Industry Exclusive: Former
ASF Executives Staff Startup Operation
By imaginginfo.com Insider
Jerry Lansky
A startup firm, Image Trends, Inc., has been
incorporated in Austin, TX and is staffed by ten former
members of Applied Science Fiction, the firm that was
acquired by Kodak and subsequently closed down. |
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Dan Sullivan,
former president and CEO of ASF, will serve as president
of Image Trends; Mike Conley, ASF's vice president of
marketing, will be the vp of sales and marketing; Dr.
Al Edgar, a co-founder of ASF and the technical force
behind many of that firm's creative developments, will
be the chief technical officer.
ASF caused some industry stir in the late 90's with
the creation of a "dry" film process that
would develop film without wet chemicals and capture
a digital image for output to a CD or printer. A few
sample Digital PIC units were produced and field tested
by ASF before Kodak purchased ASF in 2003 and turned
the operation into its Austin Development Center. Though
Kodak subsequently introduced it to the trade, the dry
processor appeared to be ill-timed as digital swooped
in and the project was dropped.
Kodak closed down the Austin Development Center in 2005.
Though its high profile dry processor never made it
to market, ASF did develop a number of products that
are still in use and being sold by Kodak. The most popular
of them is Digital ICE, a technology that digitally
eliminates dust and scratches on film for cleaner prints
and has been incorporated under license for use in certain
manufacturers' scanners, and minilab equipment.
Other ASF developments included plug-ins: Digital ROC,
to restore and color correct images; Digital GEM, to
reduce film grain noise; Digital SHO, to optimize contrast
and exposure.
Kodak retains the technology and patents for all of
the ASF intellectual property.
Mike Conley said that Image Trends will concentrate
on providing digital image technology for amateur and
professional photography as well as for OEM use. "No",
he said, dry film processing will not be pursued.
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full article
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© 2007 Image Trends, Inc. All rights reserved.
Image Trends' product names and logo are trademarks of Image Trends, Inc. |
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