solutions

Below you find short descriptions for a small cross section of projects bitart has been involved in.

1982: whole-house accessibility for disabled individuals

Problem: Mobility-challenged individuals were dependent on others to access even the most basic elements of their homes. They needed an affordable solution which would allow them to do many simple tasks by themselves.

Solution: A low-cost modular hard- and software system was devised which allowed even quadriplegic individuals to live more independently. The system included access to telephone, TV, radio, lights, windows, doors, word-processor and other household devices.

1983: plant process visualization

Problem: Getting an overview of the plant's operating status required a time-consuming study of multiple printouts.

Solution: A visualization system was created which interfaced with the existing SPS-type control computers. The status of all systems was displayed in the form of a real-time flow chart. Problems could be immediately detected and thus more readily corrected, saving time and money.

1984: ergonomics research

Problem: This furniture company needed to create office equipment which would conform to new ergonomic standards. In order to do that, they needed an ergonomic profile for office workers, and they needed it fast.

Solution: Special office chairs and desks with a wide range of movement were equipped with a multitude of sensors. After a comfortable work environment was found, a built-in computer system would display and print out the exact position of all surfaces using a graphic with attached measurements.

1984: desktop publishing

Problem: Desktop publishing was just coming of age and new features were needed to make the company's software product competitive.

Solution: Highly optimized assembler code allowed this program to be the first to use vector-based fonts in realtime on the screen. A dynamic GUI was devised to allow plugin of components into the graphical user interface during runtime. The resulting product was one of the leading DTP solutions in Europe for nearly a decade.

1986: image setters

Problem: No interface for connecting PCs and high-speed high-resolution image setters existed, one was needed.

Solution: A modular hard- and software system allowed PCs to interface with image setters as produced by Linotype, Compugraphic, Hell, Scitex and others.

1987: campus-wide equipment monitoring

Problem: Equipment failures on a wide-spread university campus often went unnoticed for a long period of time.

Solution: Nearly a hundred networked micro-controllers were interfaced with elevators, fire alarms, refrigerators, laboratory and other equipment. A centralized monitoring station with a display and dial-in capabilities is used to monitor the equipment and to print out detailed instructions which delineate tasks to be performed in case of a malfunction. We provided hardware designs for the microcontrollers as well as the entire programming required for this system.

1988: image scanning

Problem: There was no standardized method of controlling image scanners. Every software company had to program custom drivers for their products, for each different scanner on the market.

Solution: An API and hardware was devised to solve those needs. This API was well-publicized and used by many software companies and eventually adopted as an industry standard.

1989: integrated publishing environment

Problem: The publishing industry lacked an integrated software environment.

Solution: Using object-oriented programming, an integrated publishing environment was designed and implemented. All aspects of the design and pre-production phase were included: image manipulation, vector graphics, text, scanning, pagination and montage, color separation and many others. Eventually a company was formed to further maintain and develop this product, and the product is used by many leading publishing houses for a number of well known newspapers, magazines, books and other publications.

1995: high volume photo scanning process

Problem: High-volume photo scanning was too labor intensive.

Solution: The existing process was analyzed. An application tailored to suit the specific needs of the company was designed and implemented, using the equipment they already had. Productivity was increased by more than 800% and a much greater consistency was achieved.

1996 - today: fax to fax network using the internet

Problem: The client wanted to create a fax-to-fax communication network product using the internet. Its clients would receive international fax-to-fax service of higher quality and at a lower cost than using direct telephone connections.

Solution: A system of networked servers with custom-tailored software was devised and implemented. The system was enhanced with a number of additional features such as fax to email and email to fax gateways, broadcast (mass) faxing capabilities and others. More than 40 servers in more than 30 countries are in use today, processing millions of faxes.

1996 - 2000: document design using the web

Problem: The customer wanted a web-based desktop publishing program.

Solution: A java-based desktop publishing system was created which allows wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) design and modifications of a variety of print materials, using common web browsers. The server backend can interface with databases to produce personalized mass-printed materials. The server backend interfaces with high-speed Xerox products to produce the printed materials. Various spin-offs of this product have been created since and are in production today.