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- PROview II
- Graphic Image Workcenter
- Version 3.20 (Beta)
- Users Manual
- (C)opyright 1992, 1993 by SOFTreat
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 1
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- * * * NOTICE * * *
-
- All information and/or software accompanying this
- document is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind,
- either expressed or implied, including but not limited to,
- any implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for
- a particular purpose. The user assumes ALL RISK in the use
- of this software.
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- Information in this document is subject to change without
- notice.
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 2
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- * * INTRODUCTION * *
-
- PROview II is an exciting and new graphic image
- workcenter providing many functions that are useful for the
- manipulation of graphic image files, including the ability to
- capture video images on your ComputerEyes PRO frame grabber
- board without leaving PROview II. The easy to use graphical
- user interface (GUI) and point and shoot philosophy, enables
- even the novice to gain control in minutes. With it's
- ability to CAPTURE, VIEW, SHOW, BUILD THUMBNAILS of, EDIT,
- and PRINT graphic images all from WITHIN PROview II, you'll
- find that a large part of your image manipulation needs are
- all right here in ONE package! As time goes on, PROview II
- will be enhanced and improved with the final goal being
- a full featured image editing package.
-
- PROview II has the following features:
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- 1> Graphic image file viewer supporting GIF 87a, PCX
- and TIFF , and TGA 24-bit RGB images in color or
- black & white;
- 2> Handles files up to 1024x768x256 with ease.
- 3> Includes a slide viewer for easy and rapid viewing
- of graphic image files.
- 4> Supports Conventional, Expanded, and Extended memory.
- 5> Includes support for ComputerEyes Pro color frame
- grabber board for easy and fast image capture from
- any NTSC video source. (requires ComputerEyes Pro
- color video digitizer board by Digital Vision)
- 6> Supports the following video graphic boards:
- A> Trident (8800c/8900)
- B> Tseng Labs (3000 or 4000)
- C> Paradise VGA Professional
- D> ATI VGA Wonder
- E> Video Seven V7VGA
- F> VESA standard
- G> Or any board containing compatible chip sets.
- 7> Full image scrolling of large images displayed in
- lower resolution video modes.
- 8> Complete thumbnail presentations in scales of 2 to 9
- reductions. ( Up to 70 per screen! )
- 9> All thumbnails may be saved to GIF file.
- 10> High quality printouts in user defined sizes to Laser
- Jet printer or compatible. Printouts can be
- dithered in one of 6 halftone patterns or printed
- with an error diffusion technique for 256 shade of
- gray simulation.
- 11> User friendly Graphical User Interface, driven by
- mouse pointer. All controls are through the use of
- pushbuttons on screen. You have complete control!
- 12> Selectable Edit Mode that allows you to alter the
- graphic by:
- A> Brightening/Darkening.
- B> Histogram Linearization.
-
-
- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
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-
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 3
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- C> Histogram Brightening.
- D> Gentle Sharpening.
- E> Hard Sharpening.
- F> Blurring.
- G> Blurring with a threshold.
- H> Histogram Equalization.
- I> Dividing each pixel by a number.
- J> Multiplying each pixel by a number.
- K> Posturizing.
- L> Pixelizing.
- M> Increasing the contrast.
- 13> Special Effects include:
- A> Metal Embossing.
- C> Concrete Embossing.
- D> Granite Embossing.
- E> Charcoal Rendering
- F> Cast Iron Embossing
- G> Oil Painting Rendering
- 14> Transforming the graphic image by:
- A> Flipping.
- B> Mirroring.
- C> Resizing larger or smaller
- D> Convolution
- 15> Selectively capturing a part of the image.
- 16> 3D-Image Slide Creation
- A> RED/Green
- B> Stereo
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 4
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- * * HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS * *
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- PROview II requires the following minimum hardware
- requirements:
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- 1> Computer with an 8088 or greater CPU.
- 2> 640K (Extended or Expanded memory recommended).
- 3> One of the following SVGA video graphics boards:
- A> Trident (8800C or 8900)
- B> Tseng Labs (3000 or 4000)
- C> Paradise VGA Professional
- D> ATI VGA Wonder
- E> Video Seven V7VGA
- F> or a video card that contains one of the
- supported chip sets.
- G> Or a VESA compatible video board and driver.
- 4> Hewlett Packard Laser Jet printer or equivalent.
- 5> ComputerEyes Pro video digitizer board with
- appropriate video equipment.
- 6> Microsoft or compatible mouse pointing device.
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 5
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- * * GETTING STARTED * *
-
- First of all, copy PROview II and it's associated files
- to your hard drive. PROview II may be located in a
- subdirectory of it's own and used anywhere on the system,
- provided that it is included in your path statement and your
- autoexec.bat file contains the following:
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- SET PROVIEW=[path where PROview II is located]
- (be sure PROVIEW is capitalized)
-
- **Special considerations:
- Because PROview II makes huge demands on memory, for
- optimum usage, make sure that you have extended/expanded
- memory available on your system. By available, it is meant
- that you have previously loaded a memory manager such as
- HIMEM.SYS on your system. This makes available to the
- running software all of the memory on your system. For large
- images, this will surely be used as conventional memory
- simply does not have enough available.
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- OPERATION:
- PROview II is easy to operate and use. The Graphical
- user interface provides all of the necessary controls to the
- user in a style that anyone can learn easily. All you do is
- point and shoot and away you go!
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- There are two ways in which to invoke PROview II. One
- way is to simply type
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- 'C7PROV' and press enter
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- at the system prompt and PROview will begin to operate.
- This method causes PROview II to search your system for one
- of the supported video cards. All detection is done
- automatically and requires no intervention by the user. If
- one of the supported video cards is not found on your system,
- the default VGA 320 x 200 x 256 VGA mode is utilized. This
- mode, however, is not supported in a lot of areas in PROview
- II because of it's low resolution, and therefore full use of
- PROview will not be attainable.
- If your system has one of the supported video cards,
- then PROview II will inform you of the type card found and
- list out all of the available videomodes by providing
- resolution buttons on the main menu screen. Each button may
- be activated with the mouse pointer and a click of the left
- mouse button. A videomode is 'active' when the button is
- pushed 'in'.
- The second method of starting PROview II is to cause
- PROview II to disregard the supported video card search and
- simply look for a video card that supports the VESA standard.
-
-
- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
-
- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 6
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- If the VESA standard is not found, the PROview II will
- default to the 320 x 200 x 256 VGA mode regardless of whether
- or not your system has one of the supported video cards.
- This method allows you the possibility of getting the
- most out of PROview II in the event you do not have a
- supported board and your video card DOES support VESA.
- To FORCE VESA mode, start PROview II by entering the
- following command at the DOS prompt:
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- C7PROV /V and press enter
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- If VESA is found on your system, it will be enabled and put
- to use.
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- In summary ....
- To start PROview II with an automatic video card search
- C7PROV and press enter...
- To start PROview II and force VESA detection
- C7PROV /V and press enter
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- Once the intro screen has painted, the user is presented
- with a menuing system that will take them on their way.
- Because of the easiness in the software, we are sure that
- most will find it very easy to use with little instruction.
- PROview II is composed of basically a menu screen and
- several types of viewing or editing screens. The menu screen
- is where you control PROview II and make it do what you want
- it to do. The menu is made up of various 'pushbuttons' that
- enable a certain function or process. The process related to
- a particular pushbutton is defined by its label displayed
- right on the face of the button.
- Activating a 'pushbutton' is done by simply pointing to
- the button and pressing the LEFT mouse button. The button
- will acknowledge this by being 'pushed in' showing that it is
- active. Some of the buttons may also be activated by
- pressing the RIGHT mouse button. This causes a secondary
- action to occur that is related to that button, as in the
- button 'SHOW'. By pointing the mouse pointer to the SHOW
- pushbutton and pressing the LEFT button, you are telling
- PROview II that you want a slide show of all of the images
- that have been TAGGED in the file list window. If no files
- have been tagged (indicated by a RED filename ) then PROview
- II will inform you that you must tag the files first in order
- to perform this function.
- By pointing to the SHOW button and pressing the RIGHT
- mouse button, you are telling PROview II to SHOW ALL of the
- files in the current directory.
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-
- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
-
- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 7
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- The following describes the pushbuttons of the main menu
- screen and what there functions are:
-
- File Filter Buttons.....
- These buttons are located across the top of the file
- list window and serve to filter 'IN' the different
- image file formats. Each button if 'active' will
- cause PROview II to include that image type in the
- file list window. If the button is 'inactive'
- (pushed out), then that respect file type will NOT
- be included in the file list window.
-
- Load.....
- The 'load' button will load the currently selected
- file (hi-lighted) in the file list window into
- memory. This button will not cause the image to be
- displayed when activated.
-
- Save.....
- The 'Save' button will take the current active image
- and save it to any of the other type of supported
- image file formats currently supported (ie. GIF,
- CX,TIFF, or TGA). To choose the type of format to
- save the image as, simply include the formats
- extension in the filename. For instance, to save
- the current image as a GIF file, enter the desired
- filename, such as 'image1.GIF', and PROview II will
- know that you want to save the image as a GIF
- formatted image and proceed to do so. If you are
- save an image as a TGA, PROview II will first
- convert the image to a 24-bit RGB image and offer
- you a selection of the type of compression to use,
- if any.
-
- View......
- The 'View' button causes the current image to be
- viewed in the current videomode as selected by the
- video resolution buttons. To return to the menu
- screen, simply press the LEFT mouse button while
- viewing. If you are viewing an image whose
- dimensions are LARGER than the screen dimensions of
- the current resolution button selected, you may
- still view the entire image by scrolling the image
- using the following keys:
- LEFT arrow
- RIGHT arrow
- DOWN arrow
- UP arrow
- HOME
- END
- Using these keys will allow you to completely
- navigate around the image very quickly.
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-
-
- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
-
- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 8
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- Print.....
- One of PROview II great qualities is the ability to
- produce high quality hard copy to a laser jet
- printer. Several options are available that allow
- the user to customize the final output. Selecting
- the 'Print' button causes the printer setup menu to
- appear. The menu contains the following structure:
-
- Width...
- Height... Both fields represent the
- size of the printed image in
- inches. To maintain the correct
- aspect ratio, the height
- automatically tracks the width.
- To alter the aspect ratio, adjust
- the WIDTH to the desired dimension
- then follow with an adjustment to
- the height dimension.
- To change a dimension in
- either of the fields, first make
- that field active by pointing to
- the desired field and clicking the
- LEFT mouse button. The RED dot to
- the right of the field will change
- to green, indicating it is active.
- By pressing either of the 'up' or
- 'dn' arrow buttons the dimension
- will change accordingly.
- DPI.....
- PROview II allows the user to select
- any of the 4 printer resolutions of
- 75, 100, 150 or 300 DPI. Simply
- point to the desired setting and
- click the mouse button to make it
- active.
-
- BORDER....
- You may optionally include a border
- around the printed image or none at
- all by making the appropriate
- selection of None, Fine, Medium, or
- Thick.
-
- There are two methods of printing, by DITHER or Error
- Diffusion. The dither technique has 6 choices, each of which
- will produce a different looking hardcopy. Error diffusion
- is a technique where 256 shades of gray are simulated in the
- print out. This method generally produces the best looking
- hard copy, but does take the longest time to complete.
- To enhance an image for printing, select the Brighten
- image for Printing selection. This helps to bring out more
- detail in an otherwise 'flat' image. The default for this
- setting is ON.
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-
-
- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
-
- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 9
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- DEL....
- The 'Del' button is used when you desire to get rid
- of any files that are currently shown in the file
- list window. Selecting this button will delete, at
- user permission, the current hi-lighted filename in
- the list. If you wish to delete a filename that is
- not hi-lighted, simply point to the filename in the
- list and press the RIGHT mouse button. The filename
- will be shown in RED to indicate that it has been
- selected.
-
- QUIT....
- The 'Quit' button does exactly that! PROview II is
- terminated and the DOS prompt is returned. Be
- careful, in that any image currently in memory will
- be lost when this is selected. Use the SAVE button
- to save the image in memory to a disk file first if
- you are concerned about losing it.
-
- VIDEO RESOLUTION.....
- To the right of the screen is a series of buttons
- that are labeled with their respective screen
- resolutions if activated. These buttons will vary
- from video board type, and may be different from one
- system to another. If the button is selected, then
- THAT video resolution will be used when in Edit
- Mode, doing thumbnails, or viewing the current
- image.
-
- SIZE To FIT....
- The 'Size to fit' button will cause any image being
- displayed in either the VIEW or SHOW modes to fit
- the current video resolution selected, whether it be
- larger or smaller that the actual screen dimensions.
- For instance, to view a 1024 x 768 x 256 image in
- it's entirety on a screen resolution of 320 x 200
- x256, then select this function and the image will
- be reduced down to fit the screen. This also works
- in reverse, of course.
-
- Build Thumbnail....
- This function allows the user to collect together
- many image files, in reductions of 2 to 9, color or
- black and white, to one screen area for collective
- viewing. You may also, optionally save the new
- image thumbnail to a GIF formatted file for latter
- viewing. Images used in the thumbnail begin at the
- first file or first TAGGED file in the file list
- window. The first file loaded also governs the
- color matching of the remaining images to the
- screen, meaning if the first image is a black &
- white, then all of the other images will turn out
- black & white whether they are color or not.
-
-
-
- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
-
- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 10
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- EDIT MODE.....
- Activating this mode allows you to make alterations
- to or create special effects to the current image in
- memory. Partial image captures may be performed, as
- well as resizing of the entire image. In addition,
- the user may make numerous alterations, such as
- brightening, posterizing, sharpening, blurring, etc.
- in an easy to use Pull down menu system all driven
- by mouse. This mode is supported for all SVGA modes
- only. 320 x 200 x 256 is not supported.
- The following list and briefly describes the
- available functions:
- G-sharpen ....
- This performs a 'gentle' sharpening
- of the entire image causing minor
- details to be increased.
- H-sharpen ....
- This preforms a 'Heavy' sharpening
- of the entire image and sharply
- increases detail and noise in the
- image.
- Blur ...
- Performs a 'smoothing' of the pixel
- in the image, causing a blurred
- effect.
- T-Blur ...
- Threshold blurring only blurs edges
- that are above a value as determined
- by the user at time of selection.
- The higher the number the MORE
- blurring occurs.
- H-Linearization ...
- This function reassigns brightness
- levels of the image so that the
- integral of the resulting histogram
- increases linearly with brightness
- level. This produces best results
- on dark images where detail in the
- darker areas of the image are
- brought out.
- H-Brightening ...
- This function brightens an image by
- reassigning brightness levels so
- that the integral of the resulting
- histogram increases quadratically
- with brightness levels. This
- generally improves contrast, but
- detail may be lost.
- Brighten ...
- This function allows you to raise
- or lower the value of each pixel in
- the image by an amount entered.
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-
- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
-
- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 11
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- H-Equalization ...
- This function reassigns brightness
- levels of the image so that every
- brightness level has an equivalent
- number of pixels resulting in a flat
- histogram. This works best on
- images with poor contrast. The
- process may take a little while to
- finish. To let the user know that
- the system has not hung up, a beep
- will occur every so often.
- Divide ....
- This function will allow you to
- divide the image by a user enter
- value. This will darken the image
- and also reduce its color
- resolution.
- Multiply ...
- This function increases each pixel
- in the image by multiplying the
- level with the value entered by the
- user.
- Posturizing ...
- This function creates a special
- effect by reducing the level of
- color resolution in the image.
- Pixelizing ...
- This will assign brightness levels
- in a local region of user defined
- size, to the average causing a
- mosaic appearance in the image.
- Contrast ...
- This function increases the contrast
- the current image by an amount
- entered by the user.
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- EFFECTS ....
- In Metal ...
- In Concrete ...
- In Granite ...
- In Cast Iron ..
- Charcoal rendering ...
- Oil Painting
- These functions produce an embossed or
- otherwise different look in the image with
- effects similar to their descriptions.
- Different images cause different results.
- Experiment and have fun!
- TRANSFORMING ...
- Flip ...
- Flip causes the image to be turned
- upside down. Flipping an already
- flipped image, of coarse, brings it
- back to it's original form.
-
-
- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
-
- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 12
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- Mirror ...
- This function simply swaps the left
- side of the image for the right.
- Resize ...
- This function is powerful in that it
- will allow you to easily resize the
- image to any size up to the limits
- of the current videomode selected.
- A box will from that moves with the
- movement of the mouse. Create a box
- of the desired NEW size you want and
- press the LEFT mouse button. The
- image will be resize to the
- dimensions of the formed box.
- Convolve ...
- This function will allow the user to
- convolve the active image with a
- user defined matrix for special
- custom effects.
- CAPTURE ...
- To capture any portion of the
- viewable image, use this function.
- Position the mouse pointer to one
- corner of the area that you want to
- capture and press the LEFT mouse
- button. Form a box around the area
- to capture and press the LEFT button
- again. The image is captured and
- redisplayed. If you 'accept' the
- captured image data, then it will
- become the current image and the
- rest is discarded.
- 3D-IMG ...
- To create three dimensional image
- slides from LEFT-EYE and RIGHT-EYE
- frame image files. Two slides type
- are available, Red/Green or Stereo.
- Quit ...
- This function returns you to the
- main menu screen without losing the
- current image or any of it's
- changes.
-
- SCROLLING the image ....
- You may easily move the current image if it is larger
- that the viewing screen, by utilizing the scroll bar buttons
- located at the left and bottom above the palette window. The
- letters within each button indicate it's function. For
- instance 'U' means move the image closer to it's origin and
- 'D' means move the image closer to it's ending coordinate.
- Pressing the LEFT button in the scroll button will cause a
- very slow and gradual movement and pressing the RIGHT button
- will advance or retreat the image at great speed. Holding
- the button down will repeat the precess over and over until
-
-
- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
-
-
- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 13
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- an image boundary is reached. To quickly get to the
- beginning or end of an image simply press either the 'E'nd
- and/or 'H'ome scroll buttons.
-
- PALETTE viewing ...
- To give a glimpse of the color scheme used in a image,
- the palette is displayed at the bottom. A future version
- will allow manipulation of the colors in the palette.
-
-
- * * Video Digitizing * *
-
- PROview II has built in support for the popular frame
- grabber produced by Digital Vision, ie. ComputerEyes Pro.
- With this frame grabbing capability, you can now grab video
- images and without exiting the software, go directly to
- viewing, and/ editing of the captured image. Version 2.00 is
- released with added support for the ComputerEyes frame
- grabber board which gives you control of the board in a very
- similar manner as you are accustomed to in the software that
- accompanies the grabber board itself.
- To utilize the ComputerEyes frame grabbing capability,
- be sure that your hardware has been properly setup and is
- functioning as outlined in the Digital Vision user's manual.
- First, select the 'Eyes Setup' button, and verify that the
- software will operate as you desire. Please note that
- PROview II only supports the 320 x 200 x 256 VGA mode when
- running under VESA compatibility. After checking and making
- the necessary settings for the grabber board, exit the setup
- routine, by pressing the 'Quit/Save' button. The present
- configuration will be saved to a config file in the current
- directory for later use during a frame grabbing session. If
- the config file cannot be found, the PROview II will use it's
- system defaults.
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 14
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- PREVIEW Mode ....
- To enter the 'Preview Mode' and grab a video image,
- select the 'ComputerEyes Pro" button. A live video image
- displayed in real time will be displayed. You may make the
- necessary adjustments in much the same way that you have been
- accustomed to. When you are satisfied with your settings,
- press the 'enter' key to grab the image. In a few seconds,
- the captured image will gradually be painted to the screen as
- the video data is digitized. Upon completion, a short
- 'bleep' will be heard, signaling to you that the image
- capture has been completed. To 'Accept' the captured image,
- simply press...
- 'Enter'
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- and the main menu screen will return. If you wish to capture
- the video image 'again', simply press ...
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- 'ESC'
-
- and you will be returned to the preview mode where additional
- adjustments may be made and a new capture re-initiated.
-
- Once the image has been captured, you may utilize any of
- the PROview II functions to change or alter the image just as
- you can with any image that has been loaded in from disk.
- Note that any image previously loaded in PROview II prior to
- capturing any image, will be lost and overwritten by the
- captured image.
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 15
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- CONVOLUTION....
- A new menu item for the 'TRANSFORM' edit menu pull down
- called 'CONVOLVE' has been added. Convolving an image with a
- matrix can create many useful and spectacular results and is
- used quite frequently in current image processing techniques
- today. Selecting 'Convolve' will cause a scroll window and
- matrix select menu to appear. The scroll window will contain
- a portion of the current active image for preview purposes in
- testing the current matrix. The user may scroll the image
- with the window to any location on the current active image
- by use of the vertical and horizontal scroll buttons. The
- matrix menu contains a 3X3 matrix containing 9 elements and a
- divisor all of which may be user set. In addition, user
- buttons for 'Preview', 'Apply', 'Open', 'Save', and 'Quit'
- are provided for control and application of the matrix upon
- the current active image. Beneath the matrix elements are
- two buttons marked with '+' and '-' for use in changing the
- contents of the selected matrix element.
- Five standard matrix filters are supplied with the
- software. Additional custom matrix filters may also be
- created by selectively changing the desired element in the
- matrix using the '+' & '-' pushbuttons and selecting 'SAVE'.
- To test the current matrix on the image, click on the
- 'Preview' pushbutton and the convolution is applied to the
- image in the scroll window. To restore the image to it's
- original state, click on one of the scroll buttons
- momentarily. To 'Apply' the current matrix to a particular
- area of the current image, first scroll the image so it is
- viewable in the scroll window, then click the 'Preview'
- pushbutton. To accept the current matrix and 'Apply' it to
- the entire image, click on the 'Apply' pushbutton. The
- current matrix will be applied to the image and you will be
- returned to the editing screen where you may either 'Accept'
- or 'Undo' the image.
- Matrix elements may be changed by clicking 'on' the
- desired element in the matrix. A selected matrix element
- will appear 'white' in color. To increase the value of the
- element, click on the pushbutton marked '+'. To 'decrease'
- the value of the value in the element, click on the
- pushbutton marked '-'. All elements in the matrix may be
- varied from -128 to 128.
- Custom matrix' may be saved to disk by selecting the
- 'Save' push button. You will be prompted to provide a name
- for the file. All matrix filter files end in the extension
- 'MTX' and will automatically be added to the end of the name
- you enter, so leave off the extension in the filename.
- Entering a 'blank' at the prompt will terminate the save
- function.
- Matrix filters saved to disk may be loaded from disk by
- selecting the 'Open' pushbutton. A scrolling filelist box
- will appear containing all of the available '.MTX' files
- found in the default directory on the default drive. The
- selected filename will appear in the 'top' of the list box
- and may be changed by scrolling the list 'up' or 'down' by
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 16
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- clicking on either of the scroll buttons in the box.
- Selecting 'YES' will load the selected matrix filter,
- selecting 'NO' will abort the process and return you to the
- matrix menu.
- Example: To HEAVILY BLUR an image, one could do this by
- choosing a pixel in the image and summing all adjacent pixels
- in it's neighborhood and dividing the result by the number of
- pixel samples (9). The result would then replace the value of
- the original pixel sampled ( the center pixel). Repeating
- this process over the entire image would result in a blurred
- image.
-
- The following matrix will produce this same effect......
- 1 1 1
- 1 1 1
- 1 1 1
- 9 (divisor)
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- ....... and quite quickly!
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 17
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- THREE-DIMENSIONAL IMAGE SLIDES ...
-
- New in v3.00 is the ability to produce true 3D images in
- full 256 color. The result is fantastic and truly realistic!
- What is needed is the proper video digitizing equipment and
- either a stereo viewer or a pair of the popular RED/BLUE
- stereo viewer glasses. PROview II will produce images
- tailored for viewing in either of these methods and the one
- you choose will probably depend on what viewer you have
- available.
-
- Stereoscopic ...
-
- First, to view the 'stereo' 3D images you will need what
- is called a 'stereoscope'. A stereoscope is an instrument
- (don't be scared by this word as you can easily construct one
- yourself) that contains a pair of lens mounted in a frame
- constructed of rigid material. The lens (approx. 2-1/4"
- dia.) are mounted on a flat over pre-cut holes of diameter
- slightly smaller that the lens itself, spaced at
- approximately 2-3/4" to 3" from center of each other so as to
- form what looks like a rather strange pair of glasses that
- you can look thru. The lens should be a plano convex type
- with the 'convex'(curved) side facing away from the viewer's
- eyes when used. The one constructed in our tests, used lens
- obtained from an inexpensive magnifier found in a popular
- drug store. The lens were made of plastic and were placed
- back to back (plano-side to plano-side) to form a 'condenser
- lens' for the purpose of magnifying. Separating the two lens
- provided the necessary lens for the stereoscope we
- constructed.
- Note: Some magnifiers contain a single condenser lens and
- these will not work.
- The center thickness of the lens should be approximately
- 1/16". This will allow the user to view an image 9" or so
- from the viewing plate. To further along in the description
- of the stereoscope, there should be a rigid divider 9" long
- and the same width as the lens plate, placed vertically
- between the two lens mounted on the lens plate, opposite the
- side the user would look thru. This can be permanently
- mounted to the lens plate. The purpose of this plate is to
- restrict the vision of each eye so that each eye will see
- ONLY what is directly in front of it and not any of the image
- that the other eye is seeing. The stereo slide is placed at
- the end of the 9" divider with the divider resting in the
- center of the left and right image. When the image is viewed
- thru the lens, the image will appear in three dimension.
- With this sort of instrument, the user's eyes see two
- different images and the mind mixes them together to form
- one, or a composition of both which tricks the user in to
- seeing an image with 3 dimensions, that is, an image that has
- 'depth', 'width', and 'height'.
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 18
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
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- PROview II will take two previously captured images of
- the same size, and resize them to appropriate dimensions in
- the current screen resolution, match the image palettes to
- form one, and place them side by side to from a stereo slide
- which may be viewed in 3 dimension with a suitable
- stereoscope. The slide may also be printed (adjust to 6"
- width for optimum) and viewed in three dimension on paper
- with the same type of viewer. This process is effective for
- both black & white and color images.
-
- Red/Green stereo ...
-
- Another method of producing a stereo image is thru the
- use of double imaging and the use of RED & GREEN filters.
- By taking two captured images, at slightly different
- perspectives, passing the left perspective image thru a RED
- filter, leaving only varying degrees of red, and passing the
- right perspective image thru a GREEN filter, and merging the
- two images into one image of both colors we can view the
- complete original image in full 3 dimension with the use of
- RED/BLUE stereo glasses. The RED lens should cover the LEFT
- eye to get the proper depth perception. The glasses perform
- a similar function as the stereoscope, in that the RED filter
- allows the left eye to see only the left image perspective
- (RED) and the BLUE filter allows the green image perspective
- to be seen. Your mind puts the images back together with the
- illusion of three dimension and color because RED and GREEN
- are opposite each other in the color spectrum.
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- CAPTURING LEFT & RIGHT FRAME IMAGES FOR THREE DIMENSION....
-
- In order to utilize the 3D capabilities of PROview II
- and begin producing your own stereoscopic slides, you will
- first need to produce two images that contain a different
- view perspective. The best way to do this is to have
- suitable video capture equipment, such as the ComputerEyes
- PRO frame grabber board, and a video input source. Our
- examples were produced using an RCA camcorder aimed at the
- subject from a tri-pod mounting. You may also use the Cannon
- rc-250 xapshot camera. It works well also, but with less
- video resolution. The key to generating a three dimensional
- image is to try and capture what EACH human eye would see.
- What the lens of the camera sees in one shot is what one
- human eye would see at the same instant. By positioning the
- camera in front of an object and digitizing that video scene,
- we have what can be called a ONE EYE perspective. If we move
- the camera from it's current position to the right by about
- 1/4" and then digitize the same object again we now have yet
- another ONE EYE perspective, but this one is different from
- the first one in that it was captured at a different
- perspective. This difference can be called LEFT -RIGHT
- perspective, which is what each eye would see independently
- when viewing the same object. The scenes in each image look
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 19
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- almost identical, but they are truly different and when
- combined together, will form a three dimensional rendering
- of the original scene. This is the process you will need to
- carry out to produce each 3d image in PROview II.
-
- e.g.: 1> Aim the camera at the object and capture it.
- Refer to this image as the LEFT-EYE frame and
- save it to disk with a name that identifies
- what it is, such as 'L-scene.gif'.
- 2> Shift the position of the camera to the RIGHT
- about 1/4" and capture this image. Refer to
- this image as the RIGHT-EYE frame and save it
- to disk with a filename that identifies what
- it is, such as 'R-scene.gif'.
-
- Producing the three dimensional slide....
-
- Once you have created both your LEFT and RIGHT frame
- images and saved them to disk as 'GIF' files, enter into
- 'Edit Mode' in PROview II and select the menu item '3D-img'.
- A dropdown menu will appear containing 'RED/GREEN' and
- 'STEREO'. After selecting the type of slide you want to
- produce, a file list box will appear containing a list of all
- available 'GIF' image files found in the current directory.
- A prompt will inform you to 'Select the LEFT-EYE frame->'
- where you will find the LEFT-EYE frame you captured, such as
- 'L-scene.gif'. Once the left image has been selected,
- PROview II will prompt you to select the RIGHT-EYE frame.
- After both images have been selected, the message 'Working'
- will appear on the screen and in a few moments your finished
- slide will be presented to the screen.
- If you selected RED/GREEN, PROview II will allow you to
- enter in custom FILTER values for the generation of the
- slide. At this time, you will notice a prompt asking for a
- new value to use for the RED filter. The default value for
- this color is 100 (maximum). You may enter any value from 1
- to 100 creating varying results in the final slide
- generation. By simply pressing <ENTER>, PROview II will
- assign the value to the default. The same procedure will be
- repeated fro each of the colores (RED, GREEN and BLUE).
- Upon completion, this resultant slide becomes the 'active
- image' and you may continue with other image processing, etc.
- as you would normally. To view the slide, simply display it
- on the monitor and with the appropriate stereoscopic viewer,
- sit back and enjoy the a whole new way of viewing computer
- graphic images on your system's monitor.
-
- HINTS:
- 1> When producing the LEFT & RIGHT image frames, the more
- separation each image has from the other, the MORE 3
- dimensional effect your finished slide will contain,
- however, producing too much separation, will cause a
- 'double-image' effect when the slide is viewed, thus a
- loss of the three dimensional effect all together. If
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
-
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- PROview II v3.13 Users Manual Page 20
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
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- this occurs, reshoot the images using less distance
- between each scene.
- 2> Capture images that are not moving, as movement between
- frames can cause distortion in slides.
- 3> STEREO slides can be printed to a laser printer and still
- retain their ability to be viewed in three dimension.
- Optimum slide width should be set to about 6" in order to
- view the image in 3D with a stereoscope similar to the one
- mentioned in this manual. RED/GREEN slides, however, will
- loose ALL of their three dimensional characteristics when
- printed because of the lose of color.
- 4> When viewing the RED/GREEN slide, always place the RED
- lens of your viewing glasses over the LEFT eye and the
- BLUE lens over the RIGHT eye. Failure to do this will
- result in a loss of the 3D effect and a very 'bad' looking
- image!
- 5> Viewing a RED/GREEN slide with a pair of glasses
- a RED and GREEN lens will cause your RED/GREEN slide to be
- seen in BLACK & WHITE.
- 6> While viewing the RED/GREEN slide, adjusting the monitors
- brightness and contrast controls will sometimes improve
- the viewing quality.
-
- 7> Anybody for a REAL 3D game? hmmmmm...
- ------------------------------------------------------------
-
- If further technical help is required, please call our
- Technical Support BBS where not only the latest version of
- PROview II may be downloaded, but you may ask technical
- questions you wish answered. Our BBS may be reached 24hrs a
- day 300/1200/2400 baud, n,8,1 at:
-
- Registered users may obtain FREE updates by modem at their
- leisure from our BBS.
- (919) 556-0159
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- (c)opyright 1993 SOFTreat Rt. 2, Box 67-S Youngsville, NC 27596
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (BBS) (919) 556-0159
-
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