The ICT sector has been selected as one of Finland’s five technology focus areas for the future, according to a recent report produced by the country’s National Technology Agency, Tekes. The aim is to ensure that Finland continues to be a leader in the extensive use of ICT.
The Tekes report proposes focusing on ICT services, user-friendliness, knowledge and content management, and making greater use of ICT in real-life applications benefiting people in their day-to-day life and bu
Terrier, a new cutting-edge software for the rapid development of web, intranet and desktop search engines, developed by researchers at the University of Glasgow, has all the prerequisites to become the European answer to Google.
This groundbreaking system from DCS utilises state-of-the-art web search technology. It offers a modular platform for the rapid development of large-scale Information Retrieval applications. Providing indexing and retrieval functionalities, Terrier comes wi
Websites for commuters are nothing new, but researchers in Sunnyvale, Calif., have developed an advanced system with a twist: in addition to tracking traffic congestion, the program crunches data from 14,000 sensors, in some cases every 30 seconds, to decipher evolving rush-hour patterns.
The end result is http://www.BeatTheTraffic.com, a tool that tells commuters how long they can expect to sit in their cars, which shortcuts will get them home faster that day, and even the bes
A novel, computer-assisted method for colorizing black and white images and movies has been developed by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering.
The method is less expensive and time-consuming than earlier colorization methods developed in the late 20th century and which were used to convert to color several classic black-and-white motion pictures such as “Casablanca.”
A major difficulty with colorization ha
Public confidence in electronic channels of communication, such as the internet, mobile and wireless communications is at its lowest point for a decade, claim information and communication technology (ICT) experts at two leading British Universities.
Researchers from Cranfield University, Shrivenham, Oxfordshire and the London School of Economics recently collaborated in a Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) funded research study that examined the evolution of the inter
Three of the world’s largest and fastest yachts are in the midst of a non-stop trans-global race, hurtling in excess of 25 knots – 46 kilometres per hour – through the Southern Ocean encircling Antarctica. Iceberg collision is a real risk, but ice-sensitive radar satellites are monitoring the area to provide advance warning to crews.
“It has been a huge tactical – and psychological – advantage to planning our track through the Southern Ocean,” says navigator Will Oxley aboa
Experts encounter a serious problem when studying the crime scene after an explosion. They can establish to a high degree of probability the type and power of the device used by terrorists and with what explosive substance it was filled with. However, they are usually unable to answer the most important question as to where and when the explosive itself was made: TNT is still TNT, regardless of the where and when it was produced.
Specialists from the Semenov Institute of Chemical Ph
A research group led by Academy Professor Mikko Sams is developing a brain-computer interface, a device that transforms electrical or magnetic brain signals into commands a computer can understand. Equipment of this kind is necessary. For instance, it enables physically disabled persons to use a computer keyboard. The Brain-Computer Interface, or BCI, allows both physically disabled and healthy persons to direct a computer by merely thinking of certain commands. The On-line Adaptive Brain-Computer
GeoConcept SA of France, a leading specialist in decision-mapping technology, has just launched the first software package to calculate the optimal division of sales areas: GeoConcept Territory Manager. Previously, sales managers had to divide up territory manually, but now GeoConcept Territory Manager can automatically calculate the optimal organisation in just 20 seconds.
The GeoConcept Territory Manager system solves the everyday problems faced by sales managers who wish t
The age of the ‘disappearing computer’ is upon us. Slowly but surely, traditional IT systems are moving from visible desktop computers to invisible embedded computers in intelligent devices, thanks in part to cutting-edge Java technology.
This is where the IST project HIDOORS set out to make its mark. HIDOORS blazed a trail in its target market by demonstrating that the programming language Java was sufficiently robust and flexible to deal with the full requirements of embedded, real-
There are some computer problems so hard that computer scientists consider them out of reach. They label them “intractable” and move on.
But researchers at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., have developed tools to solve such problems, at least in certain practical situations. Mostly their approach is to have the computer do what a human being might do: stop, go back and start over and try something different.
“Even though these problems are intractable in the worst ca
The profusion of wireless communications in homes, in coffee shops and even on battlefields presents us with fantastic new conveniences — but also new security problems. Indiana University computer scientist Markus Jakobsson will discuss “stealth” attacks over wireless networks, which can disrupt communications and endanger personal information. One such attack is “denial of service,” in which devices are overloaded with so much incoming information they cease functioning properly.
A new security approach could improve safeguarding of credit card numbers, bank passwords and other sensitive information for those who surf the Internet using wireless connections, researchers told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)on Saturday.
The same protocol could be employed in many computer networks in which two computers, hand-held communication devices or network nodes need to simultaneously verify the identity of each o
If you’re a ship captain and there might be 50-foot waves headed your way, you’d appreciate some information about them, right? That’s the idea behind a wave model system a Texas A&M University at Galveston professor has developed. His detailed wave prediction system is currently in use in the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of Maine.
Vijay Panchang, head of the Department of Maritime Systems Engineering, doesn’t make waves – he predicts what they’ll do, when
“The Web will become more than what we see on our computer screens, it will become a place where computers interact with each other and where meaning is attached to information.” That is the vision behind a cutting-edge Semantic Web project.
For Richard Benjamins, the coordinator of the IST project ESPERONTO, the future of the Semantic Web lies in it becoming “something akin to ambient intelligence” with the meaning of digital information understandable not only by humans but by a
A new semantic web interface, which will improve access to information and present search results in associated categories in one window, was launched this week.
This new approach means that instead of users having to wade through long lists of search data to decide what is relevant, the interface will enable the machine to pull related sources into one usable view.
The new mSpace software framework developed by the School of Electronics & Computer Science (ECS) at t
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