Special-Use Scientific Software Meeting Labs' Niche Needs

SUPPLIERS OF SPECIAL-USE SCIENTIFIC SOFTWARE The following companies, as discussed in the accompanying story, offer special-use software for scientists. For product information, please use the reader service card inserted in this issue or fax requests directly to THE SCIENTIST, (215)387-1542. Avian Systems Inc. 1275 15th St., 15G Fort Lee, N.J. 07024-1929 Circle No. 150 on Reader Service Card Control Systems Engineering 334 Pleasant St. Pawtucket, R.I. 0286 Circle No. 151 on Reader Service Card Graphical Dynamics Inc. 2701 California Ave., S.W. Suite 301 Seattle, Wash. 98116 Circle No. 152 on Reader Service Card Inner Access Corp. P.O. Box 888 Belmont, Calif. 94002 Circle No. 153 on Reader Service Card Objects Inc. 99 Rosewood Dr. Danvers, Mass. 01923 Circle No. 154 on Reader Service Card Polyhedron Software Ltd. Linden House 93 High St. Standlake, Witney OX8 7RH England Circle No. 155 on Reader Service Card ReferencePoint Software Corp. 1799 N. State St. Orem, Utah 84057 Circle No. 156 on Reader Service Card Traveling Software Inc. 18702 North Creek Pkwy. Bothell, Wash. 98011 Circle No. 157 on Reader Service Card Verbex Voice Systems Inc. 1090 King Georges Post Rd. Building 107 Edison, N.J. 08837-3701 Circle No. 158 on Reader Service Card Waite Group Press 200 Tamal Plaza Suite 101 Corte Madera, Calif. 94925 Circle No. 159 on Reader Service Card Picture yourself--a hardworking scientist--in your hammock, hands behind your head, laptop at the ready, on a breezy summer afternoon. Using your voice only, you send a command via radio waves from the laptop to your personal computer inside the house, telling it to identify every file on its hard drive containing the words "peptide synthesis"--but to do it after midnight, please, when it won't interfere with other tasks. Farfetched? Perhaps, but four different programs described here, working in tandem, might just do the job. In today's laboratory--or hammock, as the case may be-- scientific software has established itself as crucial to the work of investigators in almost every discipline. In specific task areas, dozens of competing computer-assisted tools have emerged: Programs that perform data-acquisition, image-analysis, and scientific graphing and plotting tasks are a few examples. At the same time, a wide array of special-use, sometimes one-of-a-kind programs for scientists have also become available. Some of these computer programs are intended to perform one limited--but vital--task. Some may be the progenitors of important future families of sophisticated software. Still others may serve merely to entertain those with a scientific outlook on the world. Here is a look at some of these hard-to-categorize but creative, useful software products: "Listen for Windows," from Verbex Voice Systems Inc. of Edison, N.J., enables a user's personal computer to accept commands or data entry in spoken English. "When you need your hands for your work, you can enter data using your voice," says Eric R. Nahm, Verbex's vice president for sales and marketing. "If you are collecting data through a microscope--counting, for example--handling specimens with rubber gloves, or working in a sterile environment, you can't always use a keyboard. But you can use your voice." Earlier versions of the software required individualized speech-recognition training of the system for it to work, but the latest release is speaker-independent for North American dialects, according to company literature. Speech interfaces for more than 20 Windows application programs are included in the package; there are also two utility subprograms to allow users to customize speech-interface commands to suit their needs. Nahm adds that the product will operate well even in the presence of high or variable background noise--a significant problem in many offices and laboratories. The system requires a 486 or Pentium processor, a sound card, and Windows. Listen for Windows is priced at $99 for the software only, or $139 with a microphone. "For Your Eyes Only" is a personal-computer-based encryption program from Objects Inc. of Danvers, Mass. "It's a software security product that allows you to secure an entire hard disk, a directory or series of directories, or an individual file," says Jeff Fisher, marketing director for the company. A matched pair of unique key disks are provided that code and decode data. With one each in the hands of the sender and receiver, protected files can be sent via the Internet or stored on a local area network without fear of prying eyes. According to company literature, a massively parallel supercomputer would require 2.12 x 10126 years to crack the code--several times the age of the known universe. What might be the scientist's use for such a system? Perhaps to safely store or send data from the trials of a drug or to keep private notes concerning ongoing work in the laboratory. "It's typically used in situations where you have information that you don't want to fall into the wrong hands," Fisher says. "If you're carrying around research data on a laptop computer, it's common to secure the disks or secure certain files." The system runs under MS-DOS and Windows. For Your Eyes Only costs $99.95, and bulk-rate discounts are available. "Frisbee," offered by Polyhedron Software Ltd., Standlake, Witney, England, keeps track of files when the user frequently works on two or more computers. The aim is to prevent accidental overwriting of a newer file with an older one--an all-too-common disaster for weekend workers and researchers who regularly find themselves typing away in borrowed offices while visiting colleagues. Many scientists confronted with this problem buy a portable computer and use it exclusively, relegating themselves to such compromises as miniature keyboards, even in their home laboratories. With Frisbee, however, a user types the command "THROW" after a work session at one computer; the program then identifies those files that are new, changed, or deleted, copying these in a compressed form onto a diskette that can be slipped into a pocket. Upon arriving at the second computer, the user types "CATCH" and Frisbee synchronizes the second computer's hard disk with the first. In this way, the lightweight portability of diskettes can be combined with the advantages of local hard disks. Frisbee works under MS-DOS or in a Windows MS-DOS box. It is priced at $69.99. "FULLPIXRCH," from Avian Systems Inc. of Fort Lee, N.J., allows biological researchers to search digital images for matches in somewhat the same way keyword, text-based searches are performed. Developer Richard Podolsky says that although the technology is influenced by his background working with remote-sensing satellite imagery, the software system can be applied to any PICT- or TIFF-format digital image, including those from MRI, X-ray, and other biomedical imaging technologies. "The program allows the user to author a search template at the pixel level," Podolsky says. "Then the program scans one or more images to look for regions that match the template." The user can specify the relative accuracy of the search routine at 1 percent intervals, up to 100 percent accuracy in matching. National Park Service ecologist Jerry Freilich uses FULLPIXEL-SEARCH to search satellite Earth images for regions of specified species diversity. He copies an image area with a known high diversity into the search template, for example; FULLPIXRCH then locates other regions of similar diversity. "It works much like searching on a keyword in a text document, where you type in a string of characters that you want to search on," Podolsky says. "This has the same kind of interface, so that you're presented with a blank template that you can author in." FULLPIXRCH requires a color-enabled Macintosh computer and costs $895. "Fractals for the Macintosh" and "Fractals for Windows" are a pair of book-and-software packages from Waite Group Press, Corte Madera, Calif., that allow users to create the beautiful, intricate, mathematically derived images known as fractals. Company literature explains, however, that "fractals aren't just pop art or psychedelic lava lights." They can be used by researchers to run simulations of many pattern-producing, naturally occurring phenomena, including weather, waves, mountains, veins, and leaves. Mathematical knowledge is not needed--nor, for that matter, is a scientific purpose. The Macintosh package includes the shareware fractal program "Mandella," a name that suggests mandalas--mystic, symmetrical Buddhist symbols of the universe--and reflective meditation, rather than computationally intense climate modeling; the multicolored, shimmering patterns produced by the program have been described as compelling and hypnotic. The Macintosh package is priced at $24.95, and the Windows package costs $34.95. A color-capable Macintosh or Windows system, respectively, is required. "ReferencePoint," available from ReferencePoint Software Corp., Orem, Utah, allows users to perform a single text- based search of files created in different programs--word- processor, spreadsheet, data-base, or graphics programs--and located on different disk drives or fileservers. The files, once located, can then be viewed in Reference-Point in "native format," according to CEO Jacques Jonassaint, meaning that they look the same as in their originating programs. "Say that you have written an article a couple of days ago, but your memory is not too good, and you don't remember what you called the file," says Jonassaint, explaining how one might use the program. "You know it's about, say, full-text search engines, so you use that as a search string: `full- text search engines.' All documents containing those words will be on your screen in about two seconds." The program can also be used to automatically index files previously created and then to add new files to the index as they are created. Several products with different options constitute the Reference-Point suite of programs, with prices starting at $99.95. Versions are available for either MS-DOS or Windows. "CSE Conversions," from Control Systems Engineering, Pawtucket, R.I., helps scientists and engineers convert measurements from one unit type to another--more than 8,000 unit conversions in 200 categories. Among the categories are physical, geometric, electrical, chemical, mechanical, and time measurements. For good measure, even currency conversions are included. "It operates with pull-down menus," says president Norman Reno. "Let's say we were to select mass flow rate. [Options] automatically come up preset. The user can change from, say, grams per second to metric tons per hour." CSE Conversions runs under either MS-DOS or Windows and costs $39.95. "Laplink Wireless with Air-Share," developed by Traveling Software Inc. of Bothell, Wash., uses communications software and radio technology to connect two computers up to 30 feet apart without the use of wires or cables. According to a company representative, this allows computers on either side of a solid wall to be connected; computers on different floors can be linked in the same way. A scientist working on a portable computer in his or her backyard could send files to a printer inside the house-- although the 30-foot working radius might quickly become a limiting factor. Small, battery-powered transceivers plug into the serial ports of the linked computers. The software also ensures that files on the two computers are synchronized, so that unintended file overwriting does not occur. The system requires at least one of the computers to be running under Windows; the other can use MS-DOS. The price, which includes the software and two transceivers, is $299.95. "Clock Manager," also called ClockMan, from Seattle-based Graphical Dynamics Inc., works both as an alarm clock reminder and as a kind of robot servant that will start an application at a preset time, and then execute commands according to previous instructions. "A lot of people use it to run tape backups in the middle of the night, to do disk optimization once a week, or to do [regular] virus checks," says CEO Jennifer Palonus. "People also use it to start a communications program to do an E- mail run at night or to send faxes at night, when phone rates are lower." One can imagine the enterprising graduate student automating late-night data acquisition and analysis procedures. ClockMan requires Windows and costs $49.95. "The Periodic Table," available from Inner Access Corp. of Belmont, Calif., appears to be a standard periodic table of the elements, and is, in fact, a reference tool rather than a program designed to perform a particular task. However, using the mouse to click on the individual elements brings up information not usually included with the wall-chart version of the table: discovery and naming history, emission and absorption spectra, common isotopes, electron shell structure, crystalline structure, and more. Also, information areas of the table not specific to the elements, such as element groupings, can be expanded. A mouse click on "Actinides," for example, produces a box with this explanation: "Actinium and the actinides are radioactive and, from neptunium on, all are synthetic. They have been produced in nuclear reactors or by using particle accelerators." Company president and software author Coralin Feierbach says that she originally undertook to create The Periodic Table as a relatively controlled learning project to teach herself to program in the Windows environment. The project quickly mushroomed, and recruits were called in. "My husband entered all the data," she says. "It was sort of a labor of love." Now, she stays in touch with researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., to be sure the table is fully up to date in all respects. "We're up to element 109," Feierbach says. The Periodic Table requires Windows and costs $49.

Special-Use Scientific Software Meeting Labs' Niche Needs

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