NEWTON, Mass., Aug. 9, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- LifeFX, Inc. (Nasdaq:LEFX), the leading developer of Stand-In (tm) virtual people for the Internet, and ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY) (Nasdaq:ATYT), a world leader in graphics, video and multimedia solutions, today announced that ATI Technologies will license the LifeFX Stand-In (tm) software to demonstrate their state-of-the-art capabilities of rendering high-resolution graphics.
"Our team demanded a demonstration of our R200 capabilities that would blow the industry away. And, the high resolution LifeFX Stand-In demonstration surpasses our expectations," said Andrew Rodie, Group Marketing Manager, ATI Technologies. "We are very excited to have this relationship with LifeFX. Together, we have raised the bar for the computer graphics and interactive developers market."
ATI Technologies chose the LifeFX Stand-In software, the only biologically based facial modeling system of its kind, to create a high resolution, life-like, virtual representative to demo ATI Technologies' newest R200 video graphics technology.
Under the terms of the agreement, ATI Technologies will bundle and distribute the LifeFX software and a custom Stand-In virtual person in all of its retail offerings, including their distribution channels and OEM customers. In exchange, LifeFX will grant a one-year Stand-In software license to ATI Technologies for marketing, promotional and demonstration purposes, including the highly anticipated product launch of R200 at this year's SIGGRAPH Exhibition. ATI will be in Booth 617, Aug. 14-16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Calif.
"ATI continues to be the leader in video graphic capabilities," said Lucie Salhany, CEO and Co-President, LifeFX. "Our relationship with ATI will, for the first time, offer developers a bundled technology solution that will enable online branding capabilities at high resolution, film quality, rendering in real time and streamed over the Internet, yet be 100% digital for total control of content creation, dynamic modification and true interactivity for next-generation Web development."
About ATI Technologies
Founded in 1985, ATI Technologies Inc. is a world leader in the supply of graphics, video and multimedia solutions for personal computer and Mac platforms. The pioneer, innovator and market leader in the graphics industry, ATI provides cutting-edge technologies for the PC, set-top box, game console and other consumer appliances markets. The Company has more than 1,900 employees supporting customers from its headquarters in Markham, Ontario, Canada, as well as from offices in Barbados, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States. ATI common shares trade on Nasdaq (ATYT) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ATY).
About LifeFX
Lifef/x, Inc., a Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE) partner company, is creating the face of the Internet by developing photo-realistic, digital human faces, or LifeFX Stand- In (tm) virtual people, that can interact in real time. LifeFX Stand-In (tm) virtual people will be used by Web businesses as life-like customer-service and sales representatives, guides, teachers and entertainers, while consumer applications will include e-mail, instant messaging and chat rooms. The LifeFX technology was originally developed for professional medical applications by the University of Auckland, with which LifeFX has an exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, paid up license. LifeFX holds three patents and has five pending. For more information about LifeFX, visit http://www.lifefx.com. For application ideas and demos, visit http://www.facemail.com
Statements made in this news release, other than those concerning historical information, should be considered forward-looking and subject to various risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's belief as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. LifeFX Inc.'s future results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements because of a variety of factors, including the ability of the company to implement its business strategy; the ability of the company to achieve the intended benefits of this strategy; the ability of the company to complete development of its technology; the ability of the company to achieve success in forging strategic relationships; adoption of the technology by major consumer and commercial Web sites; the ability of the company to commercialize the technology before competitors; the ability of the company to retain key employees; and those factors identified in Lifef/x, Inc.'s annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2000, and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.