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Micro vision system
This is one o f those ideas th a t makes you w o nder
w h y no-one has ever done it before. Technical
problem s perhaps, b ut D igithurst in Royston have
solved them all and n o w present a vision system
fo r the Pet (am ongst other micros).
Coming in t w o versions (M icrosight 1 and 2:
the firs t one's cheap and the second one is very
fast), the system uses a standard CCTV camera
to capture images and an interface to process this
and send it back to the m icro as 8 bit digitised
video.
The s o ftw a re package handles data transfer
from the 'M icro Eye' interface to the Pet, and
controls the camera. It also looks afte r disk
storage and retrieval, as w e ll as the display o f im ­
ages on a high resolution screen.
High resolution screen? W ell, D igithurst have
taken care o f th a t by m aking available a high
resolution board fo r £ 1 5 0 , w h ich gives you an
image resolution o f 1 2 8 x 1 2 8 . No d ou bt so­
meone w ill produce a higher resolution to take ad­
vantage o f the te ch n o lo g y available.
I th in k you can see the potential o f the system .
Given a really high resolution, te x t recognition
becomes possible, and if linked to a w o rd pro­
cessor w e 'll be able to transcribe W ar and Peace
to disk w ith in seconds!
Prices are not cheap: system 1 is £ 4 9 5 , and
system 2 is £ 1 , 9 0 0 , but the advantages are
enormous.
A re a :
C om p a n y:
A d d re s s :
Tel. No.
C o n ta c t:
M ic ro C o m p u te r V ision S y s te m
D ig ith u rs t Ltd.
Leaden H ill, O rw e ll, R o y sto n , H erts. S G 8
5Q H
0223 208926
P e te r K ru g e r
Star gazing
The C onstellation is the la test in th e g row ing bat­
tle fo r control o f the local area n e tw o rk (LAN)
m arket, th is one being fro m Keen Com puters.
Claim ing to have already sold over 1 ,0 0 0
system s, the Constellation allow s up to 6 4 micros
o f varying pedigrees to share data and programs,
printers and up to 7 2 m egabyte o f hard disk.
A considerable saving in an a lw a ys costconscious m arket.
A re a :
C om pany:
Tel. N o.
C o n ta c t:
L o c a l A re a N e tw o rk s
K een C o m p u te rs
0 1 - 2 3 6 0 0 2 6 /7
M a x H o to p f
M ore Super soft and hardware
One of, if not the, firs t add-on chip fo r the Pet was
the T o o lkit, o fte n im personated in recent years.
This added a num ber o f com m ands to the existing
Pet Basic, and became very successful in term s of
sales.
S u p e rso ft have long had a reputation fo r being
suppliers o f chips fo r one purpose or another, and
th e y have ju s t taken over from Zynar Limited as
UK d istrib u to rs o f the original Toolkit.
Versions o f the T o o lk it are available fo r all the
Pet range o f m icros, and costs s ta rt at ju st 2 9 .0 0
pounds plus V A T . J u s t by liftin g up the lid o f your
Pet and plugging in th is one chip, y o u 'll find your
program m ing abilities s ig n ific a n tly enhanced.
A re a :
C om pany:
A d d re s s :
Tel. N o.
E n h a n c in g B a sic
S u p e rs o ft
W in c h e s te r H ouse , C an n in g Road, H a rro w ,
M id d le s e x
0 1 -8 6 1 1 1 6 6
Processing package
Getting serious
There is m oney to be made in accou nta ncy afte r
all. Pegasus, w h o 'v e been selling their accounts
and sto ck control packages since the beginning of
the year, recently announced im pressive sales
figures fo r the firs t seven m onths o f the year,
w ith a projected p ro fit fo r the year o f alm ost a
quarter o f a m illion. On to p o f this, th e y 'v e ju st
brought out a payroll package as w ell, so perhaps
w e 'll see an even bigger profit.
A re a :
C om p a n y:
A d d re s s :
Tel. No.
C o n ta c t:
B u siness P ackages
Pegasus S o ftw a re Ltd.
S ta tio n R oad, K e tte rin g , N o rth a n ts
0536 522822
J o h n n ie J o h n s o n
J u s t a quick m ention fo r another S upersoft pro­
du ct, th e ir w e ll k n o w n M icro scrip t w o rd process­
ing package. A couple o f bits o f new s: one is th a t
it n o w m akes fu ll use o f the 9 6 K available on the
8 0 9 6 , a llo w in g you to hold three w o rk spaces o f
about 1 5 pages o f A 4 te x t in each.
Secondly, the la test version has im plem ented
proportional spacing fo r those printers th a t can
accom m odate it.
A n d fin a lly , th e ir expansion m odule fo r
M icro scrip t, M ath s Pack, is reportedly doing w ell.
Described as 'th e firs t in a range o f M icroscript
add-ons designed to m eet th e needs o f particular
users', it enables you to produce invoices,
state m en ts, quo tatio ns and anything else o f th a t
nature fro m w ith in M icroscript.
Commodore Computing