KBVision Update

KBV Users' Group

KBVoice Newsletter

The latest release of the KBVision System, version 3.1, has been shipped to all customers with current maintenance. New features include:

Disk space requirement

The KBVision System release 3.1 is delivered on one medium, which contains the software required to run the KBVision System modules and a Tutorial. A second medium containing demos and additional Images, Tokensets, and Graphs will be sent to new users, and is available to all customers who request it.

Disk space requirements have been greatly reduced by linking all Tasks into one executable and stripping all KBV executables.

Future patches to the KBVision release will be added directly to KBV libraries before software is shipped. Any additional Patches requested by users can be placed in the Patches directory for installation. The Patches directory will be empty when a release is shipped to users.

Additional platform support

The KBVision System is now available on the DEC Alpha workstation running under OSF1, V3.2 .

Floating (flexlm) licenses are available on Silicon Graphics and DEC Alpha computers, as well as SUN OS 4.* and 5.*. A floating license allows a KBVision user at a single graphics station to execute as many Tasks and interfaces as desired, while consuming a single license. Any node on the network which can access that KBV flex license may use it. As many users as desired can be added to the flex license.

New Tasks and Task enhancements

Three new Tasks have been added to release 3.1.

A number of additional Tasks are shipped in the directory UnReleased. These Tasks are not ready for official release, but may be useful to KBV users.

Thirty Tasks have been enhanced.

Raster Tasks are now independent of the SunViews libraries. SUN raster files can be converted to KBV format on all platforms.

Token Tasks have been modified to allow more efficient expansion of Token lists.

Parameters have been added to several Tasks to increase functionality.

Grouper module

A new Grouper Module has been added to the KBVision System family of software products. Appropriate grouping Tasks have been transferred from the Segmenter Module in order to further clarify customers' needs. All current customers who have the Segmenter Module have automatically received the Grouper Module with their upgrade.

A number of unreleased Grouper Tasks are included in the directory:

./kbv_tasks/UnReleased/GrouperUnsupported

New and enhanced Isr and Gfx functions

Token sequences are a specialization of Tokensubsets. They can be used by the programmer to sort Tokensubsets in an order according to feature values.

Nine functions have been added specifically for Token sequences. They are documented in the Programmer's Reference Manual.

Thirteen existing Tss functions have been modified to accept sequences as arguments.

The KBVision System now supplies a Motif widget which allows Gfx and DIS routines to be used directly under Motif.

More shifted buttons have been added to Gfx event functions.

Enhanced support for Large Images

New environment variables have been added to the KBVision System to allow users to define the size of large or "blocked" images.

New plotting capabilities

Two new KBV environment variables have been added to control PostScript(R) file output.
aai_landscape_mode allows the user to toggle between landscape and portrait mode

aai_paper_size allows the user to define the size of the printer paper in points

Documentation

The KBVision documentation has been re-organized to present the Visual Programming Environment (Dataflow) as the primary KBVision Interface. New pages for the following manuals are supplied with KBVision release 3.1:
  • The User's Guide eliminates reference to the older Desktop interface.
  • The Task Reference Manual has been enhanced to reflect Task enhancements and additions.
  • The Tutorial Manual assists new users to learn the KBVision System in the Visual Programming Environment.
  • The Programmer's Reference Manual incorporates revisions and additions to the KBVision System.
  • The Constraint Module Manual reflects changes to the KBVision interface.
  • A new subdirectory docs has been added to the top-level KBVision release directory. It contains:

    TechNotes
    a directory which contains technical notes about special techniques and hints for using the KBVision system

    InstallGuide.ps
    a PostScript(R) file which contains the Installation Guide supplied with the KBVision system

    KBV User Group

    An anonymous ftp site is available for the deposit and extraction of user-contributed files. Users may contribute code by:
    Mail code to AAI at kbv-users-contrib@aai.com or
    Send code via ftp to /pub/incoming on ftp.aai.com

    Files contributed can be retrieved by anonymous ftp from:

    ftp.aai.com in /pub/kbv/contrib
    AAI technical support staff will monitor the mail group. The mail list will be archived in the ftp area. The list will not be moderated.

    AAI will also contribute information and unsupported source code to this mail group periodically.

    KBVoice Newsletter

    KBVoice, the newsletter for KBVision System users and friends, is published several times a year and sent to all on our current mailing list. The letter includes news about Amerinex A.I., the status of the KBVision System, and technical info and hints for using KBV. If you would like to receive a copy, send your request to:
    aaimail@aai.com


    AAI

    KBVision (webmaster@aai.com)

    KBVision is a trademark of Amerinex Artificial Intelligence, Inc.