Charlotte, NC (March 13, 2019) -
LEAD is pleased to announce the release of many new document and medical imaging features for LEADTOOLS Version 20. Highlighting this release is a brand new HTML5/JavaScript Document Viewer component, incredible new zero-footprint 3D volume rendering in the Medical Web Viewer, significant Forms Recognition speed enhancements, new MICR and CMC-7 line detection algorithms, as well as new Viewer and Camera Controls for Xamarin.
"Developers need components that are easy to use, perform well, and of course, have impressive features for helping to address real-world challenges.” explained Rich Little, President of LEAD Technologies. "Much of this release comes directly from customers not shying away from making bold requests that many in the SDK industry would not consider. For example, customers asking us to deliver medical 3D volume rendering in a truly 100% zero-footprint solution or solving a major pain point for Xamarin developers with our new camera control. Our customers trust the expertise of LEAD’s developers, and we are excited to have hit the mark for the programmers using LEADTOOLS and their eventual end-users."
Document SDK
New Searchable Document Redaction
The .NET and HTML5/JavaScript Document Viewers now support redaction of searchable documents. Not only can users redact sensitive information in image formats such as TIFF, but they can redact PDF, DOCX, and other document formats to control what is visible and searchable by other users. To comply with regulatory requirements such as GDPR and HIPAA, the redaction can be applied when the document is viewed or converted while keeping the other parts of the document intact.
Document Library and Annotation Updates
LEAD’s Document Viewer team expanded PDF Annotation support with the addition of new objects and properties that include Redaction, Note reply, Callout, leader, and line endings. For developers requiring a cross-platform solution, all Annotation support has been extended to the .NET Core and Xamarin libraries. In addition, initial viewing options and smart pagination functionality have been added. The Document Service has also been enhanced to support multi-tenancy and PDF Fast Web View.
LEADVIEW API
LEAD has packaged the LEADTOOLS Document Viewer web application and service into the LEADVIEW API component. It requires as little as three lines of code to plug the LEADVIEW API into any JavaScript application. The component is highly customizable and supports all the features of the existing low-level Document Viewer, including viewing and converting hundreds of file formats and more than 30 annotation and markup objects. Users can easily create themes for the UI or use the predefined dark or light themes. With a settings dialog or JSON file, the entire ReactJS UI can be customized by each end-user or administratively locked down at a server level.
Revamped OMR Toolkit and Sample Applications
The Optical Mark Recognition SDK now includes high-level features with a focus on analyzing test sheets and surveys having a large grid of structured and loosely structured bubbles. LEADTOOLS intelligently analyzes the bubbles to automatically determine question groups and multiple-choice answer sets so that users can rapidly define master forms. No longer is the user restricted to a specific form design requiring specialized hardware. Once a master test form is defined, marked form results can be evaluated to provide detailed statistics for an individual or group of forms or compared against an answer key to calculate grades.
Forms Recognition Speed Boost
The Recognition team has created a patent-pending algorithm and internal search engine to identify forms in mega-repositories. Identifying a form from a large repository of form templates will no longer present a bottleneck in large enterprise forms processing applications. Further, the team has optimized memory and cache utilization, which enhances the forms toolkit across the board. As a result of these breakthroughs, in a repository with more than 1,000 master form templates, a form can be identified in less than two seconds.
New MICR, CMC-7, and Check Detection Algorithms
Developers extracting check data from images have more tools at their disposal with LEAD's new automatic MICR and CMC-7 line detection algorithms. Previously bound to searching predictable areas of an image, LEADTOOLS can now find MICR or CMC-7 lines in any location and orientation. This is the first reliable MICR and CMC-7 detection SDK on the market. Additionally, LEAD has enhanced its CMC-7 technology to decode CMC-7 lines even if the barcode line spacing is incorrect or uneven. These enhancements are especially powerful when searching for embedded check images in large batches of low-quality, distorted images from various sources including mobile devices.
Business Card Reader
LEAD has created new unstructured forms components to automatically read and collect information from business cards in record time. Advanced image processing and OCR intelligently captures important fields such as name, email, phone, and company name, even on business cards with artistic designs that include mixed background and font colors.
Expanded Document Formats in Linux and MacOS
LEAD has expanded its support of Microsoft Office formats with Linux and MacOS native libraries. Also, LEADTOOLS is now leveraging the WebKit browser engine to handle HTML files on Linux and MacOS systems to ensure the resulting output is exactly what the user expects.
Medical SDK
3D Volume Rendering in Zero-Footprint Medical Web Viewer
In addition to a new dark theme UI option, the Zero-footprint Medical Web Viewer now fully supports 3D volume rendering. Previously only available in the .NET Medical Viewer for Windows, high-quality customizable VRT, MIP, and MPR projections can be rendered on a server and transmitted to a client using a modern web browser. This true zero-footprint solution does not require browser plugins, desktop utilities, or remote desktop clients such as Citrix.
Upgraded DICOM Communication and PACS Security
LEAD updated the DICOM Communication and PACS SDK components to use a plug-in type architecture for Transport Layer Security (TLS). This change future-proofs the SDK and ensures that developers using LEADTOOLS can always be up to date with the latest TLS updates. The DICOM Storage Server and Medical Workstation now use the latest encryption, including support for the TLS 1.2 cipher suites as recommended in part 15 of the latest DICOM Standard. The DICOM Storage Server also includes many new features, such as configurable security settings for both incoming and outgoing messages, the ability to specify role selection for all DIMSE services and per individual storage IOD, improved client management for large organizations supporting more than 10,000 users, support for long user names, and the ability to store and search all DICOM dataset elements.
Xamarin
Xamarin Camera Control
Developers writing cross-platform mobile applications now have the LEADTOOLS Xamarin Camera Control in their arsenal. This Xamarin.Forms control is intended to be used specifically for Xamarin.Forms applications. Utilizing the camera is one of the biggest headaches in Xamarin app development, requiring writing of complex native code for Android and iOS. With just one line of code to add the control, developers can quickly get started with a basic camera and preview. LEAD’s camera control supports image capture, video recording, flash, torch, and focus control. Developers can also tap into the live camera feed to add custom image processing or LEADTOOLS features, including OCR, barcode recognition, and image processing filters.
Xamarin Image Viewer
LEAD has updated its LEADTOOLS Xamarin libraries to include an image viewer control to view more than 165 different file formats, including multipage functionality. The new image viewer control provides touchscreen-optimized interactive modes, navigation tools, and full LEADTOOLS Annotation support.
To get these updates, download the latest installer or update your NuGet references.
About LEAD Technologies
With a rich history of more than 34 years, LEAD has established itself as the world's leading provider of software development toolkits. LEAD's flagship product, LEADTOOLS, provides programmers with a powerful set of libraries for Recognition, Document, Vector, Medical, Imaging, and Multimedia development. LEAD boasts a diverse customer base as well as a strong list of corporate partners including some of the largest and most influential organizations from around the globe. For more information, visit www.leadtools.com.