Synthonics Secures Contract with Smithsonian Institution to Produce Interactive CD-ROM Featuring Museum Collections.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 20, 1997--

3-D Technology to Open Vast Archives of Seldom Seen

Artifacts to the Public

Synthonics Technologies Inc. (OBB:SNNT) has reached an agreement with the Smithsonian to create a multimedia CD-ROM that will let consumers interact with hundreds of artifacts housed in the Institution's 16 museums, at home on a standard PC.

Featured as the centerpiece of the CD-ROM will be many artifacts presented as accurate 3-D replicas created by Synthonics' proprietary software. For the first time, anyone with a PC will be able to handle, control and examine 3-D digital replicas of some of the nation's most treasured mementos and historical artifacts.

For the project, Smithsonian staff members will select artifacts and artworks from the Institution's diverse museums and galleries for inclusion in the product. Synthonics will then use its patented photogrammetric processes to convert many of the static pieces into animated 3-D models that simulate how the historical items were used and operated in centuries past.

Under the agreement, Synthonics will produce a complete interactive CD-ROM that includes static and animated displays as well as supporting text and sound tracks as part of an "electronic tour" of some of the Institution's finest pieces. The product will be sold in museum shops, bookstores and on the Web and be another educational tool to further the Institution's mandate to make the vast cultural and historical experiences it holds available to many millions more than are able to visit its museums.

When completed, the product will be available through Smithsonian distribution channels and through traditional consumer CD-ROM distribution channels consisting of book stores, PC software retailers and major chains carrying electronic products.

Mike Budd, president and chief executive officer, Synthonics Technologies, said the CD-ROM will feature some of the better known historical items from exhibits in the Smithsonian's collections, but will also include select rare pieces digitally rendered in 3-D using Synthonics' "Rapid Virtual Reality(TM)" (RVR).

The Smithsonian has more than 152 million items and artifacts currently in its collections, of which approximately 90 percent are in museum storage where they are seldom or never displayed. A number of the images and replicas contained in the CD-ROM will be of these stored and seldom viewed artifacts.

"Synthonics' technology puts a new, accurate but affordable educational tool in the hands of curators. It is now possible for museums like the Smithsonian to dramatically increase access to and allow interaction with all of the artifacts included in its collections," said Mike Carrigan, external affairs officer for the Smithsonian.

The CD-ROM will use a combination of 3-D photo-realistic modeling and state-of-the-art multimedia techniques to deliver enhanced sight and sound product renditions of artifacts from Smithsonian collections. Synthonics expects this cultural and educational CD-ROM to be appealing to a wide variety of PC users, from students and teachers to historians and researchers.

About Synthonics

Synthonics also licenses RVR, which allows for a more complete examination of objects than previously available, for uses that go beyond educational and historical re-enactments to other forms of multimedia presentations, online catalogs and electronic commerce.

Headquartered in Westlake Village, Synthonics Technologies Inc. (Electronic Bulletin Board symbol "SNNT"), licenses advanced 3-D virtual reality imaging technologies for use in PC and Internet applications. For information, call 818/707-6000, E-mail synthonics@synthonics.com, or visit the Web site: http://www.synthonics.com/ .

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