Information Technology

An EU project will enable virtual reality to take another step into the real world with a series of innovations that make the technology cheaper, more flexible and more powerful.

“The origins of virtual reality grew out of psychedelic philosophy and they were looking at simulating alternative worlds, not realistic simulations as we have today,” says Marc Cavazza, coordinator of the IST project Alterne and computing scientist at the UK’s University of Teesside. “This concept had bee

When runners begin the marathon at the Athletic World Championships in Helsinki this August, they will have a high-tech edge, thanks to a Finnish start-up firm.

The race course has been recorded in detail and sent to competitors to help them prepare for the competition. The data was compiled by the FRWD Sport Performance Recorder, a strap-on gadget that measures race route, distance and speed using GPS technology, as well as an individual athlete’s heart rate, altitude and other

Imagine a stand at a motor show featuring a new convertible. There’s a screen ‘hanging in the air’ with everything you expect on your PC desktop. You can click your way through all the new features of the car just by pointing your finger, and when you’re done you can walk through the screen and on to the next stand.

Imagine an operating theatre, where a surgeon can access an imaging databank on his PC using a similar airborne screen, without having to touch any keys or worry about

New radiofrequency device

The prestigious North American scientific publication, Physical Review Letters, has recently published an article about a radiofrequency device that was designed by a team of researchers at the Public University of Navarra, together with teams from the University of Seville and the Barcelona Universidad Autónoma.

The article is entitled, “Babinet Principle Applied to the Design of Metasurfaces and Metamaterials”.

The article is a r

GeoConcept of France, a leader in mapping and optimisation applications for businesses, has launched GeoScheduling Suite(tm) V2. This new version of the specialist software combines real-time and deferred optimisation of mobile resource timetables and provides productivity gains of 20% to 70% depending on the organisation. These optimised schedules guarantee perfect efficiency with better targeted operations, which are more pertinent, faster and less costly.

Travelling personnel sp

European entrepreneurs, small businesses, academia and research institutes have the chance to win business development support worth €50 000 if they come up with the best idea for an innovative use of Galileo, Europe’s coming global navigation satellite system.

The Galileo Masters 2005 competition, which has ESA’s European Space Incubator as one of its sponsors, is being run under the patronage of the Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs, Dr Otto Wiesheu. Its aim is to enc