Information Technology

Full-scale disaster is breaking out in France – in the form of a simulated accident around which a major European civil protection exercise is planned. Just as in a real emergency, the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters is being activated so rescue teams will receive satellite images of the disaster zone .

It begins with a train derailment, and then the situation gets worse. Train wagons of fuel begin to burn, the fire spreading to pressurised tanks of liquefied

Since the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona’s scientific communication website ( www.uab.es/uabdivulga/eng ) went online in May 2003, its aim has been to disclose research from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona to the public at large through the words of the researchers themselves. Over 200 researchers have now explained their work in a language accessible to all. From differential calculus to the latest breakthroughs in medicine, from

Though mobile communications have improved emergency services’ efficiency, noisy environments still pose communication problems for users. ANITA has addressed the issue with a noise-reduction system that could save lives.

Developed under the European Commission’s IST programme, the ANITA system uses innovative software to reduce background noise in real time to allow emergency service workers to communicate more clearly with each other and with their headquarters even in the most

Scientists reveal new technology that will help us compute more safely on the move and that ’body talk’ could control mobiles

New research by University of Glasgow scientists that enables people to interact safely with mobile computers while walking, running or driving, could help to prevent users from putting themselves in danger.

Changing tracks on digital music players of the future while on the move could be done with the nod of the head.

Walking and te

A powerful, high-capacity chip currently under development has the potential to revolutionise daily life, doing away with many of the identity documents, credit cards and passwords people have to use each day.

Due to end in June, the IST programme-funded project SM-PAYSOC has so far created a working prototype of the chip packaged in a smartcard, which in the future could also be incorporated into a USB token or a SIM card.

It allows users to access services and carry

“Our plan is to have ‘the’ operating system for buildings.” So says Richard Green, CEO of the newly-established Cambridge (UK) start-up Ubisense, about his company’s revolutionary new technology for locating staff within the workspace environment.

Green is one of the five entrepreneurs who founded the company in May 2002, and who have since seen their company more than double in size and rapidly establish a client-base in Europe, the US and the Far East. “Basically, Ubisense make