Laser Disk) files which are inexpensive, long-term optical storage.

Laser Disk) files which are inexpensive, long-term optical storage.

Anything that can be scanned for a fax, can be scanned into a computer, including contracts, customer files, student records, deeds, medical records, product information and spread sheets. It can be located in seconds, whether there are a hundred thousand or a hundred million items to search.

The search can be done in natural language (just the way you speak) and it can discern between a word used as a verb and as a noun (such as, “I object to your allegation” and “I found the object”). It even allows for misspellings, and the results of the search are ranked in order of their relevance to the query.

This can be retrieved from the database anywhere in the world in a matter or seconds and sent to any workstation. Optix works with windows, Macintosh and UNIX workstations.

A desktop implementation of Optix will soon be available that can be downloaded from the internet. Anyone with a lot of paper in their files might like to check it out at (http://www.optixweb.com). The cost to purchase this program would typically be about $1,000, said Mr. Swaim.

They are hoping to advertise and expand their company into the single-user market as a demonstration for what can be done in larger systems. It will run on Macintosh and Windows ‘95.

Northwest Airlines, which has more than 400 aircraft that fly to 390 cities in 80 countries, and Federal Express, the world’s largest^ cargo airline, which flies to mote t.han 200 countries 365 days a year, are both'using their Optix program. They keep their airplane maintenance records on a computer retrieval system. Optix, also, brought in a million dollar contract from The Washington Post in March.

Howie Swaim, director of marketing, said that he is amazed at the cost saved by advertising on the internet. Previously, representatives had to travel to trade shows that lasted as long as a week, carting along equipment, staying at hotels, not enjoying it much, and at a cost of about $40,000 per show.

Their web site on the internet is now bringing in 80 percent of their business leads and at a fraction of the cost of advertising at trade shows.

“In order to stay ahead of the game in a rapidly developing field, we have to keep adding features and power to the product. It is ah ongoing (process of) product development,” said Dr. Jamieson.

“We have an extremely low turn-over rate. We treat our employees right,” said Mr. Landrum. The company is now searching for two technical support people and an administrator to work with Northwest Airlines.

Their web site is, “http://www.blueridge.com”.