Kodak Imaging Science at Winter Olympics

When the Winter Olympics kick off this weekend in Torino, Italy, technology from Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., USA, will be present at many venues for the athletes and for the press.

With security an international concern, Kodak document imaging technologies will produce some 300,000 security badges and 60,000 visa credentials required for athletes, officials, volunteers, and sponsors at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Each credential will be produced in just 10 seconds. Using a bank of Kodak Digital Science Color Scanners 3590C, a team of eight Kodak technicians will capture Olympic participants' personal information from paper applications. The data will then be merged with each applicant's digital photo to create an electronic record, and security credentials will be produced.

About 75 Kodak EasyShare digital cameras will be used to photograph each applicant. Credentials will be printed using the Kodak Professional ML-500 Digital Photo Printers and professional thermal media. In addition, 50 Kodak 8660 thermal printers will be networked and placed at 23 remote sites around the Olympic venues to use in replacing lost credentials for Olympic participants.

The Kodak Image Center, a 20,000 square-foot facility within the Main Press Center, will provide digital photographic products and services, and traditional film, to accredited professional photographers. Kodak will digitally manage 100 percent of an estimated 3 million images to be processed through the Image Center, enabling photographers and photo editors to share these memorable moments via high-speed Internet connections with editors, producers, and audiences worldwide.

Olympic fans can print, share, and store their Olympic memories at the Kodak "store within a store," a dedicated section of the larger Olympic SuperStore. In the Kodak section, a wide range of Kodak EasyShare Digital Cameras and Printer Docks, an island of several Kodak Picture Maker G4 kiosks for digital printing, one-time-use cameras and other photographic accessories will be available.