Xybernaut Licenses Microcosm Pro From Multicosm Ltd. for Bundling in
New MA IV Wearable Computer
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 21, 1998--Multicosm Ltd., a leading provider of dynamic hypermedia and enterprise knowledge management solutions, announced today a licensing agreement with Xybernaut® Corp. (Nasdaq:XYBR - news), the leader in wearable computers.
Under the agreement, Xybernaut will bundle Multicosm's award-winning dynamic hypermedia product, Microcosm Pro(tm), into its Mobile Assistant® IV (MA IV(tm)) series of wearable computers. Under the name of linkAssist Pro(tm), the new standard application authoring tool is integrated with IBM's ViaVoice(tm) voice-activation product in the wearable computer series to enable users to create applications that link together and manage large collections of documents.
The resulting applications allow users to navigate through thousands of documents by using voice commands to activate hyperlinks.
Under the licensing arrangement, Xybernaut has committed to purchase 25,000 copies of Multicosm's software in the first year.
''linkAssist Pro, adds major extensions to Xybernaut's previous tools by providing hypertext across over 200 common data formats as well as a wealth of new tools to facilitate application development and roll-out,'' said Edward G. Newman, Xybernaut's chairman and CEO.
''Wearable solutions require an extremely powerful and easy to use application development environment that can leverage existing data with no conversion requirements, providing voice-driven natural language access to the information assets. We believe linkAssist offers all of these characteristics, and complements our bundling arrangement with IBM's ViaVoice speech recognition product,'' said Newman.
Both companies believe that offering quick and seamless access to relevant information directly to the worker, wherever and whenever needed, represents a significant advance in computing and a global multi-billion dollar market opportunity, and expect to realize significant revenues from this agreement.
''We are pleased that Xybernaut has selected our dynamic hypermedia products for its MA IV voice-activated wearable computer,'' said William Nisen, CEO of Multicosm Ltd.
''Xybernaut's series of wearable computers is an excellent complement to our speech-driven hypertext technology, offering customers tremendous opportunities for productivity gains. The merging of these technologies -- wearable computers, speech recognition, and dynamic hypermedia -- meets the needs of those customers who require remote, mobile computing in a hands-free environment.''
About Xybernaut
Xybernaut Corp. is a leader in providing hardware, software and service solutions to the wearable computing industry. The company's patented wearable computer systems feature speech-activation, flat panel and head-mounted displays that allow users hands-free access to information in the computer's internal storage, in local area networks, and on the Internet on an as-needed, where-needed basis.
Xybernaut's software is designed to provide users with the right information needed for the task at hand using consistent navigation techniques and screen presentations. Xybernaut's customers include leading corporations and government agencies for many mobile knowledge delivery system applications, including maintenance and repair, inspection, inventory control, manufacturing and data collection. Visit the Xybernaut Website at xybernaut.com
About Multicosm
Multicosm, Ltd. is a leading provider of dynamic hypermedia and enterprise knowledge management solutions. The company's dynamic hypermedia authoring tool, Microcosm Pro(tm), is a hypertext system for creating, browsing and querying large collections of documents. The product's open architecture allows documents produced by different applications to be linked together while still in their original application
format.
Multicosm's dynamic linking technology is also found in Refindment(tm), a leading-edge search technology that turbo-charges search engines with summarization and knowledge publishing features. Working on top of a customer's choice of search engines, Refindment uses proprietary linguistic analysis tools to analyze and link documents based on shared concepts.
Knowledge workers benefit by quickly gaining access to documents that contain the information that matters most, instead of having to scan through endless lists of search results. Refindment currently runs on Excalibur(tm)'s RetrievalWare(tm) and Lotus(tm) Notes(tm). Multicosm can be found on the Web at
multicosm.com
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the ''Act''). In particular, when used in the preceding discussion, the words ''plan'', ''confident that'', ''believe'', ''expect'', or ''intend to'' and similar conditional expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act and are subject to the safe harbor created by the Act. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and actual results could differ materially from those expressed in any of the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, market conditions, the availability of components for, and delays in the start of, production of the next generations of the Mobile Assistant, general acceptance of the Company's products and technologies, competitive factors, the ability to successfully complete additional financings and other risks described in the Company's SEC reports and filings.
Note to Editors: IBM and ViaVoice are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp. Mobile Assistant and Xybernaut are trademarks or registered trademarks of Xybernaut
Corp.
Contact:
Multicosm Inc.
Dabney Standley, 415/278-0730
dab@multicosm.com
or
Xybernaut Corp.
Steve Newman, 703/631-6925
snewman@xybernaut.com
or
Price Public Relations
Tamsen Reinheimer, 650/829-5800
treinheimer@pricepr.com |
