Imagine walking up to a new office device, placing an object inside, and seconds later walking away with a professional photo for immediate use in all print, web and email communications.
     Taking its name from “facsimile,” Photosimile 5000 is the next generation imaging device for the office.
     This PC-controlled desktop photography studio integrates a 28” x 28” x 28” light box (featuring 6500K daylight bulbs, an automated camera positioning system and a built-in 3D turntable) with a Canon digital camera and powerful workflow software to simplify and automate business photography.
     With Photosimile 5000, anyone can create professional, shadow-free pictures ideal for web, print and daily business communication. No experience is necessary.
     The camera and light box connect to a PC via USB. Photosimile 5000 software controls the studio, camera location, turntable movement, camera settings, picture taking and processing workflows. Simply place an item inside, compose using Preview, Zoom and Crop commands in the software.
     Click Snap and the picture automatically downloads to the PC screen in seconds. Users can annotate, mask, email and batch process images with regards to file name, size, resolution, watermarking and saving.
     Photosimile 5000 also creates 360-degree product shots and spherical 3D flash animations.
     It boasts the ability to hold up to 25lbs and take up to 72 pictures per 360-degree rotation at 9 unique angles from 0 to 90 degrees.
     Fully automated, Photosimile 5000 can take and stitch 20 pictures in approximately 2.5 minutes. Images can be exported as JPGs or stitched together in the software to create animated GIF or Flash files.
     “The trend of offering website visitors 360-degree product views is just beginning,” said Sam Shearer, managing director, Ortery Technologies, Inc. “However, it will quickly become a competitive requirement critical to eCommerce success.”
     When a company creates a good product picture or animation, it pays for itself over and over when put to use internally or by channel partners.
     Photosimile 5000 offers everyone the opportunity, regardless of photography experience, to create professional pictures and animations that can be used in an endless amount of applications.
     Photosimile 5000 is compatible with Windows ME/2000/XP and will be available March 2008.
     The pricing of the device is to be determined.
     Founded February 2003 with offices in California and Taiwan, Ortery Technologies (www.ortery.com) is the leading provider of business photography automation tools.

New BenQ digital projector delivers ultra-high brightness in performance

     BenQ’s SP870 digital projector is an ultra-high brightness projector that redefines the way presentations are delivered in virtually any environment ranging from classroom and meeting room to auditorium and public display area.
     The BenQ SP870 distinguishes itself from other conventional projectors by offering an unprecedented high brightness level at 5000 ANSI lumens; users will no longer have to turn off lights when delivering presentations thus maintaining a fully lit environment for taking notes or reading through documents. In addition to featuring an auditorium-class brightness level, the SP870 also packs a full suite of features required by a business projector.
     Weighing at 4.9kg, the SP870 is able to project an ultra-crisp 1024 x 768 XGA resolution at a 2000:1 sharp contrast ratio. It also features a wealth of imaging technologies that are essential for a projector to operate under fully-lit environments. With DLP BrilliantColor chipset, the SP870 not only performs multicolor processing for stunning, vibrant colors on the screen, but also ensures higher brightness and superior contrast for deeper blacks and brighter whites.
     BrilliantColor uses up to six separate colors to enable up to a 50% increase in brightness and expands the color palette beyond red/green/blue to yellow, white, magenta and cyan for more realistic and lifelike color reproduction. It also enhances mid tone colors for true, accurate color reproduction. Users will notice improvement in color accuracy, higher brightness and brightened secondary colors with less interference.
     Engineered to operate in fully-lit environments, the SP870 employed OSRAM’s UNISHAPE™ technology which enables the projector to render brighter images with richer color depth at higher contrast. With UNISHAPE, the SP870 is able to counteract loss of image brightness by varying the intensity of the projector lamp in synchronization with the color wheel, resulting a 40 percent increase of image brightness and boosts specific colors in different setting modes.
     Moreover, to provide precise and customized control of individual colors, the 3D Color Management is incorporated to allow users to fine-tune the hue, saturation, and gain of primary colors to suit to their optimum value while adjusting color intensity for natural-looking visuals to meet the requirements of specific applications.
     The BenQ SP870 will be available in this month worldwide.
     BenQ Corporation, a leading provider of networked digital lifestyle devices, is a multi-faceted company with strengths in mobile communications, visual display and network convergence technologies.
     BenQ offers unrivalled breadth and depth of products and integrating technologies across platforms through the brand promise of “Enjoyment Matters,” including projectors, laptop PCs, LCD displays, LCD TVs, digital cameras, mobile phones and computing peripherals.
     In a short span of only six years, BenQ has received global recognition with 183 top international design awards for the successful blending of subtle minimalism with touches of luxury.
     BenQ extracts the essence of Asian design fluidity and infuses it with modern technology and thus has created an elegant design that’s totally unique to BenQ.
     Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, BenQ employs approximately 2,300 employees from more than 40 nationalities. With sales to nearly 100 countries, the company is a market leader in projectors and LCD monitors.