Cultural DVD..........................
Apparently Hitachi will store still images on DVD-ROM -- it's not clear if they are doing video too.
Hitachi, Toppan to offer online data service
Reuters Story - August 05, 1997 04:42
TOKYO, Aug 5 (Reuter) - Japanese electronics giant Hitachi
Ltd and leading printing house Toppan Printing Co Ltd
said on Tuesday they will jointly launch a
large-scale, online visual data service in Japan in the autumn.
The service will combine Hitachi's information system
technology and Toppan's text and image data processing
technology, enabling publishers and other users to make digital
versions of such things as works of art or historical
buildings, a Toppan spokesman said.
"It is the first time such a digital data service
specialising in cultural assets will be offered in Japan," he
said.
Hitachi and Toppan will store the digital versions on
databases, allowing access to individual and corporate users as
well as other institutions, the companies said in a joint
statement.
The firms also plan to form alliances with foreign
companies to add their images to the databases, the spokesman
said, without elaborating on possible partners.
The business will offer a variety of services, including
licensing of the images, sales of CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs, and
access to a cybermuseum and a digital art gallery, Hitachi and
Toppan said in the statement.
The launch of the service this fall will be followed by the
introduction of other services in late 1997 and spring 1998,
they said.
By 2002, the companies expect to have one million digital
images on file, and to earn six billion yen in profits, the
spokesman said. |
