Information Technology

How would it feel to pick up a Boeing 777 while standing on an asteroid? Or to play with a yo-yo on Mars? Or even to explore a box that is larger on the inside than on the outside? All these things are now possible as scientists at the University of Reading are developing technology which allows computer users to touch, grip and even manipulate ‘impossible objects’.

The methods are still in their infancy, but the new technology has a variety of potential applications, including training sim

By linking biometrics with cryptographic authentication, the VIPBOB IST project has developed a new and more secure method of verifying a person’s unique identification number using an old-fashioned, but proven method – the fingerprint.

Biometrics refers to the measurement of certain properties of the human body, such as the ridges on the fingertip, the structure of this iris or the pattern of speech. Many of these properties are truly random – they are different even for genetically i

System crashes are not only annoying, they can bring a company to its knees. So IT specialists will welcome a way to measure the dependability of standard operating systems (OS). After conducting hundreds of computer-stress experiments, a European consortium has developed a new benchmarking method for commercial and open source systems.

Gone are the days when performance was all that mattered. What information technology people want – but rarely get – is a reliable system. Especially now th

Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new technique for drawing maps that could provide a valuable tool for showing human data such as census findings, election results or disease incidence.

The new technique produces cartograms—maps where sizes of areas on the map are in proportion to the population or some other variable, said Mark Newman, assistant professor of physics in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Newman wrote a paper on the technique, which

As the pace of the Modernising Government agenda increases, support for electronic service delivery is becoming an increasingly essential pre-requisite of most ICT strategies. e-Government is forcing a radical re-evaluation of the role played by websites, Intranets and customer service teams. Many local authorities are already using the Internet imaginatively to provide community information services with limited degrees of end user interaction. Others have developed or are re-designing existing cu

Computer scientists at the University of Essex have been awarded a grant to develop an intelligent robotic wheelchair.

Researchers from the Department of Computer Science will work alongside scientists from the Institute of Automation at Beijing in developing the advanced technology needed for a high performance, low cost RoboChair which will enable the elderly and disabled to gain increased mobility and live more independently.

The RoboChair will have a user-friendly man-ma