Microtek
Encyclopedia
Microtek International Inc. is a Taiwan
-based manufacturer of digital imaging
products and other consumer
electronics
. Among its current product line are Microtek branded plasma
and LCD TVs
, LCD flat panel monitors
, LCD and DLP projectors
, and digital cameras as well as their flagship line of affordable scanners
that include flatbeds, film scanner
s, and document imaging scanners
. In 2007, Microtek launched Cineon, a premium line of HDTVs.
Microtek's products are used in a broad range of applications and environments, from small office
, home office, corporate, education
and government
settings to high-end professional publishing
, printing
and pre-press service providers.
, Taiwan (Hsinchu Science Park
). Its United States
subsidiary, Microtek Lab Inc., is currently headquartered in Cerritos
, California
.
Microtek first entered the industry in 1983, when scanners were little more than expensive tools for hobbyists. In 1984, it introduced the MS-300A, the world’s first desktop halftone scanner. At about the same time, the company realized a need for scanning software for mainstream users and developed EyeStar, the world’s first scanning software application. EyeStar made desktop scanning a functional reality, serving as the de-facto standard for image format for importing graphics before TIFF came to fruition. Continuing its leading-edge approach to the scanning industry, Microtek proceeded to develop the first OCR
, or Optical Character Recognition, program for text scanning, once more successfully integrating a core function of scanning with its machines.
Throughout the 25-year history of the digital imaging industry, Microtek has pioneered several first-to-market scanning products. To date, Microtek holds the record for a number of world-firsts in the scanner industry. These product milestones include:
labs located in California and Taiwan dedicated to optics design, mechanical
and electronic engineering
, software development
, product quality, and technological advancement. It has an advanced research laboratory, established in 1996, that serves to fuse and strengthen key technologies, such that the company has gone on to garner some 130 patents since then. In 2005, Microtek leveraged this experience in digital imaging toward television
s and launched its first Microtek branded flat-screen EDTV
, the MHP-1. It was shortly followed by an HDTV version, the MHP-1 HD. In 2007, Microtek, in addition to its full line of HDTVs, launched Cineon
a premium line of flat-screen HDTVs aimed at custom installers and specialty markets.
, Singapore
, and Taiwan
. Its distribution network throughout North
and South America
includes Ingram Micro
, Tech Data
, Wynit, and D&H. Additionally, Microtek and Cineon products can be found in retail channel outlets including Best Buy
, CompUSA
, Office Depot
, Staples
, Micro Center
, Fry’s
, P. C. Richard & Son
, Fred Meyer
, and B&H Wholesale. Microtek products also can be purchased through online websites, mail order
catalogs, VAR
s and systems integrators. In addition Microtek managed to bargain a worldwide bundle deal with software manufacturer LaserSoft Imaging
to deliver SilverFast
with their scanner line.
In 2009, Microtek announced that it would be halting all commercial and professional sales in North America.
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
-based manufacturer of digital imaging
Digital imaging
Digital imaging or digital image acquisition is the creation of digital images, typically from a physical scene. The term is often assumed to imply or include the processing, compression, storage, printing, and display of such images...
products and other consumer
Consumer
Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
. Among its current product line are Microtek branded plasma
Plasma display
A plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...
and LCD TVs
Liquid crystal display television
Liquid-crystal display televisions are television sets that use LCD display technology to produce images. LCD televisions are thinner and lighter than cathode ray tube of similar display size, and are available in much larger sizes...
, LCD flat panel monitors
Video monitor
A video monitor also called a broadcast monitor, broadcast reference monitor or just reference monitor, is a display device similar to a television set, used to monitor the output of a video-generating device, such as playout from a video server, IRD, video camera, VCR, or DVD player. It may or...
, LCD and DLP projectors
Video projector
A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. All video projectors use a very bright light to project the image, and most modern ones can correct any curves, blurriness, and other...
, and digital cameras as well as their flagship line of affordable scanners
Image scanner
In computing, an image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of the desktop scanner where the document is placed on a glass...
that include flatbeds, film scanner
Film scanner
A film scanner is a device made for scanning photographic film directly into a computer without the use of any intermediate printmaking. It provides several benefits over using a flatbed scanner to scan in a print of any size: the photographer has direct control over cropping and aspect ratio from...
s, and document imaging scanners
Image scanner
In computing, an image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of the desktop scanner where the document is placed on a glass...
. In 2007, Microtek launched Cineon, a premium line of HDTVs.
Microtek's products are used in a broad range of applications and environments, from small office
Office
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the...
, home office, corporate, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
and government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
settings to high-end professional publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
, printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
and pre-press service providers.
History
The company was founded in 1980 by Dr. Bobo Wang and is based today in HsinchuHsinchu
Hsinchu City is a city in northern Taiwan. Hsinchu is popularly nicknamed "The Windy City" for its windy climate.Hsinchu City is administered as a special municipality within Taiwan . The city is bordered by Hsinchu County to the north and east, Miaoli County to the south, and the Taiwan Strait...
, Taiwan (Hsinchu Science Park
Hsinchu Science Park
Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park is an industrial park established by the government of the Republic of China on December 15, 1980 with investment from the Kuomintang. It straddles Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County on the island of Taiwan....
). Its United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
subsidiary, Microtek Lab Inc., is currently headquartered in Cerritos
Cerritos, California
Cerritos is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and is one of several cities that constitute the Gateway Cities of southeast Los Angeles County. It was incorporated on April 24, 1956...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Microtek first entered the industry in 1983, when scanners were little more than expensive tools for hobbyists. In 1984, it introduced the MS-300A, the world’s first desktop halftone scanner. At about the same time, the company realized a need for scanning software for mainstream users and developed EyeStar, the world’s first scanning software application. EyeStar made desktop scanning a functional reality, serving as the de-facto standard for image format for importing graphics before TIFF came to fruition. Continuing its leading-edge approach to the scanning industry, Microtek proceeded to develop the first OCR
Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
, or Optical Character Recognition, program for text scanning, once more successfully integrating a core function of scanning with its machines.
Throughout the 25-year history of the digital imaging industry, Microtek has pioneered several first-to-market scanning products. To date, Microtek holds the record for a number of world-firsts in the scanner industry. These product milestones include:
- First affordable black and white scanner equipped w/complete set of desktop publishing tools
- First grayscale image scanner
- First affordable film scanner
- First affordable color scanner
- First 36-bit color flatbed scanner
- First to introduce emulsion-direct scanning technology or E.D.I.T. for glassless film scanning
- First bundled crafting kit
- First flatbed scanner to incorporate Fast USB (USB 2.0)
- First flatbed scanner with integrated Digital ICEDigital ICEDigital Image Correction and Enhancement is a set of technologies related to producing an altered image in a variety of frequency spectra. The objective of these technologies is to render an image more usable by Fourier or other filtering techniques...
technology for photo prints
Research, development, and Flat-Panel HDTVs
Microtek has research and developmentResearch and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
labs located in California and Taiwan dedicated to optics design, mechanical
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
and electronic engineering
Electronic engineering
Electronics engineering, also referred to as electronic engineering, is an engineering discipline where non-linear and active electrical components such as electron tubes, and semiconductor devices, especially transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, are utilized to design electronic...
, software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
, product quality, and technological advancement. It has an advanced research laboratory, established in 1996, that serves to fuse and strengthen key technologies, such that the company has gone on to garner some 130 patents since then. In 2005, Microtek leveraged this experience in digital imaging toward television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
s and launched its first Microtek branded flat-screen EDTV
EdTV
EDtv is a 1999 American comedy film directed by Ron Howard. An adaptation of the Quebec film Louis 19, le roi des ondes , it stars Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Ellen DeGeneres, Martin Landau, Rob Reiner, Sally Kirkland, Elizabeth Hurley, Clint Howard, and Dennis Hopper.The...
, the MHP-1. It was shortly followed by an HDTV version, the MHP-1 HD. In 2007, Microtek, in addition to its full line of HDTVs, launched Cineon
Cineon
Cineon System was a computer based system, integrating a film scanner and recorder hardware, digital software for compositing and effects, image restoration, color management and the development of a proprietary file format designed by Kodak. These components were created to support the work flow...
a premium line of flat-screen HDTVs aimed at custom installers and specialty markets.
Distribution
Today, Microtek has global operations and distribution channels around the world, with international subsidiaries in ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. Its distribution network throughout North
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
includes Ingram Micro
Ingram Micro
Ingram Micro, Inc. is a Fortune 100 company and the world’s largest information technology distributor, providing sales, marketing and logistics services for the IT industry in all corners of the globe.-Overview:...
, Tech Data
Tech Data
Tech Data Corporation is a wholesale distributor of technology products. Headquartered in Clearwater, FL. Tech Data generated $24.4 billion in net sales for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2011 and is ranked 109th on the...
, Wynit, and D&H. Additionally, Microtek and Cineon products can be found in retail channel outlets including Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
, CompUSA
CompUSA
CompUSA is a retailer and reseller of consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. Its headquarters are in Miami, Florida.Until its reorganization, CompUSA, Inc. was a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Commercial Corp S.A.B...
, Office Depot
Office Depot
Office Depot is a supplier of office products and provides many services. The company's selection of brand name office supplies includes business machines, computers, computer software and office furniture, while its business services encompass copying, printing, document reproduction, shipping,...
, Staples
Staples Business Depot
Staples is a Canadian office supply retail chain, part of the United States-based office supply company Staples Inc...
, Micro Center
Micro Center
Micro Center is an American computer department store founded in Columbus, Ohio in 1979 by two former Radio Shack employees. The first Micro Center store was a . storefront located in the Lane Avenue Shopping Center in Upper Arlington, Ohio...
, Fry’s
Fry's Electronics
Fry's Electronics is a big-box store and retailer of software, consumer electronics, computer hardware, with in store computer repair and custom computer building services and household appliances with a chain of superstores headquartered in Silicon Valley...
, P. C. Richard & Son
P. C. Richard & Son
P.C. Richard & Son, also known as simply P.C. Richard, is the largest chain of private, family-owned electronics and appliances stores in the United States. Its stores are located in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, with the majority of the stores located on Long Island and in...
, Fred Meyer
Fred Meyer
Fred Meyer, Inc., is a chain of hypermarkets founded in 1922 in Portland, Oregon, by Fred G. Meyer. The company was one of the pioneers of one-stop shopping, eventually combining a complete grocery supermarket with a drugstore, clothing store, shoe store, fine jewelers, home decor store, home...
, and B&H Wholesale. Microtek products also can be purchased through online websites, mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
catalogs, VAR
Value-added reseller
A value-added reseller is a company that adds features or services to an existing product, then resells it as an integrated product or complete "turn-key" solution...
s and systems integrators. In addition Microtek managed to bargain a worldwide bundle deal with software manufacturer LaserSoft Imaging
LaserSoft Imaging
LaserSoft Imaging AG is a software developer designing software such as SilverFast for scanners and digital cameras. The company's headquarters are located in Kiel, Germany, north of Hamburg, and another office in Sarasota, Florida, United States....
to deliver SilverFast
SilverFast
SilverFast is software for scanning and image processing, including photos, documents and slides, developed by LaserSoft Imaging.- History :...
with their scanner line.
In 2009, Microtek announced that it would be halting all commercial and professional sales in North America.