Computer Graphics ’85 (conference review)

Transcribed from the printed issue; not yet reviewed. Read it in the PDF of the issue, page 69

Introduction¶

Way back in October we were both able to find time to attend the 1985 Conference for Business & Information Graphics. This was of potential interest to us as we use graphics to develop decision support systems at the Head Office of the Imperial Group.

The following is an account of our 2 days (1 day each!) at the Wembley Conference Centre. The conference had an excellent chairman – Alan Paller. The presentations were of varying interest and relevance and so the account is from a personal viewpoint.

International Status Report on Business Graphics¶

by Alan Paller, President, AUI Data Graphics/ISSCO, USA

The speaker summarised the current state of affairs both from a software and a hardware point of view. Looking towards the future, we can expect a machine that will provide personal computing power and high resolution graphics, combined with the capability of acting as a terminal into a mainframe computer.

At the moment, there are 3 main functions for PC software:

1. Immediate analysis (e.g. Lotus)
2. Presentation (e.g. Lotus)
3. Drawings for memos (e.g. Macprint).

Surprisingly enough, the third function (i.e. integrated text and graphics) is the growth area. It was predicted that this will become the typewriter of the future.

However, PCs are no good for million dollar applications i.e. the kind that make computers and computer graphics competitive and strategic tools. An overview was given of 12 very high payoff applications which were chosen on the basis that their contribution can be measured in millions of dollars and that they have stood the test of time.

Charting a Middle Course for Information Graphics¶

by Stephen Silver, Consultant, Touche Ross

This was an interesting talk but was geared mainly towards the ‘graphic designers’ of the audience. “In the development of computer graphics the information graphic designer has been ignored. The computer needs to become an everyday tool to assist him in solving design problems without restricting his creativity or style.”

It was considered how the information graphic designer works. There are 5 stages in the design process:

1. Accept brief
2. Visualisation
3. Rough Sketch
4. Draft
5. Final production

The computer can really help in stages 3 and 5. The facilities required by designers can be assessed by Ease of Use, Looks, Standard Routines, Reliability, Output, Growth and Costs.

The designers have 2 roles to play:

1. Use the computer graphics products and by their demand guide the computer industry in the right direction.
2. Help the computer industry to develop products for use in the business market i.e. packages which incorporate design principles.

Until the design community is prepared to take on these roles and the computer industry recognises that the roles are necessary, computer graphics will never realise its potential for business information graphics.

In summary:
“Designers design – computers compute”

Graphics in the Boardroom¶

by David Preedy, Development Manager, Metapraxis

The subject was of great personal interest, having recently been involved in implementing a Boardroom graphics system for Imperial.

“Despite the advances of the electronic revolution, computers have still to make a direct impact on the majority of corporate Boardrooms. Considerable research has been carried out into the software and hardware requirements of Board-level systems and a new type of software, called a corporate control system, is now emerging which addresses the specific problems of Board directors.”

The talk covered a series of key questions about the introduction and use of computer graphics in the Boardrooms of large organisations. Both hardware and software issues were considered.

There are four ways in which a Board director is likely to use numeric information:

1. Browsing
2. Analysis
3. Reference
4. Presentation

A large organisation is highly complex. From a director’s point of view the top 3 levels of the organisation are the most important i.e. Group, Divisions and Operating Companies. It may also be necessary to go to lower levels to research the nature of specific problems. Accessing all the key information can only be achieved in an acceptable timescale by using a computer-based system. It is accepted that people find graphics help them to identify key trends and factors faster than text or tables of numbers.

The basic hardware requirements are a high-resolution colour graphics screen and a facility for top-quality paper copies. The projection system in the boardroom should be designed so that the light level does not have to be reduced – effective meetings cannot be held in the dark – and it should also handle the traditional media e.g. 35mm.

Several UK companies have already implemented computer graphics in the Boardroom. Such systems should lead to:

1. Improved understanding
2. Better decisions
3. Quicker diagnosis
4. Better meetings.

Graphics for Large Volume Data¶

by Janusz Adamson, Senior Consultant, Scicon

The paper presented covered work that is being done for the research programmes of the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment. Here, they have the problem of effectively processing and absorbing large volumes of data – calculations may take the best part of a day. The answer has been to introduce a graphics package to monitor calculations as they are taking place. The colour video recordings have played an important role in understanding many aspects of explosive technology.

An Integrated Approach to Technical Publishing¶

by Nigel Nobes, European Product Manager, Intergraph

The speaker would have been of interest to those involved with CAD/CAM systems. He described (very well) the system Intergraph has developed to solve the integrated solution problem i.e. merging text and graphics

“Technical documentation has been estimated to be growing at a rate of almost 500,000 pages a minute.”

The system is designed for capturing, editing and composing text, and creating technical illustrations, merging both and producing high and low resolution output.

A New Image for Corporate Publishing¶

by John Marsh, Marketing Director, Miles 33

“Corporate publishing has become a focus for intense interest within companies. This is a recognition not of the direct costs incurred but of the losses associated with poor corporate documents.”

Examples of corporate publishing include Sales Brochures, Financial Reports, Technical documentation and Presentation Material. The requirements of corporate publishers are quite distinct from those of commercial publishers:

1. Low Volume
2. Continuous Revision
3. High Graphics Content
4. Text on Word processors
5. Multi-authoring

The speaker predicted that in the future companies such as IBM, Kodak and Rank Xerox will dominate the market in corporate publishing. The individual products are available now. The current need is the integration of these units into a total corporate publishing system to meet the needs of the market cost-effectively.

As an aside, the speaker was helped by an excellent presentation system set up by Showcase. The system was run on an Apple and sent out to a TV screen. It really looked good!

Improved image using visual information systems¶

Paul Barrett, ISSCO

This talk appears to have been largely a selling forum for the ISSCO Tell-a-Graf software package. The major software attributes were described with examples of:

1. Good user interfaces
2. Comprehensive capabilities and flexibility
3. Access to data
4. Publication quality output e.g. colour, font, line thickness
5. Layout intelligence (to give compatibility between devices)
6. Machine and device independence.

Cost in the region of £5,000 – £130,000! . . . but the product was impressive.

Enhancing point of display with graphics¶

by Graham Young, Headline Advertising and Design

This talk was launched by a reasonably lengthy video produced by Positive video which demonstrated the power of the Quantel Paintbox system. This neatly led into an account of how point of display and even product packaging could be “simulated” without the need to produce dummy packaging/product. The medium allows for changes in design due to client requirements without major cost penalties being incurred. The tremendous scope for use of this technique by the advertising/design agencies was quite apparent.

Designing for the corporate image – a new launch for graphics¶

by R. Markell, English Markell Pockett and P. Bernais-Price, Spectrum Communications

A two man slide show presenting the work which had been done in assisting large corporate entities to develop a corporate image, combined with a discussion on the need for a clearer understanding of what makes for better communication. The examples shown included those for ICL, G.E. Plastics, National Westminster Bank – Markell had also had a hand in work on BT, BMid, Renault and Channel 4 (of tumbling blocks fame).

The area of corporate image making is a new market for the new generation of computer animation techniques where music as well as action is important. The impact of the use of music was dramatically stressed by showing the Natwest Logo video without the soundtrack.

The other message which seems to be important was that for a successful corporate image a single corporate identity was required throughout company activities (e.g. Blue Circle good; BBC too varied throughout the range).

Making the right choice¶

by R. Thompson, Eidographics

According to the speaker, 37% of business graphics are produced by computer. The slides market in the US is $4bn; £350-£375m in the UK. From which one can deduce that either (a) a lot of slides are being produced and/or (b) the cost per slide is pretty high.

Eidographics offers a “high resolution graphics” slide service bureau at £6.50 per 35mm slide – the cost of having an ‘in-house’ facility of sufficient quality is usually prohibitive unless you produce a vast number of slides within the organisation.

In discussing the 5 software ‘front runners’, he mentioned Palette (c£1395), Starburst (c£55000); Autographics/Genographics; Dicomed (high quality service compatible with Imaginator at £180K or Presenter PC at £995 from Eidographics). The first four did not rate highly on the speaker’s score sheet unless in the case of Starburst you were a designer.

Training the user to be computer graphics literate¶

by P. Brown, Middlesex Polytechnic

The speaker dealt with the subject title in the first 5 minutes of his talk not least with the startling statement that only about 30 out of 1100 students attending Computer Graphics courses came out competent (Graphic designers are born not trained?). The remainder of the talk by this “guru” of graphic design (as became apparent from the questions after the talk) was taken up with dealing with some of the more esoteric aspects of graphic design – undoubtedly good stuff for the graphic designer but of limited interest to all others, one suspects.

What price business graphics?¶

by Technical Director, Micro Design

The only talk of the day without graphics, but this was not a setback to this sometime empassioned talk on micro-based graphics. A brief history of the progress to date from monochrome to colour 32-bit micros lead up to the viewpoints concerning the problems faced today when using colour graphics on micros:

1. The mainframe/mini approach has been foisted onto micros without regard
2. This generally leads to poor performance of the software
3. Conflict of standards e.g. textual prompts are OK on minis, but icons are preferable on micros.
4. Conflict between closed and open software i.e. tailor made applications of multi-attribute systems. It is unlikely that both will score high marks on all aspects so the inevitable tradeoff (or so it seems in micros) must be made.

The future may be rosier with improvement in memory/storage but economic arguments will need to be balanced in terms of what price performance and output quality.

The limited availability of 3D graphics on 16-bit micros was touched upon, though, possibly only to pre-announce a Micro Design software package which will address the problem.

Ten trends shaping the future¶

by A. Paller, AUI Data Graphics/ISSCO

The best was saved till last, Alan Paller delivered his talk at breakneck pace on his perceived ten trends for computer graphics. Highlights of which were:

• Future software will aim to provide solutions rather than tools
• PCs should be networked so as to open up the availability of shared central resources (which would otherwise be prohibitively expensive).
• The linkage of databases to graphic packages so that by integration the best attributes of each could be achieved.
• A warning on the dilemma of standards (GKS versus CORE) and the need for device drivers.
• Intelligent interactivity from the graphics software e.g. the facility for slide content to alter according to the device output rather than re-creation.
• The problems with chart books of standard charts, with the useful suggestion of posters rather than books.
• The introduction of a standard facility which allowed for varying background colours within the slide (e.g. rather than the dreaded single blue background).

Summary¶

The following points sum up the overall view of the conference:

1. The organisers of the show don’t seem to have acknowledged that there were two schools interested in colour graphics namely ‘hands on’ users and graphic designers. This leads to polarity on the talks given and unsatisfactory appeal to both, one suspects. Surely splitting the talks into two streams is not beyond the bounds of their ingenuity.
2. Many of the talks seemed to fall into two categories either esoteric, academic dissertations or thinly veiled promotions. Surely the latter should have been dealt with at the accompanying side shows.
3. The use of video in presentations was excellent, less successful was the use of 35 mm slides – lamentable given that this was a colour graphics show!
4. Being in favour of the promotion of the use of graphics, one was dismayed that the overall impression of the show was that of a ‘closed shop’ – anyone interested in finding out about graphics and their usage would have struggled to have got anything substantial from the conference. Hardly an encouraging thought.