NEWS
Wind River Technology Helps Solve Storage, Manageability, and Portability Challenges of Digital Photography
Users of digital cameras face significant problems of storage, viewing, and organization of digital images. The cameras themselves only allow for rudimentary viewing, as high-resolution digital files are large and difficult to manage. Most digital cameras store images on compact flash, smart media, or memory sticks - temporary storage media that can be expensive and limited in storage capacity (about 30-130 images). Users are required to download their images onto PCs for storage and viewing purposes, which is not ideal due to long bootups and lack of portability. Sharing photos requires physically printing them out or access to a PC. Not every user has a PC, or wants to bother with one when simply browsing through personal photos.
In contrast, Nixvue's Digital Album stores up to 10,000 high-resolution images (enough, for example, to amply document the first 10 years of a child's life). It groups the photos into different, easy-to-browse "albums," and allows the user to view or delete images, plus organize them for long-term storage without a PC. (For advanced users, Nixvue's Digital Album can communicate with PCs through a USB port, appearing just like another disk drive.) Consumers do not have to compromise quality by shooting at lower resolutions just to conserve storage space. Small and portable, the album can be thrown in a bag when going on a trip and quickly plugged into the TV to display shots for the whole family to see. An infrared remote controller makes it quick, easy, and comfortable to create an instant slide show. Nixvue's Digital Album's ease-of-use, high-volume storage capacity, and portability open up the world of digital photography to even non-computer-savvy consumers and professionals.
"Wind River is known as the first choice in embedded software and services for digital imaging manufacturers," said Albert Lim, managing director at Nixvue Systems. "With the widespread availability of high-performance, low-cost cameras, we at Nixvue Systems saw an immediate need for a device that would make digital photography easier for the average user - but we had a very short window in which to complete the project. Because Wind River's RTOS and Tornado® tools are so easy to integrate, we could develop a working prototype very quickly and refine and enhance the product at a later date."
"With our strong international presence, Wind River is proud to be able to speed products to market from customers around the world - amid decreasing product life cycles and increasing product complexity," said Curt Schacker, vice president of marketing and corporate development at Wind River. "Previously unknown companies like Nixvue are creating innovative ways to bring our technology into the hands of entire families - not just the traditional PC users of the past. International Data Corporation forecasts the size of the point-and-shoot digital camera market to be 22 million units in 2003, so a product like Nixvue's has enormous market potential."
About Wind River
Wind River is a worldwide leader in embedded software and services for creating connected smart devices. Wind River provides software development tools, real-time operating systems, and advanced connectivity for use in products throughout the Internet, telecommunications and data communications, digital imaging, digital consumer electronics, networking, medical, computer peripherals, automotive, industrial automation and control, and aerospace/defense markets. Wind River is how smart things think. Founded in 1983, Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, California, with operations in sixteen countries worldwide.
Wind River Systems, the Wind River Systems logo, VxWorks, and Tornado are registered trademarks of Wind River Systems, Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective companies. *Nixvue Digital Album trademark registration in Singapore under Class 9.
Contact Information
Jessica Miller
Global Corporate Communications