In July 1992, Eastman Kodak Company introduced a new digital photographic system that is bringing some familiar faces to TV.
They╒re the faces of families and friends, captured using standard 35 mm cameras and film. The Kodak Photo CD system scans these photographic images onto special compact discs, and displays them on TV using a Photo CD player (which also plays audio CDs).
As millions of consumers have discovered, the Photo CD system is a great new way to share special moments. But that is only one part of its promise. The ability to convert photographic images to a digital format has broad commercial applications as well:
Ñ Photo CD discs can be read by compatible CD-ROM XA drives, giving desktop publishers a new, low-cost way to input photographs into their computers.
Ñ The format developed for storing 35 mm photographs at full resolution can be extended to other types of images for other applications╤including professional photography, catalog publishing, and medicine.
Ñ Photo CD image files allow the creation of ╥image databases,╙ giving computer users access to images stored on-site or across national or international networks.
Ñ The technology photofinishers use to scan photographs onto Photo CD discs has changed the economics of CD publishing ╤ making it cost-effective for many other businesses to write, distribute, and retrieve data on CD.
Because Kodak developed Photo CD technology for both consumer and commercial applications, both types of users receive two key benefits. Affordability is one ╤ mass production of Photo CD media leads to lower prices for all users. Accessibility is another ╤ consumer Photo CD discs can be read by computers using an inexpensive CD-ROM drive, and all of the discs used in computing applications also can be viewed on TV using an inexpensive home player.
╥The Photo CD system gives consumers and commercial customers the best of two technologies,╙ said Stephen S. Stepnes, general manager and vice president of CD Imaging at Kodak. ╥It provides the convenience, low cost, and image quality of traditional photography combined with the benefits of digital technology ╤ the ability to display, enhance, and transmit images electronically.╙
Consumer Applications
Kodak developed the Photo CD system together with the Netherlands-based electronics company Philips NV. Its technology is, in many ways, similar to that behind audio compact discs.
╥In many ways, the Kodak Photo CD system promises to do for consumer photography what audio CDs did for music,╙ Stepnes said. ╥It╒s a new way to enjoy an immensely popular form of entertainment.╙
In essence, the Photo CD system allows the so-called back end of the photographic process to catch up with advancements in the front end. Although automatic 35 mm cameras and new film formulations combined during the 1980s to enable photographers to take better pictures more easily, the process of storing and retrieving the resulting photos remained decidedly low-tech.
Once pictures came back from the photofinisher, they got tucked away in desk drawers and shoe boxes. If anybody wanted to look at them, the pictures first had to be found and then sorted anew for each viewing. (It is true that some people neatly filed their pictures in photo albums. But even then it was hard for more than one or two people to look at them simultaneously.)
Enter the solution ╤ the Photo CD system, which makes looking at pictures as easy as watching TV.
How It Works
To make the system work, consumers take pictures just as they always have, using standard 35 mm cameras and film. At the photofinisher, they have an additional option: the film images can be transferred at full resolution to a Kodak Photo CD Master disc.
The Kodak Photo CD Master disc is a 120 mm platter that can hold about 100 images, or four 24-exposure rolls of film. Kodak Photo CD Master discs are non erasable, so pictures cannot be inadvertently lost (though Photo CD players are programmable and can be set to skip over any unwanted pictures).
Pictures stored on Kodak Photo CD Master discs are high-resolution images. The discs offer image resolution that is 16 times as great as today╒s TV standards and four times the standards currently being considered for HDTV.
The Kodak Photo CD Master disc also can function as a ╥digital negative,╙ which means consumers can take the disc to their photofinisher to have prints made.
The disc╒s digital technology provides real benefits to consumers. Pictures can be added, which allows the discs to be used as ╥electronic photo albums.╙ A single disc can contain the favorite photographs of a baby╒s first year, a wedding, or other special events.
At the time Photo CD players were introduced last July, more than a dozen photofinishers around the country had the ability to create Kodak Photo CD Master discs. Today, Photo CD transfer services are being offered at thousands of photofinishing drop-off points nationwide.
Consumers display their pictures by inserting the disc into a Photo CD player that they operate with a simple remote control. The viewer can select specific images, program them to appear in a particular order, rotate the image, or zoom in on part of it for a close-up.
Kodak offers three Photo CD player models, each with high-end audio capability, in addition to a unique set of picture-viewing features:
Ñ The PCD 270 is a low-priced player with basic picture-viewing and audio CD features. It allows the viewer to delete some pictures from the playback sequence and to keep others. It also can remember the changes, which eliminates the need to program a disc each time it is viewed. An ╥autoplay╙ feature allows the player to automatically sequence through selected images at intervals of two seconds.
Ñ The deluxe PCD 870 player offers a variety of more advanced viewing options. Users can view close-ups of their images, selecting a rectangular portion for magnification with the ╥2X tele╙ feature. Another feature, ╥expanded favorite picture selection,╙ provides additional memory for recalling the individual picture edits and viewing order selections of more discs.
Ñ A third model, the PCD 5870, offers all of the advanced features of the deluxe version with the addition of a five-disc carousel. This player also provides on-screen display of the selected image number and other information for easy indexing and fast photo identification.
Beyond 35 mm: The Next Phase
Consumers around the world shoot about 60 billion photographs every year, 85 percent of which are on 35 mm film. That╒s why the first phase of Kodak╒s Photo CD program focused on making 35 mm pictures widely available to consumers on Photo CD Master discs.
The benefits of Photo CD technology are not limited to amateur photography. The Kodak Image Pac file format, which Kodak created to store high-resolution 35 mm photographic images, also was designed to be adapted to other imaging needs. As consumers begin using Kodak Photo CD Master discs, the company is moving to extend the Photo CD concept to mainstream professional and commercial business users.
Kodak has developed a new Photo CD format aimed at consumers and has announced additional disc formats, products, and applications that offer opportunities for professional photographers, for those involved in other commercial enterprises, and for users of desktop computers.
The formats and products demonstrate Kodak╒s long-range vision for the technology, as well as the company╒s commitment to its customers. All of the new disc formats are compatible with the core Photo CD format, Photo CD and CD I players, and Photo CD-compatible CD-ROM XA drives.
New Multimedia-style Format
The Kodak Photo CD Portfolio disc, a new consumer format , lets anyone with Photo CD images create special discs that merge those images with text, graphics, and sound. A ╥programmed access╙ capability built into the new format enables people to create discs of subjects such as family trees, which allow the viewer to look at pictures of any member of the family simply by choosing the appropriate branch from an on-screen menu.
In addition to discs produced at the for consumers, Kodak also expects that third-party publishers will use the Kodak Photo CD Portfolio format to distribute prerecorded titles for education or entertainment. Titles will include specialized collections in areas such as art, sports, and nature. Rick Smolan, author of From Alice to Ocean, includes a free Photo CD Portfolio disc in his book in the U.S.
Kodak Photo CD Portfolio discs have a distinctive trade dress to distinguish them from other discs, but they are fully compatible with today╒s Photo CD players. When the new discs become available later this year, those who have already purchased players will be able to play the discs.
The Kodak Photo CD Portfolio discs share features of the original Photo CD format, called Kodak Photo CD Master. The major differences are that Kodak Photo CD Portfolio discs can hold up to 800 TV-resolution images. In contrast, on Kodak Photo CD Master discs, all images are recorded in full photographic resolution. Kodak Photo CD Master discs hold up to 100 images.
Both formats can hold up to one hour of CD audio-quality stereo sound or a combination of sound and images. They also share the ability to use programmed access to give consumers more viewing choices and to have text and graphics combined with photos on the discs.
Professional Photographers
The Kodak Pro Photo CD Master disc is designed for professional photographers. The Kodak Pro Photo CD Master disc carries its own trade dress but otherwise looks very much like its consumer cousin.
The key difference is the feature set built in to meet the requirements of professional photographers. Kodak Pro Photo CD Master discs store images from the larger film formats favored by professionals, including 120, 70 mm, and 4 x 5-inch, as well as 35 mm.
Because these larger film formats contain more image information, Kodak Pro Photo CD Master image files also are larger. Depending on the film format, the discs can hold from 25 to 100 images.
To help control how a professional╒s images are used, the Kodak Pro Photo CD Master format offers three security features: a special identifier to indicate image ownership and copyright, the ability to place a watermark (such as ╥PROOF╙) over an image, and the ability to encrypt high-resolution images to impede unauthorized use.
Kodak Pro Photo CD Master discs will be available from professional photo labs beginning this spring.
Other Commercial Users
By providing a low-cost way to store and distribute images in digital form, Photo CD technology presents an almost limitless potential for commercial applications in addition to professional photography. To illustrate this potential, Kodak has announced two new disc formats ╤ the Kodak Photo CD Catalog and the Kodak Photo CD Medical ╤ targeted at applications from mail-order retailing to health care, as well as an image library and international image network to provide easy access to images for any commercial user.
The Kodak Photo CD Catalog is designed for organizations that want to store large numbers of images on a disc and distribute these images widely ╤ such as mail-order retailers, tourism associations, or art galleries. As many as 6,000 images can be stored at video resolution on Kodak Photo CD Catalog discs for soft display on TV sets or computer monitors. (The images are of lower resolution than standard Kodak Photo CD Master discs or Kodak Pro Photo CD Master discs and can╒t be used to make photo-quality prints.)
The images can be combined with text and graphics and organized into chapters and pages to resemble a traditional catalog. People who play the discs on home Photo CD players will see on-screen menus that lead them through the catalog╒s pages at the touch of a remote control. Those who run Kodak Photo CD Catalog discs on computers also can locate images with simple key-word searches using Kodak Browser software, which is contained on each Kodak Photo CD Catalog disc.
For medical applications, Kodak is developing another new format that stores diagnostic images. Potential applications for the Kodak Photo CD Medical format include training and education, distribution of patient files, and long-term storage of diagnostic images.
Image Access Products
Along with its multiple-disc formats, Kodak has developed new products and services to give commercial users easy access to all types of images stored on Photo CD discs.
One is a product called the Kodak Professional Photo CD Image Library, an automated disc library, or ╥jukebox,╙ that holds as many as 100 Photo CD discs. The library can store thousands or hundreds of thousands of images, depending on the type of Photo CD discs it contains. Users can rapidly search for and retrieve any of these images by keying in requests at a desktop computer.
Although the library will give individual customers easy access to images internally, Kodak also has announced its intent to create an imaging network that will use telephone lines to link the distributors of images, such as stock photo houses, with potential customers worldwide.
The Kodak Picture Exchange is a new Kodak business that will give users access to a huge database of images, just as networks like CompuServe provide access to text and data. With a desktop computer and a modem, users will be able to search the Kodak Picture Exchange database and request hard copies of images electronically. Kodak Picture Exchange will alert the image providers immediately, allowing them to fulfill requests promptly by air express. In the future, as the data-carrying capacity of telephone lines expands, it will be possible to fulfill requests directly over the telephone.
The new Kodak Writable CD system, another outgrowth of Photo CD technology, is a low-cost alternative to traditional methods of publishing data CDs. The system employs write-once discs that can be read in all standard CD hardware devices, and the same high-speed, multi-session CD writer used by photofinishers to produce consumer Photo CD discs.
Potential users include large companies, where the discs can be written on demand as replacements for paper reports; low-volume publishers, who need to create small numbers of master CDs (and who today can╒t afford to have them pressed conventionally); ╥power╙ users at standalone PCs and workstations, especially those who need to exchange large data files and maintain back-up files; and reference archives, which need to store information on a durable medium that doesn╒t take up much space.
In addition to the assortment of applications and products being developed by Kodak, the company has joined with more than a dozen other companies, universities, and organizations to cooperate on new commercial applications. These cooperative agreements include licensing the Kodak technology to some of the biggest names in the computer, electronics, and photography industries ╤ including Apple, Adobe, Aldus, Sony, SuperMac, Toshiba, and Fuji.
╥The number of potential commercial uses for Photo CD technology is limited only by the imagination,╙ Stepnes said. ╥Although Kodak is already working on a large number of specific applications, we expect that number to multiply rapidly as our customers begin to work with the technology and understand its potential.╙
Desktop Computer Users
For consumers or commercial customers, Photo CD technology provides a convenient new way to input high-resolution images into desktop-computing applications. Photo CD discs give people a way to take their own photographic images and convert them inexpensively into a digital format. The discs can be played in Photo CD-compatible CD-ROM XA drives, which are widely available and also relatively inexpensive.
As a result, all types of computer users can take advantage of the technology╤from a consumer composing a family newsletter for a holiday mailing, to an art director creating page layouts for a commercial magazine. Kodak has developed a family of five software products designed for all types of users.
Two of the five provide easy search and retrieval of images stored in databases; the remaining three allow users to work with individual Photo CD images in different ways.
The most basic of the two database software products is Kodak Browser software, which is contained on all Kodak Photo CD Catalog discs and which allows for easy search and retrieval of images on the Catalog disc using key words. The second is Kodak Shoebox software, which offers more powerful search and retrieval functions for customers with large image databases.
The other three software packages provide different levels of image-editing capability to meet the needs of different users:
Ñ Kodak Photo CD Access software ╨╨ for casual users, is a low-cost tool that makes it easy to read and display Photo CD images and to import them into current applications (for example, Adobe PhotoShop or Aldus PhotoStyler software). It performs basic functions like cropping and image rotation, and allows images to be output to standard file formats (such as EPS, TIFF or PICT).
Ñ Kodak PhotoEdge software ╤ for business users who are beginning to work with Photo CD images. It provides the same functionality as Access software, with the additional ability to edit the overall appearance of images ╤ such as sharpening the focus and adjusting color or contrast.
Ñ Kodak Renaissance software ╤ a page-layout package for professional users, newly equipped with Photo CD capability. The software allows text, graphics, and images to be merged into comprehensive layouts and gives the designer the ability to adjust those layouts easily to experiment with different ideas.
All of the Kodak software packages employ user interfaces that are designed to be simple and intuitive, making it easy to move to more advanced software packages as needs change. They have the same look and feel that characterize applications running in the Apple Macintosh or Windows 3.x environments, with icons and pull-down menus to guide the user.
Stepnes explained that the common look and feel of Kodak╒s Photo CD software products reflect the vision behind the Kodak Photo CD system.
╥Kodak developed Photo CD technology to give consumers an exciting new way to enjoy their pictures, but we didn╒t stop there,╙ he said. ╥We developed the technology with future applications in mind╤as a result, consumers can buy players today that will provide them even greater functionality in the future, and commercial users will enjoy easy access to high-quality images for a wide range of applications.╙
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[Note: Kodak, Image Pac, Kodak Browser, Access, Shoebox, and Renaissance are trademarks.]
