At the recent NAB show in Las Vegas, I had a chance to sit down and talk to Charlie Vogt, CEO of ATX Networks about the industry, what he has been doing since Imagine Communications and the challenges of video media distribution. He highlights the switching and distribution technology from the ATX product line that support the full range from SD through 4K HDR delivery.
The interview with Charlie Vogt follows :
Just like Superman who disguises himself as a mild-mannered spectacled newspaper reporter from “The Daily Planet” newspaper, easily blending in with the citizens of Metropolis as Clark Kent, the IRIScan Mouse Wifi in comparison seems to be a typical mouse blended in among an all too overcrowded world of accessories.
Clark Kent may “look” somewhat awkward and unintimidating at times to the people around him, but that is just him masquerading as Superman, just like this seven-ounce IRIScan Mouse does well, acting as an all-in-one scanner and wireless mouse with super powers.
When observing the IRIScan mouse side by side next to a laptop, there is nothing extraordinary about it when comparing other wireless mice. It scrolls, like a mouse, it, clicks like a mouse, and moves every which way just like a typical midsize mouse should. With its standard three mouse buttons and dialing wheel, it’s quite mild-mannered, just like Clark Kent, and it functions quite well for an everyday mouse.
Like Superman’s “x-ray vision”, the IRIScan mouse, has similar super powers and can suddenly transform itself to become a scanner within seconds from the touch of a button. Located on the bottom interior, its glass plate is free to roam and glide anywhere due to its wireless capability. It features a 1,500-dpi optical sensor which can create a scan with a resolution of up to 400 dpi for crisp, sharp documents using Slam Scan Technology, which is designed to allow users to scan documents up to A3 (11.7 x 16.5″) in size in a single bound. This IRIScan mouse has super powers that are “out of this world. 
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE
Without the software, this mouse would have no super powers. It’s the IRIScan and CardIris software and the hardware that makes this lithium chargeable mouse mighty unlike no other.
The first thing you need to do is to insert the dongle into the USB port of your computer and then install the IRIScan Mouse Wi-Fi software. Once the software is installed, you will have some very powerful tools that will make it easy to make to convert and edit into different files. By the touch of the button on the top of the mouse, the software loads the program onto your screen and immediately you are ready to scan.
THE SCANNING PROCESS: FREEHAND VS SCANPAD
To test the initial scanning of the IRIScan mouse, I grabbed a few items around the office; a credit card and credit card receipt, a business card, a film festival program, a political campaign mailer measuring 8.5”x11, as well as a CD jacket cover. I even took a bound music book to see if I could copy a page of music without having to crease the spine.
As I was scanning each of these items by hand, I began to realize that I didn’t have a smooth flat surface to work with, making it difficult to get a good initial scan from my documents. In addition, it was a tricky process, as I had to secure the documents using one hand and scan with the other. If the document was larger than my hand, than it would be difficult to get a good scan because of the documents not being securely held down. 
As it turned out, I was still able to create perfect scans of the credit card receipt, business card, and CD jacket cover. I also was able to take capture a portion of the the film festival program containing a picture from the movie and the corresponding text description of it. However, I found myself having to rescan or “repaint” the spots that I initially missed. Luckily, they were small enough, so it wasn’t too troublesome.
Larger documents, especially if it contained both text and a photo on them, were more involving and definitely tested my patience, though I finally got the results I needed after several attempts keeping the document flat and still. I managed to scan a whole page of piano music from a bounded book perfectly, but that also took some practice to get to get it right.
As with the 8 ½“x 11” campaign flyer that included a slogan in the picture, I had absolutely no luck in scanning it in successfully. IRIScan even attempted to correct it through its OCR recognition, but as I rescanned the spots I had missed, it ran out of memory before completion of the image. It’s as though I was re-painting over the painted picture over and over without ever getting it just right.
Even with IRIScan’s capability to scan up to A3, it was very difficult to get the output to perfection, even with its OCR capability. My initial impression after freehand scanning was that this was way too much trouble for what it is worth, even for small documents, but that was before I realized that IRIScan included a ScanPad in the packaging.
IRIScan ScanPad
The 4”x7” ScanPad includes a clear plastic cover that you can use to place over your document before scanning, allowing the mouse to scan over the documents with ease while holding the documents securely. This was the perfect solution making scanning very simple and quick for smaller documents. The ScanPad was a pure “life saver” and was a joy to re-scan all of those documents that I previously did freehand, which was finished in seconds.
I suggest this ScanPad should always be used with the IRIScan mouse scanner.
It even scanned a credit card that wasn’t completely flat because of the numbers protruding, which made the scan a little bumpy. The results were still perfect as it just took two swipes. Impressive indeed.
For larger documents that do not fit in the ScanPad, I was curious to know if a larger size ScanPad would have taken care of this issue had IRIScan included it in their package. If so, I gladly would have paid for the extra cost.
THE CONVERSION, EDIT, AND SHARING PROCESS
Once you have captured what you needed to have scanned with the touch of the button, it will automatically capture it and convert it by straightening it and applying a suggested crop that you can resize. It does a wonderful job allowing you to crop off the excess that you don’t need. Usually there is no need to rotate the document, as well. The software is very intuitive and user friendly during the editing process.
As soon as you are ready to save the editable document, it uses an embedded OCR (Optical Character Recognition) solution that supports well over 130 different languages that will identify text and allow users to easily copy and paste it into their most used applications, such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, or even Apple. You can convert your scanned document into a TXT, XLS, or even an PDF, and since OCR is being utilized by the software, you can fully edit your text, whether it’s a Word, Notepad, Excel, or an Acrobat reader document. 
Also, if you are scanning business cards, through CardIris, it will convert into digital contacts filling out the regular fields through OCR. Though not 100% perfect, you will still save a massive amount of time, since they are all editable fields. From there, you can save them into your Outlook, Gmail, etc.
If you are scanning a picture, you have your choice of choosing a JPG, TIFF, or even BMP format you can export it as a fully editable PDF or text file compatible with popular text and spreadsheet editors. Once saved, you can also have it backed easily on to your personal cloud hosting service (Dropbox, Evernote, Google Translate.) with just a click. This mouse scanner also lets you share pictures or drawings from your children with friends and families on Facebook and/or Twitter.
This must be one of the most ingenious innovative ideas in quite a while and this mouse has some super powers that no other mouse has ever seen.
CONCLUSION:
While the IRIScan Mouse WiFi may not replace your scanning equipment, it will supplement them by being able to scan documents that would not normally be used by a typical flatbed or feedable scanner, such as pages from bound magazines, books or music scores, due to its bulkiness. It will also make scanning smaller documents much easier and convenient, especially when on the road with your MousePad. However, if you have two-sided scanning to do, I would recommend a portable scanner.
A wonderful selling point of this mouse is its’ mobility features. This will appeal to those who travel for work and who collects many business cards and needs to update his contacts frequently onto his computer, as well as scanning receipts for his expense reports for a timely reimbursement from his employer. If you bring your MousePad with you to scan documents, everything will scan perfectly and it will be much quicker to edit, if needed. No longer will you need to type in text from a document.
If you have items larger than 4”x7”, you may have probably issues with it by not being able to scan perfectly the first time, though it might help to find a a completely smooth non-glare surface such as a clear deskpad that you can put documents under to scan so there wouldn’t be any movement. One of the challenges that I face is that paper moves, and it is difficult for the scanner to “paint” the document. It is best if the documents don’t move and stay as flat on the surface as possible. It also helps if the surface holds the paper down and is on a blank white neutral background.
This is simply not just a regular mouse, but supplemented by its useful software is a powerful all-in-one wireless mighty mouse scanner.
Faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a locomotive, able to jump tall buildings in A single bound
… It’s a mouse…Its a scanner, It’s “IRIScan Mouse!
Though, I’m not sure why they didn’t provide the IRIScan Mouse with a cape.
Article by Marcus Siu
San Francisco, March 25, 2018. At this year’s GDC 2018 (Game Developer’s Conference), there were a couple of demos that stood out that strongly reinforced my thoughts about the eventual futuristic merging of computer gaming and movies.
After just a few demos on the GDC expo floor, I was not be able to discern the difference between the computer game graphics and the live action from movies anymore. Realism for game developers have never looked so real.
On the first day of GDC, NVIDIA announced their latest RTX technology of Real time-Cinematic rendering. Nvidia’s RTX technology, alongside Microsoft’s new DirectX® Raytracing (DXR) API, has been an intensive work-in-progress for the last ten years. It’s ray tracing renders lifelike and realistic lighting, along with reflections and shadows that make it nearly impossible to distinguish what is real and what is not, in terms of computer graphics. It brings real-time, cinematic-quality rendering to content creators and game developers.
Yes, you read right: “real time”.
This new technology is a milestone for not just gaming developers and filmmakers, but any creator who needs to render an object as realistic as can be. The computer graphics of tomorrow will make computer graphics of today look like a lifeless imitation.
Nvidia had Project Spotlight “Reflections” at their booth at GDC, which looks more like a teaser trailer for the next Star Wars feature film, but in reality, it’s a real time tracing demo, which Epic’s team along with ILMxLAB and NVIDIA’s DGX Station, equipped with four Tesla V100 GPUs, Epic’s Unreal Engine and NVIDIA’s RTX ray-tracing technology.
It definitely wowed the enthusiastic GDC crowd as it was hard to believe that there were no actual actors used in the storm troopers costumes. It was all computer graphics being rendered.
At GDC, game developers will have access to ray-tracing denoiser module, part of the GameWorks SDK from Nvidia. Photo by Marcus Siu.
NVIDIA has also announced that the GameWorks SDK will add a ray-tracing denoiser module, helping game developers take advantage of new capabilities. This updated SDK, which is coming soon, includes support for ray-traced area light shadows, glossy reflections and ambient occlusion. This will help save a huge amount of time for creators.
Imagine how the Screen Actor’s will feel after they realize that computer graphics characters may jeopardize their career in the near future. One of those actors will
Motion capture performance artist, Andy Serkis, known for playing “Gollum” in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “Caesar” in the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy may not have problems finding work. Just a few sections away from the Nvidia booth, I saw a computer generated “digital” Andy Serkis acting out his lines as his alien creature character was being rendered in real time at the Unreal booth.
Unreal indeed.
Just unreal – Andy Serkis’s character talks as Andy talks in real time at the GDC 2018. Photo by Marcus Siu
Maybe in the near distant future, we can just get rid of the entire Screen Actor’s Guild with the exception of performance capture or voice-over actors. Or perhaps one day we can just clone the actors so there wouldn’t be any need for them to come in and perform on a sound stage.
Imagine at the Academy Awards…, “and the nominees for “Best Clone Actor in Supporting Role are”…
In addition with the progress of computer graphics coming from ray tracing in the visual sides, audio will also be just as important for content creators. End user consumers are continuously looking for an immersive experience with their gaming, so many are reaching out to THX certified equipment for their PC gaming.
THX demonstrated their spatial audio platform, using the latest audio standard, MPEG-H, as well as UHD. They were using the game trailer for “Helblade”, which ironically, was one of the first live motion capture technology for Epic Games in 2006. It was in a way, ahead of its time. Coming from a 2.1 THX certified Logitech speakers and a sub-woofer, it was quite sonically immersive. I felt that I was right in the middle of the soundscape.
There was also a demo of it using headphones, but I still preferred the speakers.
Certified THX Logitech Speakers at GDC. Photo by Marcus Siu.
In addition, they utilize personalized audio profiles using HRTS’s (Head-Related Transfer Functions), which are optimized and customized for each listener, based on user’s unique hearing anatomy.
Long associated with the Lucasfilm movie sound in movie theatres in the 80’s, it seems that THX is staging a comeback into the public eye in the marketplace. In addition to its traditional THX certified products such as home entertainment products over the years, such as projectors, pre-amps, receivers and speakers, they have been gaining momentum into the gaming world by introducing THX certified products, such as laptops, headsets and satellite speakers.
The audience is listening…again.
Article and photos by Marcus Siu
(originally published on mlsentertainment)
OWC is best known as being a supplier for Apple products but there are two changes going on in the world. One is – the connections are changing and people not just using Mac anymore. They are using PCs. As a result OWC is selling more parts for just regular computers.
OWC has too new products for PC and Mac users in content creation area.
It lets make your laptop or workstation connect like a full desktop computer. That means multiple monitors, a mouse, an external storage and a network connection. All being hooked up with just one wire connection. This gives the convenience of portable computer and the work efficiency of a standard editing desk. Because this DOCKS – USB-C DOCK and USB-C Travel Dock, then the high speed connection can support the displays, storage and what called HID (Human Interface Device).
The difference between DOCKS – one is a stationary for your office and one is design for travel to give the same convenience when you on location.
With the HP Z series workstations the Dock supports 4K video and more important – does not change a color on the screen what is a problem for more other docks on the market.
CES 2018 will be remembered for its lights going out at the Las Vegas Convention Center filled with thousands of televisions and electronics. Those who were in the building found their ways to the exits using the lights from their cell phones. Within minutes, the blackout forced the convention center to be closed for over two hours. Although this unfortunate incident made international headlines, this year’s CES was still an exciting and stimulating event for the global tech community.
CES is a platform that allows an interaction with a new generation of technology! This year, over 170,000 attendees from 150 countries, 3,900 exhibitors presented their products and services, 7,000 journalists and bloggers all came to Las Vegas to report to a broad audience that the convention center wasn’t quite able to accommodate.
Steve Koenig, analyst and director of CTA (Consumer Technology Association) at the press meeting which took place two days before an official door opens, announced the main trends in the global tech world. His focus was on 5G and AI as the ingredient technologies for 2018 and beyond. 5G was the theme of my article in the last edition of Property Journal. It is important in the era that has a flood of automated data.
By 2020, the average internet user is going to create around 1,5 GB of traffic per day, but a smart hospital will produce 3,000 GB and an autonomous vehicle 4,000 GB per day. Today every big city has 4G and everyone who watches content on a mobile device is familiar with the buffering wheel icon which means that the operating system needs more time for downloading content. But for the consumer it means lost time for waiting. When 5G will be implemented that will no longer be the case.
How fast is 5G? Let’s use an example. How long would it take to download the two-hour-long “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie? In 3G (2001) it took 26 hours, in 4G (2009) only 6 minutes, in 5G (2020) it will be 3.6 seconds! There is no doubt that 5G is going to revolutionize everything including telecommunication, automotive, healthcare, social media, real-time GPS, mobile payments, video streaming (4K and 8K) and access to the Internet at the fingertips anywhere, anytime.
The second ingredient that will stimulate global technology is AI. Before, the abbreviation AI meant “Artificial Intelligence”, but some industry experts believe that the term is too closely linked to popular culture and has negative connotations. That is why AI is now described as “Augmented Intelligence”; to help people understand that AI simply improves upon products and services, and does not replace humans. Unfortunately, they both have the same acronym – AI.
IBM that heavily invested in Artificial Intelligence system called Watson suggested to use the term “Intelligence Augmentation” – IA. Quick note: it is not about Sherlock Holmes’s assistant, Watson, but Thomas Watson, the charismatic CEO of IBM during the years, 1914-1956.
Many companies invest in AI because they believe that Augmented Intelligence is the key to learn what humans like and dislike, perfectly suggesting the products to match their tastes. Just recently Google joined the race for more customers by using AI. For the first time, Google had a standalone booth in the middle of the convention center at the CES. Outside the convention center, they had many signs and banners on the streets of Las Vegas that was read – “Hey, Google”.
NVIDIA