NTT Advanced Technology Corporation
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November 19, 2002 NTT-AT to provide LinkDiver, which displays thumbnails to enhance the ease of use of a variety of types of electronic information.
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Electronic information comes in a variety of file formats; many contain a mix of text, diagrams, photos, graphs or tables. LinkDiver is an information visualization technology that creates thumbnails for electronic information created in different formats. The thumbnails can be used for various purposes, such as displaying a list of items of information available. For example, web search results, bookmarks (favorites) or a web browsing history can be displayed not only as a text data but as thumbnails, a facility which greatly assists the user in taking in a large volume of data at a glance. In addition, the webpages to which links exist in the current webpage can be automatically shown as thumbnails, or the link structure of webpages can be presented visually. By displaying a variety of information items as images, LinkDiver will open up new possibilities in using, presenting and transferring electronic information.At present, LinkDiver supports the conversion of webpages into image data. In the future, it will support a greater variety of formats, such as PDF* and PowerPoint** files. |
[Background and history]
With the spread of digital cameras, image management software and image processing software have come into common use. An increasing number of these programs feature the function of displaying images as thumbnails. The latest operating system, Windows XP**, can also display image data as thumbnails automatically. In this way, new technologies for the visual presentation of electronic information are been developed successively. Following this trend, browsers have emerged that handle an entire webpage as a single image and display the previously browsed pages as a list of thumbnails, and services that display search results as thumbnails. However, these applications convert into thumbnails only those images that have already been displayed, or use a robot that converts data into images in advance and stores them in a server so that they can be readily retrieved. However, they cannot capture the real-time image of the currently viewed webpage, much less the images of the webpages to which links have been set and which the viewer has yet to visit. NTT-AT has overcome these shortcomings of existing products and services, and developed technology for the visual presentation of webpage information in a manner hitherto impossible.
[Outline]
LinkDiver is a generic name for NTT-AT's technology and solutions that convert and process diverse types of electronic information into image data, which can then be used for various purposes.
< Solutions provided >
Server solutionsIn these solutions, the function of converting data created in various formats from databases, or content from the Internet, into thumbnails, and then displaying it, is concentrated in a single server. Other systems that need to use the function access this server. The thumbnail creation and display function of LinkDriver can be incorporated into web-based software or systems, various types of information display systems, document search engines, or large-scale database systems.
Application solutions
The LinkDiver function can be built into client terminals of the user or a system. The incorporation of this function in an individual application can make the function easy to implement and use, and can offer well-designed interface. Such applications can be quite diverse, and may include, for example, listing of information at receptionist desks of public service organizations, graphical information browsing interface at libraries, exhibition systems in showrooms, tools for content management and log analysis within web servers, and systems for document management and information sharing within companies.
LinkDiver PLUGINThis is a web browsing support application, which can be used as a plugin for Internet Explorer**. The webpages to which links are set in the current webpage are read in advance and displayed as a list of thumbnails. Since all the processing, such as link information analysis, advance reading, webpage rendering, and image size reduction, are executed in the background, web browsing is little affected.
How to get the product: download from the "LinkDiver website."
Price: free.
LinkDiver BROWSER
This is a versatile web browser based on Internet Explorer**. It provides various functions not available in conventional browsers, such as advance reading and display of images of the webpages to which links exist from the current webpage, visual display of web search results obtained through collaboration with external search engines, and display of the link structure.
How to get the product: The product is still under development. It will be downloadable from the "LinkDiver website."
Price: not yet determined.
LinkDiver SEARCH
This is a text search system, which runs as a CGI application on a web server. It can be used to provide a "visual search service," in which webpages or intranet servers are searched for specified information and the search results are displayed as images.
How to get the product: A trial version is can be downloaded from the "LinkDiver website" free of charge. The company sells the full version.
Price: 500 thousand yen.
| 1. | High-speed processing by off-screen rendering |
| LinkDiver uses off-screen rendering, in which the webpages that are to be converted into images are obtained without the need to display them on the screen. This new technology has made processing much faster than before. | |
| 2. | Great versatility provided by the use of the HTML interface |
| LinkDiver includes a function for extracting files (webpages, document files, etc.) to which links are defined in an HTML file and converting the information there into images. This makes it easy to incorporate LinkDiver into various systems that use a web browser as their interface. | |
| 3. | Display of a large volume of information through thumbnails |
| By using LinkDiver, a large volume of information can be turned into a list of thumbnails which are displayed simultaneously in the limited area of a screen. This helps the user find the desired information or compare different items of information more easily than before. | |
| 4. | Graphical and versatile presentation of information |
| Since a wide variety of electronic information is handled as images, it can be presented graphically in a versatile manner. | |
| 5. | Effective use of the broadband environment |
| While the user is reading the information on the current page, LinkDiver automatically collects related information, such as webpages to which links exist, and converts it into images in an off-screen mode. This is a new network usage technology that makes the most of the broadband environment. | |
| 6. | "Advance reading" of webpages to which links exist |
| LinkDiver reads the webpages to which links have been set in the current webpage before the user actually visits them. It turns them into images, and displays the images so that the user can preview linked webpages before he or she actually clicks the link. | |
| 7. | Viewing of the content of a file without opening it |
| The user can view the outline of the content of a file without opening it. This is particularly useful if it takes a long time to open the file. |
For inquiries, please contact
| Mr. Hiroki Ito Media Systems Technology Department Media Integration Division NTT Advanced Technology Corporation TEL: +81-422-36-5035; FAX: +81-422-37-8457 LinkDiver website: http://linkdiver.mcon.ne.jp |
| * | PDF (Portable Document Format) is a format developed by Adobe Systems for electronic documents. |
| ** | Windows XP, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer are registered trademarks of Microsoft, U.S.A, in the U.S. and other countries. |
