PRESS: Informix and Excalibur Announce Three New Revolutionary

Informix and Excalibur Announce Three New Revolutionary DataBlade Modules for the INFORMIX(r)-Universal Server Excalibur Offers Complete Suite of DataBlade Modules for Text and Visual Knowledge Retrieval MENLO PARK, CA and VIENNA, VA, November 20, 1996 -- Excalibur Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: EXCA), the leading provider of software solutions for knowledge retrieval, and Informix Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: IFMX), the leading provider of innovative database technology, today announced that Excalibur will create and distribute three new DataBlade modules for the INFORMIX(r)-Universal Server: FaceRecognition, SceneChange, and Real-Time Profiling DataBlade modules. Excalibur becomes the first and only knowledge retrieval software provider to offer a comprehensive suite of text and visual knowledge retrieval DataBlade modules for INFORMIX-Universal Server. Excalibur now provides a total of five DataBlade modules for the INFORMIX-Universal Server, currently the most DataBlade modules offered by any Informix partner. The three new DataBlade modules from Excalibur follow an announcement in June by Informix and Excalibur to integrate basic text and image retrieval capabilities from Excalibur into each copy of the INFORMIX-Universal Server. The FaceRecognition, SceneChange, and Real-Time Profiling DataBlade modules are scheduled for availability from Excalibur in December, also the time when the INFORMIX-Universal Server is expected to ship. The Excalibur Datablade modules enable open, innovative, and easy-to-build, high-performance applications using the INFORMIX-Universal Server. Informix provides a true object/relational universal server that offers safe in-server optimization across multiple datatypes, giving customers fast manipulation of any kind of data. FaceRecognition DataBlade Module The new Excalibur FaceRecognition DataBlade module is based on state-of-the-art feature extracting and processing techniques unique to Excalibur Technologies. This technology will allow developers to build an index based on the features and characteristics of any face. This index allows an end user application to search for an image based on these unique facial characteristics and match them to a similar target (face). Characteristics indexed in the process include: size and shape of the face, the eyes, the nose, the mouth, etc. Spatial relationships between such features are also measured and indexed. A typical application for the FaceRecognition DataBlade module would be in a secured or controlled access environment where entry to a particular room is determined based on a match of a face against a database containing employees images. Access is granted to an employee if the new image of the person matches an approved image stored in the INFORMIX-Universal Server database. Potential industry applications for this powerful tool include law enforcement, security, and human resources. SceneChange DataBlade Module The new Excalibur SceneChange DataBlade module is well suited for organizations such as movie production houses, advertising agencies, or any organization that needs to manage film and video assets. The SceneChange DataBlade module allows users of such video assets to detect scene changes within a video stream, based on user defined adaptive threshold detection algorithms, and index the film. Once the film has been indexed, the SceneChange DataBlade module allows film editors to review story boards (a series of key frames/thumb-nails) and manage digital video assets with the INFORMIX-Universal Server database. The benefit to users will be automation and a dramatic improvement in speed and efficiency for applications such as motion picture editing, cataloging, and re-purposing of video asset libraries, all of which today are highly labor intensive. Real-Time Profiling DataBlade Module The Real-Time Profiling DataBlade module gives users complete flexibility in defining, organizing, storing, and executing profiles and queries that automatically monitor documents matching a given profile and return this knowledge to the desktop. "People need to track a variety of information sources on a continuous basis," said Patrick Condo, Excalibur's president and CEO. "As these sources of information change, relevant data may be easily missed, or lost in the massive amounts of data that is constantly being logged in and out of a database. The Real-Time Profiling DataBlade module allows businesses to structure their queries or Profiles easily so that they can get access to pertinent and updated information quickly and easily." The Real-Time Profiling DataBlade module allows users to pre-define and store queries as a collection of Profiles. Those definitions, in turn, are linked to related words and concepts. This allows users to fine tune profiles to capture the exact documents that match their interest or need. When data comes into the database, the information is searched to determine if any of it matches a user's profiles. If a profile is matched, the appropriate user can be notified via user defined methods such as e-mail. Market Impact "Organizations are being challenged with the need to manage diverse information assets including text and image based data," said Dave Cope, general manager, Informix DataBlade Business Development Unit. "With partner developed solutions, such as Excalibur's FaceRecognition, SceneChange, and Real-Time Profiling DataBlades, these organizations now have the tools to effectively manage most all data types within one database environment." Plans are currently underway for Excalibur to develop several other DataBlade modules to support additional data types and functions, providing unparalleled knowledge retrieval capability in a unified suite of extensions to the INFORMIX-Universal Server. Availability The FaceRecognition DataBlade, The SceneChange DataBlade, and Real-Time Profiling DataBlade modules are planned for shipment, initially on the Sun Solaris platform, at the end of December 1996. About Informix Informix Software, based in Menlo Park, Calif., provides innovative database technology that enables the world's leading corporations to manage and grow their business. Informix is widely recognized as the technology leader for corporate computing environments ranging from workgroups to very large OLTP and data warehouse applications. Informix's database servers, application development tools, superior customer service, and strong partnerships enable the company to be at the forefront of many leading-edge information technology solution areas. More information about Informix is available via the World Wide Web at http://www.informix.com and http://www.illustra.com. About Excalibur Since 1980, Excalibur Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: EXCA) has set the standard for excellence in knowledge retrieval solutions, empowering organizations and enabling people to transform information into knowledge. Only Excalibur RetrievalWare and Excalibur Visual RetrievalWare deliver a unified software solution for text and visual information retrieval. Excalibur products combine as a proven solution for large-scale knowledge retrieval applications where accuracy, scalability and reli