Dominique Pouliquen, REALVIZ CEO: “REALVIZ Stitcher Express is a product which has been on many peoples’ wish list for some time now. With digital camera sales still on the increase, there are more and more people out there who fall into the ‘amateur’ category, yet who still demand a robust, high-quality product, able to deliver the kind of professional results, with multi-row capability up to full spherical panoramas, which the more main-stream photo-stitching products are unable to offer. At a lead-in price of $ 119 US (99 Euros), Stitcher Express is also affordable to all.“

Based on a simple drag, drop and stitch principle, REALVIZ Stitcher Express is a straightforward and effective application with a clear and intuitive interface, compatible with all kinds of digital cameras. The software’s smooth interoperability with Adobe® Photoshop® also means that users are able to edit and personalize their panoramas with ease. Stitcher Express is also fully compatible with QuickTime®, for the creation of stunning interactive virtual visits, up to full spheres. With Stitcher Express, it’s also possible to export panoramas in the format each individual requires.

The Stitcher Express Feature Set Includes:
- Semi-automatic stitching of photos, enabling the creation of panoramas up to
- 360° x 180° (complete spheres!)
- Automatic light equalization
- The possibility to remove moving objects from images (pedestrians, cars, or any other object moving between two shots)
- Automatic panorama alignment
- Choice of panorama format (cylindrical, spherical, snapshot)
- Automatic trimming of panoramas to an optimum size
- “Best Rendering” feature, enabling users to achieve the best-possible output from their original images
- Export to Adobe® Photoshop® (images and masks), enabling users to edit and personalize their panoramas with ease.
- Export to QuickTime® VR (cylindrical or spherical), enabling users to create stunning interactive virtual visits and interactively preview their projects.

REALVIZ Stitcher 4.0 is a professional-level application, offering an enhanced range of features, specifically developed to meet the demands of professional photographers.

Stitcher 4.0 includes all of the features of Stitcher Express plus:
- Additional rendering options, including: Cubical, SW3D & VRML
- Panorama conversion, which enables users to easily convert panoramas from one type to another, especially from retouched flat image to QuickTime VR animation
- Provides a rich color precision for photographers and filmmakers with 16-bit/channel-color support.
- The ability to use templates to stitch photos almost automatically for fast turnaround of panoramas
- The ability to edit stencils for cropping borders, removing vignetting and artifacts.
- The ability to create interactive panoramas which link to Web pages or even other panoramas with the QuickTime® VR Hotspot feature.
- Mixing Method Option, to change the way in which Stitcher blends images together
- Sharpen Tool, automatically adds additional sharpening step
- Extended output formats, incl: .iff, .png, .ppm, .sgi, .pic & .tga
- The possibility for expert users to select their preferred interpolation method for manipulating images: bilinear, bicubic, lanczos
- Render Sets
The ability to render multiple large projects overnight with batch rendering making your days/nights more productive (Windows® & Mac® OS X).

Stephane Negri, Product Manager REALVIZ Stitcher/Stitcher Express: “The product is targeted directly at the discerning amateur enthusiast, who is looking for professional-level results, yet who may not require all of the features of Stitcher 4.0. We’re very aware of what people want in a product, and listen closely to what our users and the market in general are telling us. Many comments and requests come through to us via the Stitcher user forum on our website, but we do also conduct surveys amongst our client base as well. As Dominique mentioned earlier, Stitcher Express is a product, which people have been asking us for some time now.“

Cylindrical

Spherical

Release Date and Pricing Info:
REALVIZ Stitcher Express 1.0 will be available in both English and French for Mac® & Windows® from December 2004. The software will be available for purchase through REALVIZ resellers worldwide and from REALVIZ direct at a price point of $ 119 US (99 Euros). (Prices are excl. of tax & delivery.)

>> click here to visit Realviz Stitcher Express site

Stitcher Express will be sold alone, or bundled with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 3. The price for the bundle will be US$ 190 (160 Euros). The bundle will be available in Q1 2005.

Stephane, what is your background and your history within REALVIZ?

Stephane Negri, Product Manager REALVIZ Stitcher/Stitcher Express: I attended the University of Nice, where I studied Electronics. I also attended Engineering School in ENSTb, specializing in Eurecom in Sophia Antipolis. Prior to REALVIZ, I worked as a Development Engineer at Lucent Technology and as Project Leader in network administration development at Metrix Systems.

I joined REALVIZ in February 2001, as Development Engineer for our Online Solutions division to develop the online stitching service. From there I joined the Stitcher 3.5 team, and subsequently worked on ImageModeler 3.5. I became Product Manager for Stitcher in July 2003.

As head of Stitcher development, what current or upcoming features do you spend most of your time working on? In a perfect scenario, what developments would you like to have implemented in Stitcher two or three years down the road?

We’re always looking for new techniques or algorithms so that our technology stays at the cutting edge. We’re currently working on the next version of Stitcher, and are investigating a number of avenues. It’s clear that automatic stitching capabilities are pretty high on many peoples’ list of requirements. We also understand that managing luminosity is really important, and the HDR approach looks very promising. Another important factor for us is to allow users to be able to easily bring added value to their virtual tours or multimedia development work with just one software product. There are also some improvements to be made on optimization and for multi processor computers.

One thing which I would really like to add is some kind of ‘expert mode’, which will allow the expert user to control everything from the beginning (stitching) to the end (rendering) of the whole process. It’s clear that there are a lot of exciting new directions for us to explore, and the choice will be difficult. User feed-back is, of course, essential to this selection process.

How much of an impact does user feedback have on the development of future versions and how do you elicit this feedback?

User feedback is very important for us, and as I just mentioned, we base a large percentage of our development plans on this. Many of the comments come through to us via the Stitcher user forum on our website, and as mentioned, we do also conduct surveys amongst our client base from time to time. The last one we staged was in June of this year, and the response was overwhelming.

We also receive comments and feedback via our Support Team. This feedback is essential, as it enables us to find out exactly what people expect from the product and the problems they may be encountering. Problems are always very specific for each user.

If we see that there are several people all asking for the same features, and if it makes sense for us and for the product, then we certainly integrate these points into our development plans.

REALVIZ attended Photokina 2004 in Cologne; what were your impressions of Photokina and the advantages/disadvantages of attending such an event?

Dominique Pouliquen, REALVIZ CEO: Yes, we got a lot out of this year’s show. It really is the place to meet clients, enthusiasts and business contacts all in one place. As things turned out, our stand was moved at the last minute. Although the new positioning was not exactly what we had envisaged, the passing traffic was still healthy, and many people specifically came and tracked us down, having read or heard about us elsewhere. I think it’s safe to say, that the REALVIZ team will be out in force again at the 2006 event!

>> click here to visit Realviz Stitcher Express demo

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