Sanyo and Cycore team up, paving the road to mainstream Web 3D

Sanyo and Cycore team up, paving the road to mainstream Web 3D London, England, March 21, 2001 - Cycore, the leader in 3D graphics software for e-business and Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., one of Japan's leading manufacturers, together with Sanyo Electric Software Co. Ltd. and Sanyo Electric Trading Co., Ltd., today announced an agreement to jointly develop solutions that simplify the generation of e-business ready interactive 3D-objects. The two companies are merging their products, Cycore Cult3D, a multi-platform 3D rendering engine and Sanyo CyberModeler, part of Sanyo's series of scanning and modeling solutions, to make an initial and pioneering step for Web3D. This new product will allow the faster, cheaper and easier mass creation of realistic and highly detailed 3D models for use in e-commerce based online catalogues, as well as other areas such as model generation for video games production. The agreement means that 3D modellers will have a new method of creating models for web sites and other media using Cult3D, over traditional packages such as 3ds max, Maya and ImageModeler. 3D models can be created from real life objects simply by placing the object on the Sanyo CyberModeler 3D scanner turntable. In under 20 minutes a high quality fully 3D data of the model is created. This can then be exported through the Cult3D Designer software, where interactivity and special effects can be added. At present the process of designing a quality 3D model is rather expensive and time consuming, requiring a talented 3D modeller for the best results. Designers and modellers working with Cult3D and CyberModeler will now be able to turn the design process into more of a production line, with much higher levels of efficiency and output without compromising quality. Cycore Cult3D, used by many world leading brands such as Palm Computing, Sharp and CNN, provides low-bandwidth interactive 3D images that can be viewed by virtually anyone with a computer. "Progressive companies like Ericsson, Breitling and Toyota are using interactive 3D solutions from Cycore today to enhance their online effectiveness. However, the development of 3D models can often be tedious and requires specialist skills that may not always be easily accessible and economical," said Jerry Pettersson, Cycore's chief technology officer and founder. "With Sanyo's technology in CyberModeler, Cycore and Sanyo will be delivering a solution that provides Web and digital media developers with a time efficient and convenient method to create photo realistic 3D objects in a very economical way. This co-operation is an essential step in bringing web 3D to an industrial mass market." "We have chosen to work with Cycore and Cult3D, because of their industrial strength solutions and the fact that they have a very strong market acceptance, with over 300 brand name customers," said Tetsuichi Emi, manager of Advanced Information Processing Lab., R&D Headquarters of Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.. "We believe that we will open up a whole new market by providing an easy to use end to end solution that offers great economies of scale and object quality for web 3D." Manufacturing companies often find it difficult to achieve efficiencies of scale, when attempting to mass produce 3D objects. Common 3D modelling requires a high level of craftsmanship from the modeller and each object often has to be approached uniquely in the capture and finishing phases. "Sanyo's CyberModeler product is the first serious capture method that makes 3D modelling a true industrial process, thus offering great economies of scale," continued Pettersson. "Sanyo has an elegant and simple scanning technology, making object capture, modelling and publishing as easy as 1-2-3." Further details about the Sanyo/Cycore development project, including costs and availability will be presented at a later date. For further information contact: Simon Downham or Rachel Morgan Kaizo +44 1344 486000 simon.downham@kaizo.net rachel.morgan@kaizo.net or Claes Granath, Vice President Marketing Cycore +46 18 65 65 60 claes.granath@cycore.com Sanyo's 3D Modeling Technologies Hypermedia Research Center of SANYO Electric Co. R&D Headquarter has been developing the 3D Modeling Technologies which include SANYO's 3D reconstruction algorithm of high originality and a robust camera calibration technique, since 1996. The technologies enable users to obtain highly photo-realistic 3D data in terms of geometry as well as texture. With the technologies, not only the professional users but also the ordinary PC consumers be able to generate 3D data automatically in a very short time, within 20 minutes, based on digital still camera input. This key feature greatly increases the 3D data productivity. This SANYO's modelling technologies have many applications possibilities as follows: i) e-commerce contents creation like 3D Electric Catalogue, ii) apparel/fashion industries, iii) amusement area such as computer games, iv) sculpture by capturing human face/body. SANYO's activity in 3D technology is not limited in 3D modelling. It also covers the stereo-scopic displays such as 3D-HDTV theater systems, glassless/LCD-shutter stereoscopic displays, 3D laser scanning systems as well as panorama imaging tools. About CyberModeler One of the most advanced systems which realise a super-quick 3D data creation based on real objects. Conventional techniques of generating 3D data assume the use of computer graphics tools or CAD systems which require high skill/know how, and therefore 3D data creation has been a time-consuming task. On the contrary, CyberModeler automatically generates the 3D data of real objects; what users have to do is only place the object on the turntable and click the mouse. Within around 20 minutes, the users can obtain very photo-realistic 3D data. Since the modelling process is based on the images taken with digital still cameras, WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET. This feature leads to one of the CyberModeler's key advantages, that is, the CyberModeler covers wide variety of objects such as fur, puppets and black ones which are very difficult to scan with conventional techniques. With its "Photo-realism", CyberModeler can be applied to amusements such as games, TV broadcasting contents, to apparel/fashion business and art object modelling. Furthermore, as CyberModeler supports compact 3D data for the Web use, e-commerce contents like on-line 3D electric catalogue are also possible applications of the CyberModeler. About Cycore: Cycore is the leader in interactive 3D software for e-business. Cycore Cult3D® software is an award winning product visualisation technology used on Web sites, in Microsoft Office® documents and in Adobe® Acrobat® files, to help e-businesses increase online sales, enhance sales presentations and improve customer service. More than 300 brand name companies, including Palm, NEC, CNN, ABB and Toyota use Cult3D on their Web sites. To date the number of Cult3D viewer downloads exceeds 6 million. The company was founded and maintains headquarters in Sweden, with offices in the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany. Sales were 17.7 million SEK for the year 2000. For further information please visit www.cycore.com. About Sanyo Electric Co, Ltd. One of the leading manufacturer in Japan, founded in 1947. Its consolidated net sales is 18.3-billion US Dollars, major manufacturing products are audio visual products, information and communications equipment, home appliances, industrial and commercial equipment, electronic devices, batteries and others. Cult3D is a registered trademark of Cycore. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/21/20010321BIT01140/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/21/20010321BIT01140/bit0001.pdf