Athletes and visitors have opportunity to place their photographs on commemorative envelopes and postcards with StampStudio™
Boston, Mass. - February 19, 2002 - Escher Group Ltd, the leader in providing advanced technologies to the postal industry, today announced its participation in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Escher's StampStudio™ technology will be showcased in the OLYMPEX Exhibition at the Salt Lake County and City Building, the Olympic Collectors Fair Trade (part of the Arts Festival) at 175 Main Street, and the Olympic Family Hotel through February 26.
The OLYMPEX Exhibition will display the largest collections of Olympic Winter Games memorabilia, including winter sports stamps, Olympic Winter Games coins, and private collections of torches, medals, posters, pins, and badges.
"The Olympic stamp has been a tradition of the Olympic Games since 1896. This year, Escher Group's StampStudio and personalized stamped covers or postcards add a new technological dimension to the exhibition," said Manfred Bergman, director of the philatelic department, IOC. "It is thrilling to witness this merger of tradition and technology."
During the Festival, Escher's StampStudio will be used to create personalized, commemorative covers (envelopes with cancelled stamps) and postcards. Visitors and athletes will be able to apply a photograph, taken at the exhibition or at locations throughout the Olympics, next to the official Olympic commemorative stamps.
StampStudio incorporates several sources of security. The product's flexibility allows each postal jurisdiction to choose the cost of the security technologies appropriately. A globally unique message identifier, plus a short, secret key-based digital "signature," is uniquely encoded into each image using Escher's SpectraSeal™ symbology. The message identifier and signature, embedded in the image, are inexpensive but effective security measures. The signature renders forgery difficult; and because each stamp is uniquely associated with a message number, the forensic and tracking possibilities are substantial.
"Adding intelligence to postage, as StampStudio demonstrates, helps with the prevention, detection, and deterrence of mail-borne threats," a spokesperson for Escher Group said.
StampStudio is currently being offered to international postal authorities as a way to create secure, electronic postal indicia while maintaining philatelic and aesthetic value. Postal customers are able to create customized stamps for special occasions such as the Olympics, weddings, and holidays at the post office counter in just a few minutes. The convenience of this offering can also be extended beyond the retail counter to self-service kiosks.
After the Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games, Escher Group's technology will remain in service at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
About Escher Group, Limited
Escher Group Limited is a leading provider of distributed transaction processing and data management solutions and services. The company offers a business-to-business XML-based transaction management environment, used in thousands of locations worldwide. Since its introduction in 1993, Riposte®, Escher's flagship messaging solution, has grown to become the market leader in post office counter automation.
Trademarks: WebRiposte and Riposte are trademarks or registered trademarks of Escher Group, Limited in the United States and/or other countries. All other product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
Contact Information:
Escher Group Limited
info@eschergroup.com