MINERVA superseeded IF/Prolog.
Please see
http://www.ifcomputer.co.jp/MINERVA
for details.
We discontinued to sell IF/Prolog Dec 31. 2003.
For current customers, we continue to provide
professional support for IF/Prolog until Dec 31, 2008.
The optical retail chain Paris Miki deals with tens of thousands
of lenses and frames but only a limited number of them are displayed at
each shop and customers usually try on, only some of them.
IF Computer Japan Ltd has developed in accordance with the order of
Paris Miki an expert design system for spectacle design. It is aimed
to reduce inventory and at the same time to improve customer service.
In this system, the design of spectacles are made to order.
A picture of a customer's face is taken and data regarding it are
fed into the computer as input data. The system uses much higher
resolution images than that shown above. The expert system proposes
a design of the spectacles matching the customer's face. It visualizes
the face with the proposed spectacles on the screen of the computer
monitor. Based on the proposal and the consultation by the sales
representatives, the design is fixed, which is transmitted from the
graphics workstations to the manufacturing unit using a local area
network in the boutique. The spectacles are completed within an hour.
As the base of proposing the design, the expert system uses among
others data on the color of skin and hair of the customer, individual
preference, optical knowledge and designer know-how to propose shape
and color for fashionable and functional spectacles to match the
wearer's personality and style.
When this project was finished, "the knowledge engineering interviews
with InterFace Computer and the resulting documents helped to structure
and organize our own expertise" said Mr. Hiroyuki Fujie, who is in
charge of the system's development within Miki.
Business Partner : NEC, Nemesys
Hardware : NEC EWS4800
Software : IF/Prolog,C
| 
