Amsterdam, The Netherlands Ð Birds of Europe, a multimedia CD-ROM developed by The Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification (ETI), is expected to take flight in the second quarter for $149.
Created with CraftMan software from Xanthus International in Stockholm, Sweden, the disc includes a rich database about 419 birds, including more than 1200 color TIFF images.
Designed as an educational tool for primary, secondary, and university students, the CD-ROM comes alive interactively with sound, photo-realistic pictures, and full-motion video sequences. Bird watchers can use it as a multimedia encyclopedia.
The software, also available for Macintosh and Windows, was optimized for NeXT and will run on any monochrome or color workstation.
Part of ETI's Biodiversity project, the CD-ROM was designed to increase awareness of the different kinds of birds that share the planet with us.
ETI was established by the Dutch government in 1991 and charged with developing a computerized multimedia database of the world's animal and plant species. This database is maintained on NeXT computers running Sybase and can be accessed by other research institutions via modem.
The Institute for Taxonomic Zoology, University of Amsterdam, can be reached at 31/20/ 525.72.39; or NeXTmail: kestep @eti.bio.uva.nl.