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Press Release from VR Toolbox

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
Contact: VR Toolbox, Inc.
e-mail: Company Information


VR TOOLBOX, INC.™ SHIPS ITS NEW LINE OF SOFTWARE PRODUCTS FOR QUICKTIME VR™. THESE AND UPCOMING PRODUCTS TO BE FEATURED AT PHOTO PLUS EXPO IN NEW YORK.

Pittsburgh, PA, October 22, 1998 -- VR Toolbox, Inc.™ officially announced today that it will begin shipping its new line of software products the week of October 26, 1998. The shipping coincides with VR Toolbox's presence at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York's Jacob Javits Center, October 29-30, 1998. The first VR Toolbox products to ship are VR PanoWorx™ and VR ObjectWorx™ for the Mac OS™, and will be featured at the PhotoPlus Expo. They are authoring tools that produce the two basic elements of QuickTime VR™, panoramic movies (VR PanoWorx) and object movies (VR ObjectWorx). VR Toolbox will be sharing Booth # 527 with its sister company, Emery Manufacturing & Equipment, Inc.™. EME is the maker of the VR ObjectWorker™ line of high-end rotational object rigs for the Immersive Imaging professional, and will provide ongoing demonstrations of both the VR ObjectWorker 1000 and 2000 at the Expo.

At the PhotoPlus Expo, VR Toolbox will unveil and demonstrate its next two products, VR SceneWorx™ for the Mac OS and VR PanoWorx for Windows™. VR SceneWorx is a multi-node scene designer, which combines elements such as QTVR panoramic and object movies, as well as still images and linear movies into a comprehensive interactive experience. VR PanoWorx for Windows delivers all that its Mac OS counterpart does and even some new unique characteristics. VR PanoWorx for Windows is the first of the product line to be released for the Windows environment, with the rest of the line to follow in the next few months.

Also during PhotoPlus, VR Toolbox and EME are supporting and participating in the seminar series on QuickTime VR, with presentations by David Wagner of Virtually Real, Inc. and noted industry consultant Bob Goldstein. These seminars are certain to be popular events, with sessions for professionals and entry-level programs, as well. "Our participation in the seminar series at PhotoPlus demonstrates our dedication to the QTVR community, and our focus on supporting this emerging technology as it grows," says VR Toolbox Vice President Walter Neals.

Still to come is VR Toolbox's suite of QTVR tools, The VR Worx™, combining all the company's QuickTime VR solutions in a unique studio environment. Soon to be released, the company touts it as the ideal tool suite for the user who requires all that QuickTime VR has to offer. Like the other products in the VR Toolbox collection, it will debut for the Mac OS, with the Windows version quick to follow.

Highlights of VR PanoWorx include:

  • Automatic "Streaming" of panos while downloading.
  • New URL Hot-Spotter allows dedicated URLs to hot spots to be created while you build the pano within the program.
  • Enhanced control over the latest QuickTime settings.
  • Generates panoramas from multiple images or a single panoramic image.
  • Can import images from virtually all popular image file formats. Also supports Photoshop™ acquisition plug-ins so images can be scanned or downloaded (from digital cameras) directly into the program.
  • Support for all QuickTime™ 3.0 codecs.
  • Can generate partial panoramas as well as 360³ panoramas.
  • Built in image editor for touchups and text captions. Integrates with external image editors such as Photoshop.
  • Interactive control over playback attributes including initial, minimum and maximum pan, tilt and zoom angles.
  • Fast, easy to use interface guides the user through the entire process.


Highlights of VR ObjectWorx include:

  • Automatic "Streaming" of object movies while downloading.
  • Enhanced control over the latest QuickTime settings.
  • Generates single or multiple row QTVR object movies.
  • Can import images from virtually all popular image file formats. Also supports Photoshop acquisition plug-ins so images can be scanned or downloaded (from digital cameras) directly into the program.
  • Automatic control of motorized object rigs such as the EME ObjectWorker™ series and Kaidan's Magellan™ series.
  • Control over virtually all QTVR 2.0 playback properties such as view animation.
  • Supports frame-based animation within single views of an object.
  • Supports special effects such as synchronized sounds, text captions and blue-screening.
  • Outputs version 1.0 or 2.0 QTVR file formats.

Both VR PanoWorx and VR ObjectWorx will sell for $149.99 and will initially be available directly from VR Toolbox. A reseller and distributor program is being developed in order to make the product line readily available worldwide. The entire product line will be available for both Windows and the Mac OS. The first releases are aimed at the Mac OS with Windows versions beginning to ship by December. VR Toolbox offers full working evaluation copies of its software, available for download at www.vrtoolbox.com.

VR Toolbox, Inc. is a young company, that made its debut on July 21, 1998 at SIGGRAPH 98 in Orlando, Florida. The company's focus is the development and marketing of software tools for QuickTime VR. VR Toolbox aims to deliver precision, power and professionalism to all segments of the Immersive Imaging market, including professional photographers, web developers, multimedia producers, educators and hobbyists. VR Toolbox, Inc. has acquired this technology from its creators, Florida-based Econ Technologies, Inc. Pittsburgh-based VR Toolbox, Inc. promises to continually strive to be an exciting, important and influential force within the Immersive Imaging industry and its emerging technologies. VR Toolbox's financial strength comes from the same source as that of its sister company, Emery Manufacturing & Equipment, Inc.™, makers of high line object rotational devices and hardware for the Immersive Imaging photographic professional.

Apple Computer, Inc.™ developed QuickTime VR as an integral aspect of its QuickTime media layer. Through Apple's vigorous support of the technology's adoption as an industry standard, QuickTime is succeeding in becoming the cross-platform standard, worldwide. And now, with Apple's recent release of QuickTime 3.0, QuickTime VR v2.1 and streaming QuickTime Plug-In v2.0, that standard's acceptance is being achieved. QuickTime VR is an extension of Apple's basic QuickTime technology and supports two different types of views, QTVR panorama movies and QTVR object movies.

We invite the press to visit us at PhotoPlus Expo, October 29 -31, in booth #527 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, and receive NFR copies of our software. We also welcome the opportunity to have private interviews with members of the press, both during the show and afterward.

Interest by the Press in reviewing VR Toolbox products and/or including the products in relative articles and features will be given high-priority support. Please contact VR Toolbox at Company Information.

Distributor, Reseller and Dealer inquiries are welcome.

Visit the VR Toolbox web site at http://www.vrtoolbox.com.

VR Toolbox, Inc.
P.O. Box 111419
Pittsburgh, PA 15238
e-mail: Company Information
http://www.vrtoolbox.com


© 2005, VR Toolbox, Inc. VR ObjectWorx, VR PanoWorx, VR SceneWorx and The VR Worx are trademarks of VR Toolbox, Inc. Macintosh, Mac OS, QuickTime, QTVR and QuickTime VR are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries and used under license. Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT and Windows XP are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft, Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Pentium is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Power PC is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Incorporated. Adobe, Acrobat and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc.orporated which may be registered in certain jurisdictions.