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Issue no. 26, 2004 Published: Jul 16, 2004
EU and Israel reach agreement over Galileo
Google chooses Nasdaq over NYSE
Microsoft opens messaging service to AOL, Yahoo
Single electron image captured
Transparent desktop improves collaboration
Retinal display guides near-blind
E-ink drawing pad closer to paper
Microsoft Project comes under open source attack
Japan school kids to be tagged with RFID chips
Failed hi-fi invention leads to clearer beer

EU and Israel reach agreement over Galileo
Negotiations between the EU and Israel reached final approval on Tuesday and the agreement on the European satellite radio navigation programme was signed by both parties. The agreement provides for cooperative activities on satellite navigation and timing in a wide range of sectors, including science and technology, industrial manufacturing, standardisation, frequencies and certification. After the recent signatures of the agreements between the EU, China and the US, the new agreement with Israel represents a big boost for the GNSS market which is potentially considerable: 3 billion receivers and revenues of some €250 billion per year by 2010 worldwide, and the creation of more than 150,000 high qualified jobs in Europe alone. By the end of this year, the European Commission is expected to sign further agreements with the Russian Federation on the compatibility between the GALILEO and GLONASS systems, and with other third countries such as India, Ukraine, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and Australia.
Telecom paper Jul 14, 2004	back to top

Google chooses Nasdaq over NYSE
Google said it plans to list its $2.7bn initial public offering - one of the most anticipated of the year - on the Nasdaq Stock Market in a blow to the New York Stock Exchange. The Nasdaq and its larger rival the NYSE have publicly indicated they were aggressively courting Google, though analysts have speculated the Nasdaq had an advantage. In an amended regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Google said it would list with Nasdaq. It did not specify which trading symbol it intends to use. During the technology boom of the 1990s the Nasdaq saw its cachet soar as the premier destination for technology listings. The Nasdaq's fortunes have waned since the dot-com bubble burst, but Google's listing suggests the market remains attractive for high-profile public offerings.
Wired News Jul 12, 2004	back to top

Microsoft opens messaging service to AOL, Yahoo
Microsoft will open its online messaging service for the workplace to AOL and Yahoo's systems, in a big step toward allowing users of different networks to communicate with each other. Microsoft will open up its instant messaging software used by businesses, but consumers using its free MSN Messenger service will not get the same inter-operability, at least for now. Unlike MSN Messenger, Microsoft's separately offered messaging software allows businesses to install instant messaging within corporate networks, where conversations can be monitored and saved, much like enterprise e-mail. The ability to connect to AOL and Yahoo's IM networks will be an add-on feature to the next version of Microsoft software that enables messaging, called Live Communications Server, due out by the end of this year.
Reuters Jul 15, 2004	back to top

Single electron image captured
IBM scientists have come up with a way to create an image of a single electron by capturing its minute magnetic signals, a breakthrough that could give researchers a clearer idea of how subatomic particles behave. The achievement in turn could lead to more powerful atomic microscopes, new materials or drugs. The result comes out of research performed by researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center on a form of MRI called magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM), which can be 10 million times more sensitive than the MRI systems doctors use. The central feature of an MRFM is a microscopic silicon 'microcantilever' with a magnetic tip that vibrates at a frequency of about 5,000 times a second. Further research is aimed at improving the sensitivity to detect individual protons and other particles.
ZDNet Jul 15, 2004	back to top

Transparent desktop improves collaboration
For several decades, researchers have tried to blend shared workspaces - systems that allow two or more people to work on the same document - with internet video-conferencing systems. Now researchers at the University of North Carolina have designed a new system that blends a video-conference feed with a transparent image of a computer desktop into one full-screen window. Called Facetop, the system simultaneously transmits a video feed of users along with a shared, transparent image of the desktop. It allows two colleagues to work on the same document, while communicating face to face. The system also tracks the position of the users' fingertips, which can control a cursor. As well as operating the shared desktop, the collaborators can use natural pointing gestures to communicate ideas about the document. Facetop was conceived for collaborative tasks such as programming or editing text. But the researchers say it has obvious uses in other areas such as medical imaging or remote teaching.
Wired News Jul 09, 2004	back to top

Retinal display guides near-blind
Researchers from the University of Washington have developed a wearable computer that helps people with low vision see potential obstacles. The device tracks objects as a person walks, and when it detects that something is in the way, a retinal scanning display projects a bright icon directly onto the user's retina, indicating the general location of the hazard. The system can help low-vision people get around. It also paves the way for other types of systems for low-vision people. Optical character readers could be used to read text and present it on the display, or a GPS system could be used to help give navigation directions, for instance. The researchers' device uses a laptop computer that can be carried in a backpack and a head-mounted system that includes an infrared camera that tracks objects and the display that projects a laser through a vibrating fibre to scan a 100-by-40-pixel image onto the user's retina.
Technology Research News Jul 14, 2004	back to top

E-ink drawing pad closer to paper
Dutch and Belgian researchers from Philips, Limburgs University Center, Androme, and E Ink have combined an electronic ink display with a touch panel input device to produce a electronic drawing tablet that comes closer to real paper. The device could eventually be used for freehand computer input, including cartoon drawing and adding annotations. The device uses E Ink's electronic ink, which consists of tiny capsules filled with clear fluid, positively-charged white pigment chips, and negatively-charged black pigment chips. A negative voltage causes the white chips to move to the top of the capsules and the black chips to move to the bottom. A positive voltage reverses the positions. The researchers laminated this micro-capsule layer onto an electro- magnetic input panel, and added a paper-like top layer. They improved the ink's slow response time by having the system initially ignore grey-level accuracy, which takes about one second per update while going from white to black takes less then a third of a second.
Technology Research News Jul 14, 2004	back to top

Microsoft Project comes under open source attack
Software vendor Niku has launched an open source version of its Workbench Windows desktop-based project scheduling software, aiming to attack the market dominated by Microsoft Project. Open Workbench can be accessed free of charge, and the source code will be available for access and amendment at SourceForge next month. The existing Workbench product boasts 100,000 users within blue chip companies, including HSBC, Philips, BT, Unilever and Visa International. It is currently being rolled out to 19,000 HSBC users worldwide. Open Workbench can import Microsoft Project-format files to make migration of projects and interworking easier. Through the move, Niku also hopes to sell more of its high-end server-based Clarity software, with which Open Workbench integrates. Clarity runs on Unix or Windows and combines portfolio planning and analysis with project, programme, financial and process management.
VNUnet UK Jul 13, 2004	back to top

Japan school kids to be tagged with RFID chips
The rights and wrongs of using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on humans have been debated since the tracking tags reached the technological mainstream. Now, school authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka have decided the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and will be chipping children in one primary school. The tags will be read by readers installed in school gates and other key locations to track the kids' movements. The chips will be put onto kids' schoolbags, name tags or clothing in one Wakayama prefecture school. Denmark's Legoland introduced a similar scheme last month to stop young children going astray. RFID is more commonly found in supermarket and other retailers' supply chains, however, companies are now seeking more innovative ways to derive value from the tracking technology. Delta Air Lines recently announced it would be using RFID to track travellers' luggage.
ZDNet Jul 12, 2004	back to top

Failed hi-fi invention leads to clearer beer
A failed hi-fi invention is being revived more than a decade on to give us brighter, clearer beer. The Digital Compact Cassette tape format was developed by Philips of the Netherlands in the early 1990s. The format was designed to give CD-quality sound by using tape heads that could write or read data through tiny holes just 70 micrometres wide. To make such small holes, Philips used a beam of hot fluorocarbon plasma to blast the holes in a metal film. DCC ultimately failed to make the breakthrough but Dutch firm Fluxxion is now adapting the same technology to make a new class of superfine fluid filters. The new filter could be a boon to brewers who need to remove cloudy yeast residues from beer. To test the new silicon filter, Dutch Bavaria Brewery gave Fluxxion cloudy barrels of freshly brewed beer to try filtering in the lab. The beer cleared so well that Bavaria installed its own pilot plant. Fluxxion is also testing it on milk to see if it can filter out bacteria and thus avoid the need for pasteurisation.
New Scientist Jul 11, 2004	back to top