Eastman Kodak Co, Rochester, New York has landed one of the biggest deals in its history with a comprehensive supply agreement to 1996’s centennial Olympic games. Kodak’s Digital Science technology will be used by personnel, officials, doctors, journalists and athletes in a deal in which Kodak will supply photo accreditation systems, picture transmission for photographers, a unique medical diagnostic system for sharing athletic medical images to speed diagnosis and treatment, and a 10,000 square foot consumer imaging expo showing off Kodak’s imaging technology. Financial details of the deal were not available. Kodak claims its Access Control and Accreditation will provide the tightest security in the history of sports. Kodak and Edicon, a Kodak company specialising in security management, have combined to develop photographic identification cards that are designed specifically to facilitate entry to high security venues and deter fraudulent duplication of Olympic accreditations. Edicon will use 36 workstations to run its Envoy Identification Management System, producing more than 250,000 high-quality photographic identification passes for officials, athletes and volunteers at the Games. Included on these passes will be a high-resolution electronic photograph and a security enhancement known as surface diffraction, a technique in which a holographic-like overlaminate is applied to the card’s surface. Also on the card is a two-dimensional bar code, said to be easier and quicker to read than traditional bar codes and capable of storing about 1K-bits of information, including digitised images and biometric data, such as hand prints and fingerprints. Standard bar codes store about 30 bits of information, with no images or biometrics. Throughout the Olympic Games, Kodak’s Digital & Applied Imaging business will provide on-site products and services, including what Kodak claims is the largest and most technologically advanced imaging centre in the history of sports. Many of the 900 photojournalists covering the Games will use Kodak’s Imaging Center to process and transmit digital images to newsrooms around the world. Journalists will have access to 20 or so workstations, each with at least one Kodak technical expert on hand. In addition, reporters will be able to use Kodak Digital Science Professional Digital Camera systems to photograph the Games and transmit their images almost instantaneously. These cameras capture an image as a computer file that can be quickly transmitted via modem back home in time to make the latest edition. Kodak medical imaging specialists are working with a network of local hospitals to install a Kodak Ektascan Imagelink system. This system helps speed the treatment of patients by enabling specialists, regardless of their location to make remote on-line diagnoses.
