Story Filed: Tuesday, November 16, 1999 6:17 PM EST

LAS VEGAS, Nov 16, 1999 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- It all began almost three years ago with a story in Wired magazine about a Yale University research project called Lifestreams. Then came a phone call from the head of Ricoh's new Silicon Valley operation, a flurry of meetings, a prototype brought to Japan, an equity investment from Ricoh and, finally, a licensing agreement.

And today, at an early morning press conference in the Ricoh booth number L5935 on the cavernous COMDEX show floor, here it is: the unveiling of what Scott Fertig, CEO of Mirror Worlds, says will be the first of many Lifestreams-enabled devices.

"Lifestreams as an embedded technology is the 'solution within the solution' for many of the new Internet appliances," says Fertig while attending the Ricoh event. "You're seeing it with Ricoh's office appliance today and you'll see it on many other devices in the near future."

Today's "solution within the solution" is the eCabinet. Announced by Ricoh Silicon Valley, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ricoh Company, Ltd., the eCabinet is nothing short of a revolution in information management for workgroups. As the company said in a prepared release, it "combines the strength of office networks, the Internet and advanced thin-server technology to create an integrated system that allows workgroups to easily manage both electronic and paper documents."

Fertig sees the Lifestreams solution as also powering such devices as PDAs, web phones, digital televisions, set top boxes and even touch screens on public kiosks and common consumer appliances. It's all part of Mirror Worlds' strategy to provide Lifestreams' "universal dashboard" to consumers in as many ways as possible.

Lifestreams is a patent-pending technology that displaces existing storage and retrieval architectures built around the artificial constructs of file folder hierarchies and traditional naming conventions. It features a transparent capture and naming system that relieves end users of the need to chose and remember storage details. Lifestreams manages rich multi-media types, web pages, email, and all standard office documents. Organization and retrieval are dynamic, based on content instead of location, and presentation is ordered by time.

Lifestreams is also available today as a shrink-wrapped business software solution. Lifestreams Office - now in version 1.4 - offers automatic information capture, integration of external news feeds, and the Lifestreams interface. It's especially compelling for distributed collaboration among today's mobile knowledge workers. Sun Microsystems is bundling Lifestreams Office with the software that runs their new thin-client network appliance, the Sun Ray.

Fertig expects that eCabinet, available April, 2000, to be a major success. The benefits to small businesses are clear. He's proud of Mirror Worlds' lead role in the interface design of the eCabinet, particularly the more advanced visualization features. Fertig spent the rest of his time at COMDEX talking to other companies who also see the merits of the Lifestreams technology. Companies that need a better way to capture, retrieve and represent information of all kinds. Companies that see in Lifestreams a wholly different and better solution.

"People are flooded with information, much of it coming over the Internet. They should demand maximum power over all their information, from whatever source, with the least amount of time put into managing it," says Fertig from Las Vegas. "Lifestreams and eCabinet make that possible."

     About Mirror Worlds

Mirror Worlds Technologies develops interfaces, architectures and tools to manage the explosive growth of information. On November 4, 1999, CTO Eric Freeman was selected by MIT's Technology Review Magazine as a member of the prestigious "TR100" top innovators most likely to make significant technological contributions in the next century. The privately-held company is based in New Haven, CT.

     About Ricoh Silicon Valley

Located in Cupertino, Calif., Ricoh Silicon Valley, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh Company Ltd. A leading provider of office automation solutions, Ricoh Company has 65,000 employees worldwide and generated sales in excess of $11 billion in 1998. Ricoh Silicon Valley provides networked office solutions that optimize the combined strengths of office networks, the Internet and thing-server hardware/software technology. Designed specifically for the information management needs of small companies and corporate department workgroups, these networked office products offer efficient, easy to use and affordable solutions for daily workgroup information management. Ricoh's new generation of office appliance products help streamline workgroup efficiency and usher in a new era of document management solutions for today's small office and corporate department environments. Additional information about Ricoh and its products is available on the Company's Website at http://www.ricoh.com.

Copyright (C) 1999 Business Wire

Newsbit furnished by:

A: NetShift Software Ltd.
A: Hughenden Yard, Marlborough, Wilts,SN8 1LT, UK
T: +44 (0)1672 511 094
F: +44 (0)1672 511 078
E: [email protected]
W: www.netshift.com

Thanks Anna!