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PROview II Graphic Image Workcenter Version 3.20 (Beta) Users Manual (C)opyright 1992, 1993 by SOFTreat ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE * * * * * * * (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 1 --------------------------------------------------------------- * * * NOTICE * * * All information and/or software accompanying this document is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to, any implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The user assumes ALL RISK in the use of this software. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 2 --------------------------------------------------------------- * * INTRODUCTION * * PROview II is an exciting and new graphic image workcenter providing many functions that are useful for the manipulation of graphic image files, including the ability to capture video images on your ComputerEyes PRO frame grabber board without leaving PROview II. The easy to use graphical user interface (GUI) and point and shoot philosophy, enables even the novice to gain control in minutes. With it's ability to CAPTURE, VIEW, SHOW, BUILD THUMBNAILS of, EDIT, and PRINT graphic images all from WITHIN PROview II, you'll find that a large part of your image manipulation needs are all right here in ONE package! As time goes on, PROview II will be enhanced and improved with the final goal being a full featured image editing package. PROview II has the following features: 1> Graphic image file viewer supporting GIF 87a, PCX and TIFF , and TGA 24-bit RGB images in color or black & white; 2> Handles files up to 1024x768x256 with ease. 3> Includes a slide viewer for easy and rapid viewing of graphic image files. 4> Supports Conventional, Expanded, and Extended memory. 5> Includes support for ComputerEyes Pro color frame grabber board for easy and fast image capture from any NTSC video source. (requires ComputerEyes Pro color video digitizer board by Digital Vision) 6> Supports the following video graphic boards: A> Trident (8800c/8900) B> Tseng Labs (3000 or 4000) C> Paradise VGA Professional D> ATI VGA Wonder E> Video Seven V7VGA F> VESA standard G> Or any board containing compatible chip sets. 7> Full image scrolling of large images displayed in lower resolution video modes. 8> Complete thumbnail presentations in scales of 2 to 9 reductions. ( Up to 70 per screen! ) 9> All thumbnails may be saved to GIF file. 10> High quality printouts in user defined sizes to Laser Jet printer or compatible. Printouts can be dithered in one of 6 halftone patterns or printed with an error diffusion technique for 256 shade of gray simulation. 11> User friendly Graphical User Interface, driven by mouse pointer. All controls are through the use of pushbuttons on screen. You have complete control! 12> Selectable Edit Mode that allows you to alter the graphic by: A> Brightening/Darkening. B> Histogram Linearization. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 3 --------------------------------------------------------------- C> Histogram Brightening. D> Gentle Sharpening. E> Hard Sharpening. F> Blurring. G> Blurring with a threshold. H> Histogram Equalization. I> Dividing each pixel by a number. J> Multiplying each pixel by a number. K> Posturizing. L> Pixelizing. M> Increasing the contrast. 13> Special Effects include: A> Metal Embossing. C> Concrete Embossing. D> Granite Embossing. E> Charcoal Rendering F> Cast Iron Embossing G> Oil Painting Rendering 14> Transforming the graphic image by: A> Flipping. B> Mirroring. C> Resizing larger or smaller D> Convolution 15> Selectively capturing a part of the image. 16> 3D-Image Slide Creation A> RED/Green B> Stereo (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 4 --------------------------------------------------------------- * * HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS * * PROview II requires the following minimum hardware requirements: 1> Computer with an 8088 or greater CPU. 2> 640K (Extended or Expanded memory recommended). 3> One of the following SVGA video graphics boards: A> Trident (8800C or 8900) B> Tseng Labs (3000 or 4000) C> Paradise VGA Professional D> ATI VGA Wonder E> Video Seven V7VGA F> or a video card that contains one of the supported chip sets. G> Or a VESA compatible video board and driver. 4> Hewlett Packard Laser Jet printer or equivalent. 5> ComputerEyes Pro video digitizer board with appropriate video equipment. 6> Microsoft or compatible mouse pointing device. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 5 --------------------------------------------------------------- * * GETTING STARTED * * First of all, copy PROview II and it's associated files to your hard drive. PROview II may be located in a subdirectory of it's own and used anywhere on the system, provided that it is included in your path statement and your autoexec.bat file contains the following: SET PROVIEW=[path where PROview II is located] (be sure PROVIEW is capitalized) **Special considerations: Because PROview II makes huge demands on memory, for optimum usage, make sure that you have extended/expanded memory available on your system. By available, it is meant that you have previously loaded a memory manager such as HIMEM.SYS on your system. This makes available to the running software all of the memory on your system. For large images, this will surely be used as conventional memory simply does not have enough available. OPERATION: PROview II is easy to operate and use. The Graphical user interface provides all of the necessary controls to the user in a style that anyone can learn easily. All you do is point and shoot and away you go! There are two ways in which to invoke PROview II. One way is to simply type 'C7PROV' and press enter at the system prompt and PROview will begin to operate. This method causes PROview II to search your system for one of the supported video cards. All detection is done automatically and requires no intervention by the user. If one of the supported video cards is not found on your system, the default VGA 320 x 200 x 256 VGA mode is utilized. This mode, however, is not supported in a lot of areas in PROview II because of it's low resolution, and therefore full use of PROview will not be attainable. If your system has one of the supported video cards, then PROview II will inform you of the type card found and list out all of the available videomodes by providing resolution buttons on the main menu screen. Each button may be activated with the mouse pointer and a click of the left mouse button. A videomode is 'active' when the button is pushed 'in'. The second method of starting PROview II is to cause PROview II to disregard the supported video card search and simply look for a video card that supports the VESA standard. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 6 --------------------------------------------------------------- If the VESA standard is not found, the PROview II will default to the 320 x 200 x 256 VGA mode regardless of whether or not your system has one of the supported video cards. This method allows you the possibility of getting the most out of PROview II in the event you do not have a supported board and your video card DOES support VESA. To FORCE VESA mode, start PROview II by entering the following command at the DOS prompt: C7PROV /V and press enter If VESA is found on your system, it will be enabled and put to use. In summary .... To start PROview II with an automatic video card search C7PROV and press enter... To start PROview II and force VESA detection C7PROV /V and press enter Once the intro screen has painted, the user is presented with a menuing system that will take them on their way. Because of the easiness in the software, we are sure that most will find it very easy to use with little instruction. PROview II is composed of basically a menu screen and several types of viewing or editing screens. The menu screen is where you control PROview II and make it do what you want it to do. The menu is made up of various 'pushbuttons' that enable a certain function or process. The process related to a particular pushbutton is defined by its label displayed right on the face of the button. Activating a 'pushbutton' is done by simply pointing to the button and pressing the LEFT mouse button. The button will acknowledge this by being 'pushed in' showing that it is active. Some of the buttons may also be activated by pressing the RIGHT mouse button. This causes a secondary action to occur that is related to that button, as in the button 'SHOW'. By pointing the mouse pointer to the SHOW pushbutton and pressing the LEFT button, you are telling PROview II that you want a slide show of all of the images that have been TAGGED in the file list window. If no files have been tagged (indicated by a RED filename ) then PROview II will inform you that you must tag the files first in order to perform this function. By pointing to the SHOW button and pressing the RIGHT mouse button, you are telling PROview II to SHOW ALL of the files in the current directory. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 7 --------------------------------------------------------------- The following describes the pushbuttons of the main menu screen and what there functions are: File Filter Buttons..... These buttons are located across the top of the file list window and serve to filter 'IN' the different image file formats. Each button if 'active' will cause PROview II to include that image type in the file list window. If the button is 'inactive' (pushed out), then that respect file type will NOT be included in the file list window. Load..... The 'load' button will load the currently selected file (hi-lighted) in the file list window into memory. This button will not cause the image to be displayed when activated. Save..... The 'Save' button will take the current active image and save it to any of the other type of supported image file formats currently supported (ie. GIF, CX,TIFF, or TGA). To choose the type of format to save the image as, simply include the formats extension in the filename. For instance, to save the current image as a GIF file, enter the desired filename, such as 'image1.GIF', and PROview II will know that you want to save the image as a GIF formatted image and proceed to do so. If you are save an image as a TGA, PROview II will first convert the image to a 24-bit RGB image and offer you a selection of the type of compression to use, if any. View...... The 'View' button causes the current image to be viewed in the current videomode as selected by the video resolution buttons. To return to the menu screen, simply press the LEFT mouse button while viewing. If you are viewing an image whose dimensions are LARGER than the screen dimensions of the current resolution button selected, you may still view the entire image by scrolling the image using the following keys: LEFT arrow RIGHT arrow DOWN arrow UP arrow HOME END Using these keys will allow you to completely navigate around the image very quickly. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 8 --------------------------------------------------------------- Print..... One of PROview II great qualities is the ability to produce high quality hard copy to a laser jet printer. Several options are available that allow the user to customize the final output. Selecting the 'Print' button causes the printer setup menu to appear. The menu contains the following structure: Width... Height... Both fields represent the size of the printed image in inches. To maintain the correct aspect ratio, the height automatically tracks the width. To alter the aspect ratio, adjust the WIDTH to the desired dimension then follow with an adjustment to the height dimension. To change a dimension in either of the fields, first make that field active by pointing to the desired field and clicking the LEFT mouse button. The RED dot to the right of the field will change to green, indicating it is active. By pressing either of the 'up' or 'dn' arrow buttons the dimension will change accordingly. DPI..... PROview II allows the user to select any of the 4 printer resolutions of 75, 100, 150 or 300 DPI. Simply point to the desired setting and click the mouse button to make it active. BORDER.... You may optionally include a border around the printed image or none at all by making the appropriate selection of None, Fine, Medium, or Thick. There are two methods of printing, by DITHER or Error Diffusion. The dither technique has 6 choices, each of which will produce a different looking hardcopy. Error diffusion is a technique where 256 shades of gray are simulated in the print out. This method generally produces the best looking hard copy, but does take the longest time to complete. To enhance an image for printing, select the Brighten image for Printing selection. This helps to bring out more detail in an otherwise 'flat' image. The default for this setting is ON. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 9 --------------------------------------------------------------- DEL.... The 'Del' button is used when you desire to get rid of any files that are currently shown in the file list window. Selecting this button will delete, at user permission, the current hi-lighted filename in the list. If you wish to delete a filename that is not hi-lighted, simply point to the filename in the list and press the RIGHT mouse button. The filename will be shown in RED to indicate that it has been selected. QUIT.... The 'Quit' button does exactly that! PROview II is terminated and the DOS prompt is returned. Be careful, in that any image currently in memory will be lost when this is selected. Use the SAVE button to save the image in memory to a disk file first if you are concerned about losing it. VIDEO RESOLUTION..... To the right of the screen is a series of buttons that are labeled with their respective screen resolutions if activated. These buttons will vary from video board type, and may be different from one system to another. If the button is selected, then THAT video resolution will be used when in Edit Mode, doing thumbnails, or viewing the current image. SIZE To FIT.... The 'Size to fit' button will cause any image being displayed in either the VIEW or SHOW modes to fit the current video resolution selected, whether it be larger or smaller that the actual screen dimensions. For instance, to view a 1024 x 768 x 256 image in it's entirety on a screen resolution of 320 x 200 x256, then select this function and the image will be reduced down to fit the screen. This also works in reverse, of course. Build Thumbnail.... This function allows the user to collect together many image files, in reductions of 2 to 9, color or black and white, to one screen area for collective viewing. You may also, optionally save the new image thumbnail to a GIF formatted file for latter viewing. Images used in the thumbnail begin at the first file or first TAGGED file in the file list window. The first file loaded also governs the color matching of the remaining images to the screen, meaning if the first image is a black & white, then all of the other images will turn out black & white whether they are color or not. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 10 --------------------------------------------------------------- EDIT MODE..... Activating this mode allows you to make alterations to or create special effects to the current image in memory. Partial image captures may be performed, as well as resizing of the entire image. In addition, the user may make numerous alterations, such as brightening, posterizing, sharpening, blurring, etc. in an easy to use Pull down menu system all driven by mouse. This mode is supported for all SVGA modes only. 320 x 200 x 256 is not supported. The following list and briefly describes the available functions: G-sharpen .... This performs a 'gentle' sharpening of the entire image causing minor details to be increased. H-sharpen .... This preforms a 'Heavy' sharpening of the entire image and sharply increases detail and noise in the image. Blur ... Performs a 'smoothing' of the pixel in the image, causing a blurred effect. T-Blur ... Threshold blurring only blurs edges that are above a value as determined by the user at time of selection. The higher the number the MORE blurring occurs. H-Linearization ... This function reassigns brightness levels of the image so that the integral of the resulting histogram increases linearly with brightness level. This produces best results on dark images where detail in the darker areas of the image are brought out. H-Brightening ... This function brightens an image by reassigning brightness levels so that the integral of the resulting histogram increases quadratically with brightness levels. This generally improves contrast, but detail may be lost. Brighten ... This function allows you to raise or lower the value of each pixel in the image by an amount entered. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 11 --------------------------------------------------------------- H-Equalization ... This function reassigns brightness levels of the image so that every brightness level has an equivalent number of pixels resulting in a flat histogram. This works best on images with poor contrast. The process may take a little while to finish. To let the user know that the system has not hung up, a beep will occur every so often. Divide .... This function will allow you to divide the image by a user enter value. This will darken the image and also reduce its color resolution. Multiply ... This function increases each pixel in the image by multiplying the level with the value entered by the user. Posturizing ... This function creates a special effect by reducing the level of color resolution in the image. Pixelizing ... This will assign brightness levels in a local region of user defined size, to the average causing a mosaic appearance in the image. Contrast ... This function increases the contrast the current image by an amount entered by the user. EFFECTS .... In Metal ... In Concrete ... In Granite ... In Cast Iron .. Charcoal rendering ... Oil Painting These functions produce an embossed or otherwise different look in the image with effects similar to their descriptions. Different images cause different results. Experiment and have fun! TRANSFORMING ... Flip ... Flip causes the image to be turned upside down. Flipping an already flipped image, of coarse, brings it back to it's original form. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 12 --------------------------------------------------------------- Mirror ... This function simply swaps the left side of the image for the right. Resize ... This function is powerful in that it will allow you to easily resize the image to any size up to the limits of the current videomode selected. A box will from that moves with the movement of the mouse. Create a box of the desired NEW size you want and press the LEFT mouse button. The image will be resize to the dimensions of the formed box. Convolve ... This function will allow the user to convolve the active image with a user defined matrix for special custom effects. CAPTURE ... To capture any portion of the viewable image, use this function. Position the mouse pointer to one corner of the area that you want to capture and press the LEFT mouse button. Form a box around the area to capture and press the LEFT button again. The image is captured and redisplayed. If you 'accept' the captured image data, then it will become the current image and the rest is discarded. 3D-IMG ... To create three dimensional image slides from LEFT-EYE and RIGHT-EYE frame image files. Two slides type are available, Red/Green or Stereo. Quit ... This function returns you to the main menu screen without losing the current image or any of it's changes. SCROLLING the image .... You may easily move the current image if it is larger that the viewing screen, by utilizing the scroll bar buttons located at the left and bottom above the palette window. The letters within each button indicate it's function. For instance 'U' means move the image closer to it's origin and 'D' means move the image closer to it's ending coordinate. Pressing the LEFT button in the scroll button will cause a very slow and gradual movement and pressing the RIGHT button will advance or retreat the image at great speed. Holding the button down will repeat the precess over and over until (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 13 --------------------------------------------------------------- an image boundary is reached. To quickly get to the beginning or end of an image simply press either the 'E'nd and/or 'H'ome scroll buttons. PALETTE viewing ... To give a glimpse of the color scheme used in a image, the palette is displayed at the bottom. A future version will allow manipulation of the colors in the palette. * * Video Digitizing * * PROview II has built in support for the popular frame grabber produced by Digital Vision, ie. ComputerEyes Pro. With this frame grabbing capability, you can now grab video images and without exiting the software, go directly to viewing, and/ editing of the captured image. Version 2.00 is released with added support for the ComputerEyes frame grabber board which gives you control of the board in a very similar manner as you are accustomed to in the software that accompanies the grabber board itself. To utilize the ComputerEyes frame grabbing capability, be sure that your hardware has been properly setup and is functioning as outlined in the Digital Vision user's manual. First, select the 'Eyes Setup' button, and verify that the software will operate as you desire. Please note that PROview II only supports the 320 x 200 x 256 VGA mode when running under VESA compatibility. After checking and making the necessary settings for the grabber board, exit the setup routine, by pressing the 'Quit/Save' button. The present configuration will be saved to a config file in the current directory for later use during a frame grabbing session. If the config file cannot be found, the PROview II will use it's system defaults. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 14 --------------------------------------------------------------- PREVIEW Mode .... To enter the 'Preview Mode' and grab a video image, select the 'ComputerEyes Pro" button. A live video image displayed in real time will be displayed. You may make the necessary adjustments in much the same way that you have been accustomed to. When you are satisfied with your settings, press the 'enter' key to grab the image. In a few seconds, the captured image will gradually be painted to the screen as the video data is digitized. Upon completion, a short 'bleep' will be heard, signaling to you that the image capture has been completed. To 'Accept' the captured image, simply press... 'Enter' and the main menu screen will return. If you wish to capture the video image 'again', simply press ... 'ESC' and you will be returned to the preview mode where additional adjustments may be made and a new capture re-initiated. Once the image has been captured, you may utilize any of the PROview II functions to change or alter the image just as you can with any image that has been loaded in from disk. Note that any image previously loaded in PROview II prior to capturing any image, will be lost and overwritten by the captured image. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 15 --------------------------------------------------------------- CONVOLUTION.... A new menu item for the 'TRANSFORM' edit menu pull down called 'CONVOLVE' has been added. Convolving an image with a matrix can create many useful and spectacular results and is used quite frequently in current image processing techniques today. Selecting 'Convolve' will cause a scroll window and matrix select menu to appear. The scroll window will contain a portion of the current active image for preview purposes in testing the current matrix. The user may scroll the image with the window to any location on the current active image by use of the vertical and horizontal scroll buttons. The matrix menu contains a 3X3 matrix containing 9 elements and a divisor all of which may be user set. In addition, user buttons for 'Preview', 'Apply', 'Open', 'Save', and 'Quit' are provided for control and application of the matrix upon the current active image. Beneath the matrix elements are two buttons marked with '+' and '-' for use in changing the contents of the selected matrix element. Five standard matrix filters are supplied with the software. Additional custom matrix filters may also be created by selectively changing the desired element in the matrix using the '+' & '-' pushbuttons and selecting 'SAVE'. To test the current matrix on the image, click on the 'Preview' pushbutton and the convolution is applied to the image in the scroll window. To restore the image to it's original state, click on one of the scroll buttons momentarily. To 'Apply' the current matrix to a particular area of the current image, first scroll the image so it is viewable in the scroll window, then click the 'Preview' pushbutton. To accept the current matrix and 'Apply' it to the entire image, click on the 'Apply' pushbutton. The current matrix will be applied to the image and you will be returned to the editing screen where you may either 'Accept' or 'Undo' the image. Matrix elements may be changed by clicking 'on' the desired element in the matrix. A selected matrix element will appear 'white' in color. To increase the value of the element, click on the pushbutton marked '+'. To 'decrease' the value of the value in the element, click on the pushbutton marked '-'. All elements in the matrix may be varied from -128 to 128. Custom matrix' may be saved to disk by selecting the 'Save' push button. You will be prompted to provide a name for the file. All matrix filter files end in the extension 'MTX' and will automatically be added to the end of the name you enter, so leave off the extension in the filename. Entering a 'blank' at the prompt will terminate the save function. Matrix filters saved to disk may be loaded from disk by selecting the 'Open' pushbutton. A scrolling filelist box will appear containing all of the available '.MTX' files found in the default directory on the default drive. The selected filename will appear in the 'top' of the list box and may be changed by scrolling the list 'up' or 'down' by (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 16 --------------------------------------------------------------- clicking on either of the scroll buttons in the box. Selecting 'YES' will load the selected matrix filter, selecting 'NO' will abort the process and return you to the matrix menu. Example: To HEAVILY BLUR an image, one could do this by choosing a pixel in the image and summing all adjacent pixels in it's neighborhood and dividing the result by the number of pixel samples (9). The result would then replace the value of the original pixel sampled ( the center pixel). Repeating this process over the entire image would result in a blurred image. The following matrix will produce this same effect...... 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 (divisor) ....... and quite quickly! (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 17 --------------------------------------------------------------- THREE-DIMENSIONAL IMAGE SLIDES ... New in v3.00 is the ability to produce true 3D images in full 256 color. The result is fantastic and truly realistic! What is needed is the proper video digitizing equipment and either a stereo viewer or a pair of the popular RED/BLUE stereo viewer glasses. PROview II will produce images tailored for viewing in either of these methods and the one you choose will probably depend on what viewer you have available. Stereoscopic ... First, to view the 'stereo' 3D images you will need what is called a 'stereoscope'. A stereoscope is an instrument (don't be scared by this word as you can easily construct one yourself) that contains a pair of lens mounted in a frame constructed of rigid material. The lens (approx. 2-1/4" dia.) are mounted on a flat over pre-cut holes of diameter slightly smaller that the lens itself, spaced at approximately 2-3/4" to 3" from center of each other so as to form what looks like a rather strange pair of glasses that you can look thru. The lens should be a plano convex type with the 'convex'(curved) side facing away from the viewer's eyes when used. The one constructed in our tests, used lens obtained from an inexpensive magnifier found in a popular drug store. The lens were made of plastic and were placed back to back (plano-side to plano-side) to form a 'condenser lens' for the purpose of magnifying. Separating the two lens provided the necessary lens for the stereoscope we constructed. Note: Some magnifiers contain a single condenser lens and these will not work. The center thickness of the lens should be approximately 1/16". This will allow the user to view an image 9" or so from the viewing plate. To further along in the description of the stereoscope, there should be a rigid divider 9" long and the same width as the lens plate, placed vertically between the two lens mounted on the lens plate, opposite the side the user would look thru. This can be permanently mounted to the lens plate. The purpose of this plate is to restrict the vision of each eye so that each eye will see ONLY what is directly in front of it and not any of the image that the other eye is seeing. The stereo slide is placed at the end of the 9" divider with the divider resting in the center of the left and right image. When the image is viewed thru the lens, the image will appear in three dimension. With this sort of instrument, the user's eyes see two different images and the mind mixes them together to form one, or a composition of both which tricks the user in to seeing an image with 3 dimensions, that is, an image that has 'depth', 'width', and 'height'. (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 18 --------------------------------------------------------------- PROview II will take two previously captured images of the same size, and resize them to appropriate dimensions in the current screen resolution, match the image palettes to form one, and place them side by side to from a stereo slide which may be viewed in 3 dimension with a suitable stereoscope. The slide may also be printed (adjust to 6" width for optimum) and viewed in three dimension on paper with the same type of viewer. This process is effective for both black & white and color images. Red/Green stereo ... Another method of producing a stereo image is thru the use of double imaging and the use of RED & GREEN filters. By taking two captured images, at slightly different perspectives, passing the left perspective image thru a RED filter, leaving only varying degrees of red, and passing the right perspective image thru a GREEN filter, and merging the two images into one image of both colors we can view the complete original image in full 3 dimension with the use of RED/BLUE stereo glasses. The RED lens should cover the LEFT eye to get the proper depth perception. The glasses perform a similar function as the stereoscope, in that the RED filter allows the left eye to see only the left image perspective (RED) and the BLUE filter allows the green image perspective to be seen. Your mind puts the images back together with the illusion of three dimension and color because RED and GREEN are opposite each other in the color spectrum. CAPTURING LEFT & RIGHT FRAME IMAGES FOR THREE DIMENSION.... In order to utilize the 3D capabilities of PROview II and begin producing your own stereoscopic slides, you will first need to produce two images that contain a different view perspective. The best way to do this is to have suitable video capture equipment, such as the ComputerEyes PRO frame grabber board, and a video input source. Our examples were produced using an RCA camcorder aimed at the subject from a tri-pod mounting. You may also use the Cannon rc-250 xapshot camera. It works well also, but with less video resolution. The key to generating a three dimensional image is to try and capture what EACH human eye would see. What the lens of the camera sees in one shot is what one human eye would see at the same instant. By positioning the camera in front of an object and digitizing that video scene, we have what can be called a ONE EYE perspective. If we move the camera from it's current position to the right by about 1/4" and then digitize the same object again we now have yet another ONE EYE perspective, but this one is different from the first one in that it was captured at a different perspective. This difference can be called LEFT -RIGHT perspective, which is what each eye would see independently when viewing the same object. The scenes in each image look (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 19 --------------------------------------------------------------- almost identical, but they are truly different and when combined together, will form a three dimensional rendering of the original scene. This is the process you will need to carry out to produce each 3d image in PROview II. e.g.: 1> Aim the camera at the object and capture it. Refer to this image as the LEFT-EYE frame and save it to disk with a name that identifies what it is, such as 'L-scene.gif'. 2> Shift the position of the camera to the RIGHT about 1/4" and capture this image. Refer to this image as the RIGHT-EYE frame and save it to disk with a filename that identifies what it is, such as 'R-scene.gif'. Producing the three dimensional slide.... Once you have created both your LEFT and RIGHT frame images and saved them to disk as 'GIF' files, enter into 'Edit Mode' in PROview II and select the menu item '3D-img'. A dropdown menu will appear containing 'RED/GREEN' and 'STEREO'. After selecting the type of slide you want to produce, a file list box will appear containing a list of all available 'GIF' image files found in the current directory. A prompt will inform you to 'Select the LEFT-EYE frame->' where you will find the LEFT-EYE frame you captured, such as 'L-scene.gif'. Once the left image has been selected, PROview II will prompt you to select the RIGHT-EYE frame. After both images have been selected, the message 'Working' will appear on the screen and in a few moments your finished slide will be presented to the screen. If you selected RED/GREEN, PROview II will allow you to enter in custom FILTER values for the generation of the slide. At this time, you will notice a prompt asking for a new value to use for the RED filter. The default value for this color is 100 (maximum). You may enter any value from 1 to 100 creating varying results in the final slide generation. By simply pressing <ENTER>, PROview II will assign the value to the default. The same procedure will be repeated fro each of the colores (RED, GREEN and BLUE). Upon completion, this resultant slide becomes the 'active image' and you may continue with other image processing, etc. as you would normally. To view the slide, simply display it on the monitor and with the appropriate stereoscopic viewer, sit back and enjoy the a whole new way of viewing computer graphic images on your system's monitor. HINTS: 1> When producing the LEFT & RIGHT image frames, the more separation each image has from the other, the MORE 3 dimensional effect your finished slide will contain, however, producing too much separation, will cause a 'double-image' effect when the slide is viewed, thus a loss of the three dimensional effect all together. If (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159 PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 20 --------------------------------------------------------------- this occurs, reshoot the images using less distance between each scene. 2> Capture images that are not moving, as movement between frames can cause distortion in slides. 3> STEREO slides can be printed to a laser printer and still retain their ability to be viewed in three dimension. Optimum slide width should be set to about 6" in order to view the image in 3D with a stereoscope similar to the one mentioned in this manual. RED/GREEN slides, however, will loose ALL of their three dimensional characteristics when printed because of the lose of color. 4> When viewing the RED/GREEN slide, always place the RED lens of your viewing glasses over the LEFT eye and the BLUE lens over the RIGHT eye. Failure to do this will result in a loss of the 3D effect and a very 'bad' looking image! 5> Viewing a RED/GREEN slide with a pair of glasses a RED and GREEN lens will cause your RED/GREEN slide to be seen in BLACK & WHITE. 6> While viewing the RED/GREEN slide, adjusting the monitors brightness and contrast controls will sometimes improve the viewing quality. 7> Anybody for a REAL 3D game? hmmmmm... ------------------------------------------------------------ If further technical help is required, please call our Technical Support BBS where not only the latest version of PROview II may be downloaded, but you may ask technical questions you wish answered. Our BBS may be reached 24hrs a day 300/1200/2400 baud, n,8,1 at: Registered users may obtain FREE updates by modem at their leisure from our BBS. (919) 556-0159 (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159