Dubbed Internet Routing In Space (IRIS), the project will bear fruit in 2009, when the actual launch is scheduled to occur.  At that point, “IRIS will enable U.S. and allied military forces with diverse satellite equipment to seamlessly communicate over the Internet from the most remote regions of the world,” according to Bill Shernit, President and CEO of Intelsat.

And several different corporations intend stick a finger in this (moon) pie.  “Satellite operator Intelsat will handle the management of the project with Cisco supplying the software technology,” reports The Register’s John Leyden.  “Denver-based Seakr Engineering has been picked to manufacture router hardware capable of surviving the extreme temperature and radiation hazards of space.”

The router hardware may also need to be hardened against nasty looks from Brazil or Greenland – IRIS could be drifting over those countries.  Intelsat only said that the satellite will be “in geostationary orbit at 45 degrees West longitude with coverage of Europe, Africa and the Americas,” however.

After three years of testing, IRIS will – assuming no intergalactic battles have popped up – be converted to “commercial use.”  If we’re to believe Dan Brown, Intelsat’s Vice President of Hosted Payload Programs, that could have a huge impact on the world.

“The IRIS architecture allows direct IP routing over satellite, eliminating the need for routing via a ground-based teleport, thereby dramatically increasing the efficiency and flexibility of the satellite communications link,” Brown said.

“IRIS is to the future of satellite-based communications what ARPANET was to the creation of the Internet in the 1960s.”

I.R.I.S. Group today announced the availability of a new version of its unique business card reading solution, the IRIS Business Card Reader II, for use on Mac OS X.

The IRIS Business Card Reader II (IBCR II) is the ideal tool for Macintosh users to scan and encode business cards into their favorite contact manager. This time-saving device was designed specifically for busy users such as managers, salespeople, executives, etc., who regularly collect business cards and need to update their electronic contact managers.

“With its totally redesigned interface and new software architecture, the IBCR II is the fastest, easiest and most reliable tool for saving, organizing and updating contact information on the Mac environment”, said Catherine Rochigneux, Marketing Manager.

The complete IBCR II for Mac solution comprises both the dedicated I.R.I.S. business card scanner hardware and Cardiris 3.0 for Mac OS, a significantly upgraded version of Cardiris, I.R.I.S.’ business card reading software, featuring a new OCR engine, new field analysis and field parsing technology, powerful saving and export and a new user interface.

The solution works by simply inserting business cards into the scanner. Both the scanning and recognition are promptly executed. Scanned business cards are displayed in color in the Cardiris interface and the recognized data is immediately available. Equipped with an advanced “Send to” function, Cardiris exports contacts to the most popular Mac OS contact managers. The new Cardiris software can also use Apple iSync to send contacts to an iPod, PDA or mobile phone.

System Requirements

Mac OS 9.x, 10.01 (10.3.x recommended)

Pricing and Availability

The IBCR II for Mac is available in the distribution and retail channels for Mac OS products, in Europe, in the USA and in Asia at EUR 199 (Suggested Retail Price, VAT included) as well as on I.R.I.S.’ e-shop.

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