The technology innovator of the year at the 2004 Computerworld Excellence Awards will be drawn from a diverse range of entries.
Virtual Katy Development has been recognised for its sound editing software, Virtual Katy. The software was tested during production of the Lord of the Rings films and is now being used on overseas films such as the forthcoming Thunderbirds movie and Bridget Jones Diary 2.
Virtual Katy automates some of the tedious manual work that sound editors have had to perform to keep a sound track in step with video during the editing process. John McKay, Virtual Katy’s creator, named his software after an assistant who spent her working hours doing manual re-editing.
As new edits are produced Virtual Katy compares it to older versions, creates a list of changes and updates the sound edit lists. It allows sound to be edited at the same time as picture editing. Virtual Katy also helps sound editors track and locate sound resources.
Death2Spam is a finalist for its antispam email gateway. Death2Spam receives an organisation’s email, filters it for spam and then forwards it to mail servers for delivery. It includes a self-learning, automatic spam filter, a word frequency analyser, a database to analyse individual messages, POP and SMTP servers, integration with proprietary email systems, and an adaptive anti-virus filter.
The company says Death2Spam was the first commercial antispam product to use pure Bayesian filtering, which identifies spam based on an analysis of the contents of each email. It claims a higher successful matching rate for Death2Spam than commercial and free alternatives such as Brightmail and SpamAssassin.
The company appointed a US distributor in January.
IVistra says its Enterprise Visibility System (EVS) is a “digital dashboard” for businesses. EVS combines tracking and mapping technology to present companies with an accurate picture of moving assets or networked infrastructure.
EVS supports tracking systems such as barcode readers, RFID tags and GPS devices. The tracking and GIS mapping data are layered with financial and operating information so companies can get a real-time indication of business performance data such as utilisation, margin, profit and performance.
EVS can be accessed from desktop computers and mobile devices. The customisable EVS dashboard software shows the live position of assets on a map alongside performance data, historical records, customer information and sales details.
IVistra worked with Tranz Link’s refrigeration division to develop and deploy the EVS pilot. EVS will be launched this year.
Asterisk appears on the finalist list with PC Reviver, a Linux system on a flash memory chip which replaces a PC’s hard drive. Asterix says PC Reviver turns an old PC into a snappy thin client workstation, saving money for companies and reducing pollution caused by dumping old computers.
Setup is limited to replacing the hard drive with the PC Reviver flash chip, reducing administrative overhead and removing a common point of failure. Computers with PC Reviver can be switched off and on like an appliance, are harder for a user to modify, don’t need virus protection, and boot faster than an operating system on a hard drive. They can connect to Citrix servers, Windows Terminal Server or Linux Terminal Server, or to standard TCP/IP networks.
Asterisk worked with The Ark, a PC recycling firm, to test PC Reviver on older hardware.