Countercurrent 1982

Chapter 2002 Image Transfer Software
"At present, this kind of software has realized some functions. There is no problem with text transmission, and it also supports batch text transmission." Duan Fang glanced at his brother, and then said: "It is still difficult to realize picture transmission, but we have borrowed from some foreign countries. The design idea of ​​similar software is to compress the image file to a certain ratio, and then the user on the receiving end can decompress and view it, which is roughly the principle.”

"This direction is correct." Duan Yun nodded.

In this era, picture transmission is not an easy task, especially for large-scale picture transmission, which often requires very bulky equipment.

For those journalists before the 90s, especially those stationed overseas, it was very common to pass photos.Although there is no network, as long as the phone can be connected, the tool used is a device called UPI16-S.

UPI16-S is the professional equipment of United Press International, and its function is to transmit photos over a long distance.

The reporter rolls the printed picture into the roller on the equipment, and then starts the machine to start conveying.As the drum rotates at a constant speed, the laser beam slowly scans the image and transmits the signal back to headquarters.At that time, it was not so convenient to connect to the telephone line, so the operation method seemed somewhat rough. It was necessary to disassemble one end of the microphone and connect the connection line at the other end, and the call could not be interrupted during the whole process, otherwise, the picture transmission would be lost. It will be abandoned halfway. Considering the number of international long-distance calls and picture transmissions at that time, the cross-border picture transmission at that time was very time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly.

After all, it is a relatively primitive technology, and the transmission speed is extremely slow.Black and white photos are okay, it takes 8 or 9 minutes to upload one.If it is a color photo, it may have to wait a long time.Even if the phone line signal is perfect, if it is a cross-border transfer, it sometimes takes an hour.

In addition to UPI16-S, major news agencies have also developed their own photo transmission machines, which are similar in principle.Even though the transmission speed of this kind of equipment has been greatly improved in the later period, its bulkiness and difficulty in maintenance still drive many reporters crazy.

It was not until 1991 that new technologies for image transmission finally appeared.

UPI's UPI Model 16-S tool worked until 1991 before being replaced by newer technology.For example, the Hasselblad Dixel digital photo transmission machine, which was used by reporters during the Gulf War in 1991 to transmit news photos.

After the Internet age, there was a major breakthrough in picture transmission technology.

On August 1991, 8, Berners-Lee posted an introduction to the World Wide Web project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup.The day also marks the debut of the World Wide Web public service on the Internet.

Subsequently, the development and application of the Internet continued to make new leaps, and the number of Internet users showed an exponential growth trend.The transmission of pictures has also entered the Internet age.

As you know, at this time you can transfer pictures via email, MSN, QQ and other instant messaging tools.

With the emergence of smart phones and mobile networks, not only can you send pictures through computers, but you can also send pictures of selfies, scenery, and food through mobile phones anytime, anywhere.

Of course, journalists stationed overseas don't need to carry such bulky tools as map transmitting machines.

However, in areas with poor network conditions or no network at all, the usual Internet transmission methods cannot be used.At this time, reporters usually rent a satellite phone to transmit the manuscript.

The era of professional software map transfer

The wheels of history are rolling forward, and the history of picture transmission is no exception, and professional transmission software has emerged as the times require.

In later generations, there were not many mature professional transfer software in China, and Ftrans is one of the good ones. Through the ultra-high-speed transmission protocol CUTP, Ftrans completely overcomes the inherent bottleneck of traditional transmission methods such as FTP and HTTP, and brings true high-performance digital transmission.For Ftrans, image size, network conditions, and distance are not problems.

Ftrans also has breakpoint resume transmission, multiple verification, automatic retransmission, digital encryption and other technologies to ensure correct and safe image transmission.Translated into an easy-to-understand language, you don't have to worry about the wrong picture transmission, and you don't have to keep staring at it during the transmission. If it is interrupted, it will be connected automatically, and you don't have to worry about the picture being stolen during the transmission process.

However, at present, considering that government departments, enterprises and institutions that use domestic systems often publish some files and pictures internally, and this kind of file transmission will be very frequent, if the smooth transmission within the LAN cannot be done well, then Duanyun’s This set of domestic software will definitely be replaced by foreign related software in the future.

From the current point of view, there is no problem with Duan Yun's domestic system for transferring text files, because the text files are small in size, and even if it transfers the entire book content, it will not take long, but the image transfer is different. Sometimes a picture with a higher definition is even larger than the volume of a text file in a book. Therefore, considering the urgent needs of users, Duan Yun must first solve the speed of picture transmission in the LAN as soon as possible.

Nowadays, the World Wide Web has not been introduced in China, but Duan Yun must also prepare corresponding technical responses in advance. In fact, the R&D center of Tianyin Headquarters has set up a special software team to develop instant messaging software similar to QQ.

So now Tianyin headquarters is in charge of researching and developing technical communication software, which is aimed at the Internet, while the BJ branch mainly considers the needs of domestic operating system users, and first makes a system software that can only be used in the local area network. From this point of view, it can be regarded as a reasonable use of resources.

In fact, the earliest ICQ developed by the Israelis only has the function of text transmission. It was not until 1999 that it had the ability to transmit pictures. However, the speed of picture transmission is relatively slow, which tests the patience of users.

"I still lack some manpower here. Many of the new employees are graduates of computer science, but they have no R&D experience, and they still need a certain amount of time to train and adapt to the working environment here, so brother, can you come from the head office? Call in a few experts to solve the problems related to the domestic operating system first," Duan Fang said.

Faced with the problem of picture transmission, Duan Fang still felt a little powerless. The most important thing was that there were still too few software experts on his side to solve this project.

"This matter is easy to handle. Later, I will transfer a group of people from the Spark Studio to try to make the prototype of this software within three months. The success of the promotion of the domestic operating system is related to our group. The company's computer and chip industry, so we must be attentive to this project, and we must also try our best to solve any comments and requests from customers. If you can't solve it here, you must call me as soon as possible. The current network Technology is developing very fast, if you are a little slow, you will be eliminated by the market..." Duan Yun said seriously.

(End of this chapter)