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Enhancements and New Features in ONYX™ PC Edition
(MAGic EyeMerge 11.0 – April 2008)

Numerous enhancements have been added to the MAGic EyeMerge image management software used with the ONYX PC Edition. The following briefly describes these new features. For additional information, consult the MAGic EyeMerge help file.

Camera Control through the Computer

You can now easily control the application using both menu bar commands and hot keys, which provide keyboard command shortcuts. This improves the ease of use by letting you change camera settings without having to move your hands from the keyboard or mouse, thus streamlining camera operation and image capture.

Auto Save Images

Auto Save is a new and very handy function. When you capture an image using F12+TAB, MAGic EyeMerge automatically creates a file name and saves the image to a specified folder on your computer. This allows you to concentrate on image capture without having to decide on where to store and what to name the file. By default, the file name includes a base name prefix, for example, EyeMerge, and a time stamp using the date and time the picture was taken. The base name can be a descriptive word to help you identify images associated with multiple cameras or magnification devices. The time stamp uses a two digit format for the year, month, day, hour, minutes, and seconds. Auto Save is turned on by default. You can control it by using the check box in the Preferences dialog box.

Flip

The Flip function is now available using the keyboard to issue the F12+Q hot key. It rotates the image between normal, mirrored, upside down, and upside down mirrored views. Previously, you could only flip an image using the ONYX camera's remote control. Use SHIFT+F12+Q to switch between views in reverse order.

Computer and Camera View

As in previous releases, you can use F12+V to rotate between full screen camera, full screen computer, and split screen views. Additional key assignments have been made in this release to allow you to go directly to a specific view.

• F12+HOME switches to camera view
• F12+END switches to computer view
• F12+PAGE UP switches to split view

Split Image Position

When using the split view, you may want to position the camera image at different screen locations while carrying out computer tasks. In previous releases, F12+P moved the position of the camera image around the screen in a clockwise direction starting with the image at top, right, bottom, and then left screen positions. F12+P has now been reassigned to Split Screen Orientation and toggles between horizontal and vertical orientation. F12+F toggles the camera image position from top to bottom or from left to right based on screen orientation.

Zoom

With MAGic EyeMerge, you can now zoom in and zoom out smoothly or incrementally using the new F12+F2 and F12+F1 hot keys. The advantage of using the hot keys over the ONYX remote control's PLUS and MINUS buttons is that while holding F12 and tapping the F2 or F1 keys you can zoom in or zoom out in steps.

Find

The Find feature allows you to quickly zoom out with the camera, locate a new point of interest, and return to the previous zoom level to view the new object. For example, a professor has written an equation on the classroom's chalkboard. While you are making notes, the professor writes another equation. Using Find, you can zoom out, manually move the camera until you locate the new text, and then, using the crosshairs, center the camera on the equation and zoom in to see a clear, close up image. The crosshairs disappear after the camera zooms in.

This very popular and powerful ONYX camera feature has been expanded when using the keyboard. With the keyboard, press and hold the new F12+A hot key to turn on Find, display the crosshairs, and zoom out to a zoom level that makes it comfortable to move the camera and locate the new point of interest. You can adjust the zoom level while the crosshairs are on using the F12+F2 and F12+F1 Zoom hot keys. Once you have centered the camera view on the new point of interest, press F12+A to turn off the crosshairs and zoom in to the previous zoom level view.

Focus Lock and Freeze Frame

The built-in Auto Focus, lets the camera automatically focus on the object that is closest to the camera, making it easy to change the distance at which you are viewing without having to manually adjust the focus. At times however, objects moving into the foreground such as a raised hand may cause focus to blur on the object you are actually viewing. Focus Lock turns Auto Focus off, leaving the focus at its current setting. You can toggle this powerful feature on or off with the new F12+D hot key, or select the Enable Focus check box on the new Camera tab page.

Freeze Frame (F12+Z) allows you to have prolonged viewing of an object even after it has been removed or erased. When Freeze Frame is enabled, the current image becomes static and remains as the screen image until you press F12+Z again to turn off Freeze Frame.

By using the keyboard commands to activate each of these functions, you can continue to keep your focus locked while toggling Freeze Frame on and off.

Image Capture Functions

Greater functionality has been added for Image Capture. For example:

• The new F12+TAB hot key takes a snapshot of the current camera view, automatically assigns it a file name, and saves it to the My Pictures folder. The new file is also added to the Images list in the Manage Image dialog box. This hot key replaces the F12+I hot key, previously used to capture a snapshot.
• Use F12+DELETE to delete a captured image from your computer. This is especially useful when something impedes the camera view of the image at the point when the snapshot is captured.
• You can now capture an unlimited number of images per camera. Earlier MAGic EyeMerge releases limited you to only nine images.
• You can scroll through all active images using F12+SPACEBAR and F12+SHIFT+SPACEBAR
• Using the F12+1 through F12+9 hot keys, you can jump to the last nine images created with F12+1 being the most recent, and, descending in order, F12+9 being the oldest image.
• Pressing F12+0 (zero) returns your view to the live camera image.
• The Manage Image dialog box now shows a thumbnail image. This is a very effective feature when searching for a specific image to load or when renaming images to a more descriptive name.

File Preferences

The Preferences dialog box has been expanded to include the following functions:

• The Auto Save check box allows MAGic EyeMerge to name and save files as previously described.
• The Base Name edit box defines the descriptive word that you want as a file name prefix. This is helpful when trying to identify images created using different cameras or magnification devices. The default base name is EyeMerge.
• The Location edit box defines where images are saved on your computer. The default folder is C:\Documents and Settings\user name\My Documents\My Pictures.
• The Image Type combo box lets you quickly select a default graphic format for image files. The default is PNG, but this can be changed to BMP, GIF, JPEG or TIFF.
• The Warn When Deleting Files check box determines if an alert message appears when using the Manage Image dialog box to delete images.

Color Mode

Camera modes can often be used to reduce glare and make images easier to read. With this release of MAGic EyeMerge, you are able to easily rotate between the four color modes or go directly to the desired color mode. For example:

• F12+E cycles through the four Color modes
• F12+SHIFT+A switches to Normal (full color) mode
• F12+SHIFT+S switches to Negative (inverted color) mode
• F12+SHIFT+D switches to Black on White (positive) mode
• F12+SHIFT+F switches to White on Black (negative) mode

Image Enhancement

Depending on lighting conditions and things such as image quality and contrast, you may want to vary standard settings for brightness, hue, saturation, and contrast. You can now quickly adjust these settings using the keyboard. For example:

• F12+B increases brightness (intensity of light) of the view while F12+SHIFT+B decreases brightness
• F12+H increases hue (shade of a color) of the view while F12+SHIFT+B decreases hue
• F12+B increases saturation (color intensity) of the view while F12+SHIFT+B decreases saturation
• F12+C increases contrast (difference between the lightest and the darkest parts of the image) of the view while F12+SHIFT+C decreases contrast

Image Management

The Manage Images dialog box has been enhanced to make it easier to perform such tasks as loading previously saved images, renaming images, or deleting images. Press F12+G at any time to open the Manage Image dialog box.

Camera Power

The ONYX camera can now be turned on or off from the MAGic EyeMerge interface or with the F12+X hot key. The POWER UP or POWER DOWN toggle button is located on the View tab page.

Press ALT+LEFT ARROW to return to the previous page.