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. . . IRAS NEWSLETTER #2, 19MMM2001
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. . .
From christian.singfield@sautec.com.au Mon Feb 19 03:30:07 2001
Delivered-To: rnelson@walden3d.com
From: Christian Singfield
To: "Graeme Menzie (E-mail)" ,
"John C. Pohlman (E-mail)" ,
"John Risinger (E-mail)" ,
"Michael Blanche (E-mail)" ,
"Roice Nelson Jr. (E-mail)"
Subject: IRAS Report # 2
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 19:43:28 +1100
MIME-Version: 1.0
IRASNET NEWS LETTER ISSUE # 2
WEEK ENDING FEB 18, 2001
I have not received any feed back from corporate (Melbourne Group) regarding
issues raised in last weeks newsletter so I have just been proceeding on
best guess.
PILOT PROGRAM
Prototypes
Without the input from a mechanical + electronic engineer, draftsman
and machinists it is very hard to nail down final cost's, or time, to build
the next generation prototypes. I have approached Nicholas Stone of
Automated Information Systems (See Directors & Friends for details) to
consider taking over the design, and construction of the next 2 prototypes.
Nick has been working with the IRAS project for the last 2.5 years and is
currently working as an independent contractor. He is based in the
facilitates of the National Centre for Engineering and Agriculture, which is
part of the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba campus. This centre
is a self contained R&D centre with it's own machine shop and design
personal. http://www.ncea.org.au
I have approached Nick to consider taking over the design and
development of the Cuttings and Core Unit working from his current facility.
This will then give the project the best chance of getting the next
generation prototypes finished at the fastest pace given this centre
specialises in prototype fabrications and the IRAS units are no more complex
then what they normally work on.
Nick will begin working on a detailed development budget starting
from the week beginning February 27th, 2001. I have made arrangements for
the current prototype to be transported up to the campus for Nick and his
team to use during their planning period.
Computers
Work on the quote was progressed this week with most of the time
being taken up finding suppliers of the components needed to build the
computer equipment.
I have decided to structure the computer equipment into 2
categories:
- The first category is "entry level". This involves all of the
necessary equipment to capture, process, backup, serve, host and store
digital images using both the core imaging, and the cuttings prototypes.
- The second category involves cache storage. This is the storage
necessary to hold the processed images for internet viewing. Each unit will
have a holding capacity of 450Gb's.
Once at this point we will have the maximum flexibility to move in
any direction quickly.
Development Testing
This week I started evaluation trials on the IRAS DATA STORE. These
test are being conducted using an IDE RAID controller with 3 ATA100 IDE
drives. Theoretical speeds are meant to equal 100MB/sec. Initial tests
indicate very effective network transfer speeds of up to 6 MB/sec over a
100Mbit network. Test will be on going to work out the final configuration.
These test will only provide a theoretical result due to the lack of funding
to acquire the actual equipment that is being specified for the final DATA
STORE.
Internet Services/Server
The current ISP that is hosting our website is becoming unstable to
the point that we will need to consider moving the current web server.
Several options for an Internet connection were found with the lowest cost
option being around the $5,000 mark, up to $35,000. Band width varying from
256Kb to 1Mb.
The server configuration is requiring some serious updating. At the
moment only users that logon with Internet Explorer 5.0 and above can view
the JAVA part of the web site. Netscape doesn't work and will need to be
fixed given most of the American logon's are with Netscape. We are taking
some bad hits on this one.
Accommodation
I have located 2 possible office locations that can be rented for a
6 month period. Both are local to myself and I will have full pricing by the
end of next week.
Consultants
Andrew Niven
Andrew has been advised that he will be put on the Melbourne Groups
payroll effective March 1st, 2001 for a 6 month period. To this end he has
given notice to his current place of employment.
Borland
A meeting with Mr. Christopher M Mendes, Practice Manager, for
Tuesday morning has been scheduled. Andrew Niven, and myself will be
attending. This meeting will give Christopher a chance to better understand
the nature of our project and I shall be passing onto him a list of targets
and goals that will enable him to quote on. His company is well placed to
provide us the following information regarding the software that has been
written by Andrew Niven for the IRAS project:
- A full commercial evaluation of the current IRAS project software.
- An indication of the potential global market outside of petroleum and mining for the software both as modules and as a complete package.
- A critical development path plan for completing the software
to a stage for running our pilot program in both financial and human
resources not to mention time.
- An assessment of Andrew Nivens skills and a recommendation
on his monthly remuneration.
Patents
This is now becoming a very high priority category. As mentioned
below we are now starting to introduce our work to some very large research
facilities and some that are already working towards our current positions.
Given some of the feed back from John Pohlman I estimate that we could have
less than 12 months head start and we need to be starting with our patent
protection sooner than later.
Allen Evens is primed and waiting.
New Contacts
During this last week several new contacts were made.
Via Roice Nelson:
- Mr. Bryan Bentz
Computer Scientist
Bentz Engineering
bentz@bentz-engineering.com
1-860-536-1477
I managed to give Bryan a "Talk Through" of our site and a basic
background to the software image serving benefits. Roice feels Bryan would
be well placed to offer the group a marketing option into none mining and
petroleum related markets. I will be doing a follow up with Bryan this week.
Via John Pohlman: (Extract from his email)
- Had a really interesting afternoon yesterday. Spoke
with an acquaintance in the University of Oklahoma core labs. He is really
interested in our stuff, so I referred him to the web site. He, in turn,
referred me to one of the people responsible for maintaining the core
repository for BP/Amoco, whom I will called but had to leave a message.
I was also referred to the two gentlemen who run the core research
facilities at the University of Oklahoma on behest of BP. They occupy the
old Amoco research facility in Tulsa. It turns out that one of them is the
guy who set up the research facility for Amoco, whom I know from the past,
and the other one is a former professor from University of Colorado who left
CU just as I was starting my doctorate work there.
I called him and we had about a 90 minute discussion of what they
are doing, what we are doing, and how we can do it together. It took a bit
of remembering, but he finally visualized who I was and even remembered my
research topics. Quite a memory.
They have just put together a 12-company consortium to fund their
core research. They are assembling a petrophysical database which is
designed to attach to well data and to provide all of the analytical results
tied to depth, features, production, or whatever.
When I described what we are up to, he was extraordinarily
interested as he also sees the synergy between our work and theirs. I also
referred him to the web site. In short, we will be exploring ways to get
their input into our development process. They are also doing both
ultraviolet and infrared light research into determination of rock and
kerogen properties, and they are also working with point laser measurements
and a bunch of the other stuff we are talking about including. They seem
willing to work with us to make sure that we have the "best of the best" and
most up to date techniques designed in to what we will be able to offer.
The OU lab would be a perfect joint development partner, if this
comes to pass, as they have credibility, resources, and their own funding.
Of course, they know the bunch at the BEG and elsewhere, so we should be
able to cooperate with all of them to our benefit. I will be following up
with OU and with BP to get some more numbers and ancillary data.
I have been invited to Tulsa to spend time in the labs and to address their
group regarding how we might work to common ends. I have tactfully delayed
this until we are actually running, but we will be getting together at the
upcoming AAPG. I am looking forward to that.
Via Ian Cowling:
- Francis Cox
Team Leader - Vision Systems Group MLA
Brisbane
Ph 61 7 3804 9814
Mob 61 418 872 873
Email fcox@vqa.com.au
Vision Systems Group is a division of Meat and Livestock Australia.
It was formed from a research group built over 4 years that was developing
and commercialising vision analysis technology for the red meat industry.
The team has been responsible for several systems in use in Australia which
identify and measure image parameters of beef and lamb in a harsh
environment and produce real-time predictions of quality and quantity of the
meat content realised further downstream in the process chain. The
predictions and measurements are based on a combination of precise colour
and dimensional measurements with algorithms regressed from extensive
statistical trials. In the development history, 5 international patents
have been registered. There is a pool of highly developed talent for image
analysis, software engineering and colour calibration expertise.
I have made arrangements to visit this facility this week and
explore their capacity to develop OCR technology for the project. Francis
also mentioned their interest in our image serving technology.
Active Contacts Not to be forgotten!
- Mr. Bob Snieder - Intro to BEG currently
waiting for Roice Nelson to follow up with BEG directly. should here back
from Roice in Week # 4.
- Saudis - This is a John Pohlman
contact and it should be acted upon once a corporate strategy has been
determined.
- R & D Groups - Again John Pohlman contacts
with industry R & D groups with big budgets and an active interest in core
imaging. This needs to be followed up.
- Santos - Chris Singfield contact
currently on hold waiting for policy from corporate.
- Mr. Kevin O'Hara - Director of Centrex
Technologies out of Sydney. He represents medical interest. Currently on
hold waiting for response from corporate.
That's all for now!
Cheers
Christian Singfield
General Manager
Sautec Pty Ltd
christians@sautec.com.au
http://www.sautec.com.au
Tel 0500-800-404
Fax 0500-800-405
Int Tel 61-500-800-404
Int Fax 61-500-800-405
(If you experience any difficulty with the above numbers please contact
Telstra on 18500 for Local, 61 180 18580 (for international) and they will
connect you.
. . .
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