🚀 go-pugleaf

     There are two reasons for suggesting Amigas for this job. First,
there are several tools for the Amiga that support databases of
images.  microFicheFiler even allows you to scan through the images if
you want.  Second, not only are several (color and b&w) scanners
available and supported, and of course, video image capture is second
to none, but a lot of good image enhancement packages are available.

     ASDG is the company to talk to about scanners and "The Art
Department," a program which will convert just about any image format
to any other format.  If I was doing this sort of work, I would have
one "fully loaded" Amiga with a NewTek Video Toaster for image capture
and enhancement.  Stock Amiga 3000s would probably suffice for
accessing and using the database.

     One last note.  Disk is (relatively) cheap these days, but a
collection of thousands of images is going to be BIG.  Again, if I was
doing this, I would have a central database machine, probably running
Unix, where the primary considerations are amount of disk you can
attach, and ease of backup.  Then the "user" machines would use
Ethernet to remote mount the database and have "only" a 100 or 200 Meg
local disk.  The database machine could be whatever you have currently
such as a Sun or a MIPS or, if you want to stay a one-vendor
environment, an Amiga 3000U.  In any case 400 Meg disks are probably
the smallest you should consider.

     The most portable way to distribute the database would be as tar
files of GIF images on tape cartridges. If you are ambitious, it would
be possible to cut a CD-ROM or three when you are done.
--

					Robert I. Eachus

with STANDARD_DISCLAIMER;
use  STANDARD_DISCLAIMER;
function MESSAGE (TEXT: in CLEVER_IDEAS) return BETTER_IDEAS is...

>A friend of mine in the Ancient History department has asked for my 
advice 
>regarding a computer system for the Teaching Collection.

>The curator of the Ancient History Teaching Collection at Macquarie 
wishes to
>catalogue all the artefacts and papyri into an on-line research database. 
To
>this end, he needs information about software and the hardware platforms 
under
>them.

I would recommend a MacII with a color scanner (try looking at LaCie it 
has been
coming bundled with some nice image enhancement and compression software).
You might also consider Hypercard as the front end to your images, altho 
there
are several visual databases available... sorry I can't recommend exact 
names.

Macs are good for people who have not had alot of previous experience with
computers and are especially good for visually oriented professionals.


Marti Atkinson
University of Calif. at Santa Cruz  
marti@saturn.ucsc.edu
marti@uccrls.BITNET
..!ucbvax!ucscc!saturn!marti

In article <13643@darkstar.ucsc.edu> marti@saturn.ucsc.edu (Marti Atkinson) writes:
>>A friend of mine in the Ancient History department has asked for my
>advice
>>regarding a computer system for the Teaching Collection.
>
>>The curator of the Ancient History Teaching Collection at Macquarie
>wishes to
>>catalogue all the artefacts and papyri into an on-line research database.
>To
>>this end, he needs information about software and the hardware platforms
>under
>>them.
>
>I would recommend a MacII with a color scanner (try looking at LaCie it
>has been
>coming bundled with some nice image enhancement and compression software).
>You might also consider Hypercard as the front end to your images, altho
>there
>are several visual databases available... sorry I can't recommend exact
>names.
>
>Macs are good for people who have not had alot of previous experience with
>computers and are especially good for visually oriented professionals.
>
>
>Marti Atkinson
>University of Calif. at Santa Cruz
>marti@saturn.ucsc.edu
>marti@uccrls.BITNET
>...!ucbvax!ucscc!saturn!marti

Our campus museum has just bought some Nexts to do exactly what
you're doing.  They went with Next since the resolution is so nice,
the interface is easy to use, and you can now get color monitors.
They're still setting it up, so far they seem very happy with it.
I don't know what they're using for a database.

I don't know if this might suit your needs, but we are looking at building an
image database using Superbase 4 from Precision Software as the display and
database engine.  It runs under MS-Windows 3.0 and knows about some common
image formats (not all).  It also appears to be a nice database application
development environment.  We plan to store the large bulk of image data on
a Unix box, and use a PC-NFS clone to make it accessible as DOS drives on the
PC.  For more info on Superbase call Precision Software at (800) 562-9909, or
(214) 929-4888.  I have no connection with them, and will be using their
software for prototyping over the next few months.  Ask me again in June to
see how well I like it...



-- 
Rich Goldschmidt: uunet!fjcp60!golds or golds@fjc.gov
Commercialization of space is the best way to escape the zero-sum economy.
Disclaimer: I don't speak for the government, and it doesn't speak for me...

G'day,

I'm sorry, I lost track of the attribution...

> A friend of mine in the Ancient History department has asked for my advice 
> regarding a computer system for the Teaching Collection.
> 
> The curator of the Ancient History Teaching Collection at Macquarie wishes
> to catalogue all the artefacts and papyri into an on-line research database.
> To this end, he needs information about software and the hardware platforms 
> under them.

Perhaps an Amiga with the AmigaVision multimedia authoring system would  be
suitable? AmigaVision has a built in dBase III compatible tool. AmigaVision
supports CD-ROM media and has an intuitive icon based programming interface
(in case that custom application building may be important).  It is bundled
with the Amiga 3000 currently (I believe) as well as available separately.

Alternatively Superbase for the Amiga may be able to do what is needed?  It
is the same product (but an earlier version I think) as the IBM PC version.

Disclaimer:: I have not used these products except to run a demo version of
Superbase.

yours truly,
Lou Cavallo.