Intel's Handover Web Guide 97 Lets You See, Hear and Experience the Hong Kong Handover

HONG KONG, June 20, 1997 -- Intel Asia Pacific today unveiled the Intel Hong Kong Handover Web Guide 97, a comprehensive Internet Web site with 360-degree panoramic images of Hong Kong, audio clips and links to many sites related to the handover. The site can be viewed now at www.intel.com/hk1997.

Deborah Conrad, director, Brand and Content Marketing Group, Intel Asia Pacific, said, "We created the Intel Hong Kong Handover Web Guide 97 to showcase technology on the Internet -- to demonstrate how the PC is becoming a powerful communications device. Intel's Connected PC vision lets people everywhere bridge time and distance, allowing them to see, hear and experience the historic handover events as if they were here, on the streets of Hong Kong.

"This is the first of a series of projects we intend to deploy, showcasing scenes and events for people anywhere to experience using the Internet. We're demonstrating what is possible today using the power of the Intel Pentium® processor with MMX™ technology-based PCs and standard software," she said.

Visitors to the Web Guide can:

• See it. View 360 degree panoramic images of contemporary life in Hong Kong;
• Hear it. From June 23, listen to people in Hong Kong talking about the sights, sounds and experiences in one of the world's most interesting cities;
• Experience it. Browse dozens of links to related sites which provide real-time news feeds, audio, video clips and more.

Web design, audio and photo editing were performed on Pentium II processor-based PCs, dramatically reducing the time required for image manipulation to convert the images from a photographic to a 360-degree "immersive" digital image. The photos were taken using a standard fisheye lens camera, processed with software from Interactive Pictures Corporation and viewed using the IPIX* plug-in, available from www.ipix.com as well as from Intel's Web Guide site.

Photography for the panoramic image gallery was shot earlier this month and will continue to expand throughout June as handover events unfold. Images on the site include Dragon Boat racing, a view from the Peak (the highest point in Hong Kong), shots of Hong Kong architecture and many images of contemporary life in Hong Kong. The site will be available until mid-July 1997.

"Using Intel's MMX technology, the IPIX images are a powerful interactive photo journal of Hong Kong – bringing events in Hong Kong closer to people everywhere. It's the next best way to see Hong Kong if you can't be here to experience events in person," Conrad said.

"Intel's remarkable Hong Kong Web site features a new class of photography that overcomes the language, time and distance barriers to instantly convey the whole picture worldwide," said Jim Philips, CEO of Interactive Pictures Corporation.

How 360-degree Images Are Made
Intel's photographer shot the images using a special fisheye lens camera. Two 180-degree images are taken facing opposite directions, resulting in two hemispheric images.

The images are then processed to stitch them into an "immersive" image using a Pentium II processor-based PC. The IPIX software processing requires complex calculations. High performance Pentium II processor-based PCs reduce the time required to perform these calculations.

The conversion from traditional flat photography to a 360-degree bubble image takes around 90 minutes on a Pentium II processor-based PC for each image. Using a digital camera, images can be taken and posted to the Web in minutes.

Intel MMX Technology Benefits
MMX technology reduces the image processing time during the Web site production process. A person browsing the Web using a PC with a Pentium processor with MMX technology will also find the image will scroll more smoothly, resulting in a more realistic viewing experience. The IPIX technology has been optimized for Intel MMX technology to improve the processor's ability to manipulate the images.

About Interactive Pictures Corporation
Interactive Pictures Corporation (www.ipix.com) develops and markets products and services based on IPIX, the world's leading immersive photography that allows people to experience an entire environment with unlimited viewing perspectives. Previously known as Omniview Inc, the company was founded in 1986 to commercialise remote robotics systems developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA. IPIX technology, which represents a new class of photography is available today via the Internet and CD-ROM. An Intel MMX technology developer, IPIX received the US Government's first small Business and Innovative Research Technology Award for 1995 and the 1997 American Museum of Science and Energy Award for Technological Achievement. Interactive Pictures Corporation is headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., USA.

About Intel
Intel Semiconductor Ltd., Intel's Asia Pacific headquartered in Hong Kong, sells and markets microprocessors, platforms and communications products in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, People's Republic of China, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

The company has world-class Test and Assembly plants in Penang, Malaysia; Manila, Philippines; and Shanghai, PRC; design centers in Penang, Malaysia, and Shanghai, and PRC.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.