Publications
(Still under construction)
Infolab Home Page
This page still under construction Egon Verharen / egon@kub.nl
The objective of the SPRITE project is to develop a prototype of a document processing system for the technical office.
SPRITE is actually an information management system providing the author and manager with direct access to the complete information environment, including electronically stored documents, paper based files (drawings, reports), electronic CAD files, and external databases.
Documents may exist in the MMD in different versions. Document versions are often used to follow the development of a technical product with frequent changes and innovations. Such changes should be reflected in the documentation. Another kind of versions support documents that describe the same information in different languages. Finally, different configurations of a product require (slightly) different versions of the documentation. The SPRITE system provides an innovative, easy-to-use model for all these kinds of versions.
Documents are located in the MMD by means of a browser. The browser enables searching in the database using either a hierarchical folder structure or dependencies between documents, or by issuing queries to located specific documents based on keywords and other attributes.
Technical documentation generally involves a large amount of data and has relatively long lifecycle; both are reasons for supplying the MMD with mass storage capabilities, which will be accomplished by integration of an optical disk within the MMD.
Technical documentation is often written by a number of authors working concurrently on parts of the same documents. The SPRITE system features support for multi-authoring. It is possible to distribute parts of a document among many authors, let them work independently and later combine the result of their work in a final document. Provisions are taken so that concurrent access to a document does not cause inconsistencies, that authors have easy access to assigned document parts, and that a manager may easily supervise the progress of the work.
Documents are generated and updated by a multi-media WYSIWYG document processor, supporting both text and graphics editing. In addition to normal editing functions the document processor provides easy to use high-level typographic support, helping authors to create documents according consistent layout rules.
Printing is made available on a high quality, high volume laser printer, enabling not only creation of prototype documents, but also the production of series of documents.
Besides creation and management of documentation, SPRITE strongly supports integration into existing environments. This is realised by the paper entry and the information acquisition components of the system.
The scanning and recognition component of the system scans A4 office documents or drawings (up to A0), converts them into the internal SPRITE format, and stores them in the MMD. This conversion is carried out, as far as possible, by sophisticated pattern recognition modules so that minimal user assistance is required.
In order to integrate SPRITE into existing environments, facilities for information acquisition from selected main frames and CAD systems are supplied. Information acquisition is supported both at the database access level and at the file transfer level.
The SPRITE system is intended to be a demonstrator showing the essential functionalities. By successfully building the system, all partners expect to gain sufficient knowledge and experience to start the development of commercial products based on the SPRITE concepts.
For more information about the SPRITE project you can contact us at:
Publications
(Still under construction)
Infolab Home Page
This page still under construction
Egon Verharen / egon@kub.nl