life of th e m icrographics in d u stry a n d to in teg rate m icrographics im ages w ith new electronic im age technology. M icrographics v en d o rs have now devel oped film sc a n n e rs w hich pro d u ce digitized im ages from m icrofilm. The m icrographics in d u stry w as quick to recognise th e high profit p o ten tia l of th ese new ra th e r expensive “digital w o rk sta tio n s”. Not only do digital w o rk statio n s com m and h ig h er prices, b u t they lead th eir ven d o rs to significant “a d d -on sa le s” in optical d isk im aging softw are, h a rd w a re sa le s a n d conversion services. T hese “digital w o rk sta tio n s” are actually new m odel r e a d e r/p rin te rs w h ich allow elec tronic a n n o ta tio n of m icrofilm la se r p rin ts w ith elec tronic c u t & p a s te featu res, a n d in m an y c a se s elim i n a te th e need for p a p e r p rin ts alto g eth er b e c a u se of direct electronic im age tra n s m is s io n capability. Recognising th e s u b s ta n tia l in v estm e n t in m icro film eq u ip m en t by en d u s e rs over th e y e a rs, th e th o u g h t of having to replace all m icrofilm re a d e r a n d rea d e r p rin te rs w ith expensive new digital w ork s ta tio n s is n o t very attractiv e to e n d u s e rs . W ith heavy in v estm en t in m icrofilm technology, w h a t is th e m icrographics u se r, w ho ow ns m icrofilm archives w ith m illions of m icrofilm im ages, to do? C onvert th em all to digital m edia? H ardly ! T he conversion a n d ongoing d itital storage co sts a re too prohibitive for m o st applications to be justifiab le. T he a n sw er lies in th e easy retrofit conversion of m icrographics re a d e rs a n d re a d e r p rin te rs to digital im aging sy stem s (film scanning) capability. All m icrofilm rea d e rs have one th in g in com m on: a view ing screen ! If one could sim ply rep lace th is screen w ith a “sc an n in g sc re e n ” th e life of existing m icro-
The Micrographics Market Place
