My 0.2c worth of advice is to avoid storing the scanned images as
"BLOB"s in some relational database.

Scan them and store them as serial numbers in a slashed sub directory
structure, so image number 0010132456.tif is stored under a directory as
follows:-

\\IMAGESERVER\Images\00\10\13\24\56.tif

Each subdirectory will hold only 100 entries, and will be VERY swift to
get to. The HP3000 can be used to maintain the serial number sequence.

As for the index information, store this in the world's most robust and
easy-to-use database called TurboImage.
All you need to image-enable any application (existing, or new) is a
single field (column) tagged onto the already indexed dataset record.

It's not that difficult to do this, and now with Samba/iX, you can even
store the images on the HP3000.

Glue the structured data and the BLOB's together at the client, using
some DDE enabled viewer (VB?), and Reflection or MS92.
The application can initiate the DDE commands to tell the image viewer
to retrieve and display the image, or function keys can be pre
programmed to do this.

However you do it, you will gain hugely against paper handling/micro
film base systems.

Don't get hung up about workflow, the main selling point of Document
Image Handling packages. When everyone has near instant access to the
scanned image, perceived workflow requirements simply vanish. Mostly,
what people want to do when viewing an image is add a little something
to the index record, and HP3000's are very good at allowing this to
happen.

We have a customer with over 5 million images safely stored this way on
a single NT server with raid, and securely indexed on the HP3000.


Good luck


Neil Harvey


> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, July 14, 1997 3:11 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Image databases - storage and retrieval system
>
> We are initiating a project for the storage and retrieval of raster
> images. Due to budgetary constraints and other factors, we like to
> have a
> low cost solution for the same.
>
> The actual problem is the storage of scanned images of documents
> containing text and graphics in ordinary PCX, TIFF etc formats and
> their
> retrieval. The platform is Windows95.
>
> We like to know of any graphics or image database software serving our
> purpose with a brief note on how this can be achieved effectively at a
> low
> budget in PC environment.
>
> Thanking you in advance
> Alpho
>
> -------------------==== Posted via Deja News
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