Broadband Internet makes it possible for Imaginestics LLC's clients to use VizSeek, said Nainesh Rathod, president and chief executive of the West Lafayette firm. The site, which was formally launched in January, processes about 100 times more information in the same amount of time as a text search, he said. Manufacturers can upload 3-D models of the parts they want or simply draw the outline on the site's sketchpad feature.

"If you can doodle it," Rathod said, "we can find it."

Other companies are creating ways for businesses to hold international staff meetings without any employees leaving their home offices. Telepresence technology - a more advanced form of videoconferencing - aims to make people on different continents feel as if they are having a face-to-face conversation, said Howard Lichtman, president of the Human Productivity Lab. The Ashburn, Va.-based company is a research and consulting firm that helps businesses decide how to best use telepresence technology.

Some telepresence rooms are designed to look like a board room. Participants in meetings speak to life-size images of co-workers in distant locations displayed on video screens covering one wall. High-capacity Internet connections, studio lighting and quality sound systems add to the illusion that the participants are in the same room, Lichtman said.

"This is immersive; it's comfortable," he said. "People like it, whereas the same cannot really be said about traditional videoconferencing."

The technology also can be used to give medical students a view into an operating room or for classes to hear a faraway lecturer, Lichtman said. Costs can range from $50,000 to more than $400,000 for a telepresence room.

About 300 telepresence rooms had been constructed or were being installed last year, Lichtman said. He estimates 650 more will be built this year.

Home versions could be introduced in about two years, he said.

The first Killer App conference accomplished its goals to bring people together from across the country to discuss ways to make the most of high-speed Internet technology, Mayor Graham Richard said. Municipal officials, developers and telecommunications workers interacted during the event.

"They're sharing their ideas," he said. "They're talking about how broadband can improve their communities."

email: jglenn (at) jg (dot) net
[via Fort Wayne Journal Gazette]