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Panasonic Calls It .PBE?
TrumpetX asks: "A friend of mine and I have been asked by our boss to do an image extraction from a KV-F510 Panasonic scanning station. The extraction program (which works in a 16 bit environment only) works fine, but it spits out .PBE file formats with some unreadable .INF files. I was wondering if any of the /. readers out there have used one of these dinasour scanning stations before, and if someone could shed some light on how to convert the .PBE files to another format (TIF, GIF, BMP, or anything else readable, really)."
overrated? Would someone care to explain that?
overrated? Would someone care to explain that?
The guy's comment is just a link to the front page of the Panasonic support site. The story is looking for information on a file format, PBE. A search for 'pbe' on the site yields no results.
A Google search for KV-F510 yields no results.
Five minutes of searching for pbe gives only irrelevant results.
Thus the problem of proprietary data formats is illustrated.
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
I know ... and therefore the best people to ask for help are Panasonic and the link to support is the best solution ... not just a link
The support homepage gives email addresses and phone numbers.
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Panasonic Binary Enigma! :)
Not a direct answer, but if you haven't tried it yet you might be lucky and find out the format isn't propriatory.
Additionally, if you know a specific image is simple, take a look at it in a hex editor and look for patterns. It's possible that the file is some form of PCX or TIFF image (many document processing systems use this), with an extended header. Chop off the old header, put on a standard one, and see if it can be viewed at all. You could be lucky!
Remember, dd is your friend. :)
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
PBE has many meanings, but the one that panasonic has used here when scanning stuff is a Programming By Example technique. Hence the extension PBE. Sometimes confused with the unexplained Prompt By Example or the explained but irrelevant Password Based Encryption acronyms.
The logic is generating a visual map by certain rules which are created from abstract data and the corresponding pictures. This all being covered in Cypher93 and KF93 or Kurlanders system. This is probably what Panasonic is using to convert image lightwaves to actual data recordings. They also probably have a program that converts the PBE data with the INF files and generates and image.
INF files are informational files. Although they seem unreadable, they do contain key data for the program that can actually dicipher what is stored.
The question you are asking is for a program to convert this information to some well supported image format. I don't know of any currently, but I hope I gave enough info for you to continue seeking more info.
When you say 16-bit, I'm imagining win 3.x or some variant. Cound you not just bring up the image in the software's window and do a + and then open up paint and paste it there to save it as a bmp file? You would need to trim off the edges, but it should work. I just don't know if if MS Paint in win 3.x and wfw do more than 256 colors. I would think so though...
Who wants Pork Chops?
PBE, huh?
It sounded familiar, and still does - so I started thinking it might stand for "Portable Bitmap Exchange" - some googling on that started yielding things - so do some more googling on "Portable Bitmap" and the PBM format.
It could be PDE are nothing more than renamed PBMs, perhaps. There does seem to be software out there that will do conversion, if it is a PBM (pbm2gif, etc). Also, if it is PBM, or you suspect it, the format spec can be found here.
Also, in response to the poster who couldn't find anything on these scanning stations by googling on "KV-F510" - google on "KVF510" - and you will get a few hits (but still close to none). However, to the original poster, maybe these "sellers" of the equipment might be able to give you some help (manuals, contact phone numbers, etc).
I am surprised the the manual or info you have with the equipment doesn't list the specs for the format, unless it is considered a dire secret, or what. Most manufacturers of the larger equipment give pretty detailed interfacing specs, or at least provide them to interested parties - you might contact Panasonic and ask. If they refuse you, ask them what the format is, or such. State your needs clearly. Maybe even offer them a copy of the package back in exchange?
Above all, be persistent - you will find the answer eventually...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon