In his first major interview since taking office, Professor Nigel Shadbolt told the BBC today that the UK was in danger of no longer being a provider of 'really major insights in the information age.' Read interview

Professor Nigel Shadbolt took up office as President of the British Computer Society this month. His agenda for his presidency, during the BCS 50th anniversary year, is public engagement, and a major part of this is to raise awareness of the need for a bigger flow of qualified graduates to meet the needs of industry in the future.

Researchers in ECS have developed an interactive advertising technology which identifies passers-by and allows them to download information to their mobile phone or PDA.

BluScreen, a 58 centimetre-wide screen displaying information about upcoming seminars, lectures and events has been installed in the reception area of the School of Electronics & Computer Science (ECS).

The screen detects the presence of people carrying Bluetooth-enabled devices in its vicinity and begins to show them adverts, while at the same time building a record of what they have seen to ensure that messages are not repeated.

Now, Dr Terry Payne at ECS and his team have developed the system a stage further so that individuals passing the screen can pick an advert they like and have the information downloaded to their ‘phone so that they can access it at a later stage.

This works by individuals selecting the adverts of interest to them on a touchscreen in the reception area, signalling if they would like more information sent to their ‘phone, and then receiving a 'business card' download with just the URLs of the websites with further information, which they can access in their own time.

‘This could work really well in the cinema where people are relaxing and then see something that interests them which they would like to follow up afterwards,’ said Dr Payne.

BluScreen uses software 'agents' to represent different adverts. These agents have a fixed advertising budget and bid against each other.

‘The agents are interested in showing their content to people who haven’t seen it before,’ said Dr Alex Rogers who developed the screen with Dr Payne.

According to the researchers, BluScreen has definite commercial potential and they are currently developing systems to enable them to build profiles and to start matching IDs with markets.

‘There has been a lot of talk over the past few years about using smart tags to track the whereabouts of individuals,’ said Dr Payne. ‘The thinking behind BluScreen is that everybody has a ‘phone these days, so why not use this instead.

It also makes sense from a security point of view as our system does not pull anything off a ‘phone and individuals can switch off their Bluetooth functionality if they do not want to receive information in this way.’

A BBC film crew this month accompanied researchers from the School on one of their regular visits to the Briksdalsbreen glacier in Norway, which has this year shown a dramatic retreat of around 100 metres. The report will be shown on Tuesday 21 November.

The GLACSWEB project, undertaken jointly by the School of Electronics and Computer Science and the School of Geography at the University of Southampton, has been monitoring the behaviour of glaciers in response to climate change. Deep within the Briksdalsbreen glacier in Norway, Europe’s largest ice sheet, Southampton scientists maintain a network of wireless sensors which report data back to Southampton continuously on measurements including movement, pressure, and temperature.

Over the last three years the glacier has been retreating at approximately 100 metres a year, and the warm autumn temperatures of the last few months have contributed to a retreat of around 50 metres since July.

Dr Kirk Martinez says that three factors can be identified as major causes for the glacier’s melting: ‘First we can point to global warming as a result of carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere,’ he says. ‘Second the negative phase of the North Atlantic oscillation brings less winter snowfall, and finally the presence of the lake at the foot of the glacier caused increasing subglacial melting during the retreat but also provided a fine-grained sediment base over which the glacier rapidly advanced during the 1987-96 advance.’

The rapid melting of the ice means that the glacier has become too steep and dangerous to work on, so the project will have to move to another glacier. However, the results from Briksdalsbreen provide much more general indications of glacier behaviour: ‘By charting the dramatic break-up of Briksdalsbreen we can predict what may happen to other rapidly melting glaciers,’ says Dr Martinez. ‘This has particular relevance to the outlet glaciers of Greenland, whose discharge has an important control on the thermohyline circulation, which affects the climate of North-West Europe.’

Further information is available at:

http://envisense.org/glacsweb/norway06/autumn06/BBCNewsinterview.html http://envisense.org/glacsweb/news/QA.html

Understanding memory is central to understanding what it means to be human. In recent years neuroscientists and psychologists have made great strides in identifying exactly how memory works: how memories are formed, where they are stored and how they are retrieved. At the same time technologies for managing and storing information – which are analogous to human memory – are becoming ever more powerful and sophisticated.

These two strands will be brought together at THE FUTURE OF OUR PASTS, a colloquium to be held at the British Library on Tuesday December 12, 2006. The event will see computer scientists, psychologists, neuroscientists, sociologists, librarians and information professionals debating some of the key issues surrounding the science and technology of memory:

· Will it be possible for us to replace parts of our memory with artificial aids?

· How can technology help those with memory disorders?

· Will communities be able to use technology to create or preserve their communal experiences?

· What will happen when our entire lives are available to us to look back on?

· How will this change the way we live?

· What legal, ethical and political implications can we expect?

The event is organised by the Memories for Life (M4L) Network and is intended to define the scale of these trends, to help experts and academics understand what to expect and to begin to shape the agenda for future research and development.

Professor Nigel Shadbolt, a Principal Investigator of the Network, said: “M4L is a project to bring together a diverse range of scientists, academics and experts to study and understand how memory works and to develop the technologies needed to enhance it. THE FUTURE OF OUR PASTS aims to foster concrete two-way interaction between different academic and scientific disciplines – only by such an interdisciplinary approach can we hope to promote the effective use and management of both the human and computerised memory.â€?

The colloquium will take place all day. Attendance is free, but the audience is strictly limited to 200 places. Lunch will be provided. Anyone wishing to attend, or needing information should contact: info@memoriesforlife.org

Researchers at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics & Computer Science (ECS) are releasing open source software which will make it possible for the first time ever to trace the origins and authenticity of computer-generated data.

The research conducted by Professor Luc Moreau and his team has focused on the need to determine the provenance of digital objects, a concept whose importance is already well understood in areas such as art collection, where the provenance of an object helps determine its authenticity.

The work was done as part of the PASOA (Provenance Aware Service Oriented Architecture) and EU Provenance projects, through which the researchers aim to bring the beneficial applications of their work into the computer industry.

Over the past two years, they have investigated the role of provenance in computer systems and designed the protocols and data models to support its use.

Professor Moreau said: 'This will be a very important service for organisations in the aerospace and organ transplant industries, in particular. It will also have applications in the food industry and could be very useful in tracing the source of email spam and to ensure that information has not been tampered with during its creation and subsequent use.’

Other partners in the Provenance team are: IBM United Kingdom Limited, Cardiff University (Welsh eScience center), Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft - und Raumfahrt s.V, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and Computer and Automation Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

UK science and technology leaders predict the future of memory

“In the not too distant future a device the size of a sugar cube will exist able to record an entire life time of human memories,â€? Professor Nigel Shadbolt, President of the British Computer Society will say at Memories for Life on Tuesday 12 December. The conference, taking place at the British Library, will bring together leading figures from fields including computer science, psychology and neuroscience to debate the role science and technology will play in the future of memory.

“Technology has incredible potential to augment human memory,â€? Professor Shadbolt will explain. “Devices are being developed that will make it possible to enhance our memory with artificial aids and preserve the experiences we have, not just as individuals, but also as entire communities. It’s the unique combination of disciplines represented at Memories for Life today that will make these projects a reality.â€?

Opening the conference, Professor Wendy Hall of the University of Southampton will outline the challenges involved in combining organic and digital memories. Professor Hall will also raise issues surrounding the capture, storage and management of memories that must be carefully considered for conceptual technologies to become reality.

Professor Hall will say: “Technology can play a vital role in memory, for example by providing an artificial aid to help those with memory disorders or enabling communities to create and preserve their collective experiences. However, we must also consider the social, ethical and legal issues associated with technology development and how increased access to knowledge will affect our society in open, inter-disciplinary forums.â€?

As well as predicting the technologies and discussing the trends that will shape the future of memory, the conference will also address questions including the following:

• How can technology help those with memory disorders? • What will happen when our entire lives are available to us to look back on? • How will this change the way we live? • What legal, ethical and political implications must we consider?

The event is organised by the Memories for Life (M4L) Network and is intended to define the scale of trends in memory, to help experts and academics understand what to expect and to begin to shape the agenda for future research and development.

Other speakers taking part in the event include: Susan Blackmore (independent researcher), Andrew Fitzgibbon (Microsoft), Katherine Campbell (BBC), Anne Sebba (independent biographer), Robert Perks (British Library), Andrew Charlesworth (University of Bristol), John Tuck (British Library), Clifford Lynch (Coalition for Networked Information), Gareth Crossman (Liberty), Sue Gathercole (University of York), Victor Keegan (The Guardian), Richard Morris (University of Edinburgh), Tom Rodden (University of Nottingham), and Yorick Wilks (University of Sheffield).

The Future of our Pasts

Researchers in the School of Electroncis and Computer Science have built a prototype of a prosthetic hand with some of the functionality and movement of a real one.

Just 12 months after the ‘Southampton Remedi-Hand’ was lost in the fire which destroyed the University’s Mountbatten building, Professor Neil White, Dr Paul Chappell, Dr Andy Cranny and Darryl Cotton at the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) have come up with a new ‘hand’ which not only mimics the motion of a human hand, but also has ‘senses’.

Dr Chappell has spent several years developing the ‘Southampton Remedi-Hand’. Increasing the number of grasping patterns and improving the sensory feedback from an object in the hand became key objectives of his research.

‘The last few decades have produced significant improvements in the design of upper limb prostheses’, comments Dr Chappell. ‘But up to now, there have been limits in terms of sensory touch and movement.’

Professor White’s work on developing sensors for the electronics industry has enabled him to develop multiple sensors to apply to the ‘hand’ to increase the functional grasping patterns.

‘We need multiple sensors in a hand to mimic the natural processes as far as possible’, comments Professor White. ‘In the past, cost has been an issue in the development of prosthetic limbs, particularly upper limbs, but we have found a way to add multiple senses using low cost technology.’

The researchers have applied piezo-electric sensors to each of the five fingertips which will detect how much force is being exerted on the tip and will translate this information into an electrical signal which will be fed to a small processor.

Dr Chappell said: ‘We have created a hand with increased functionality and with a sense of touch. This will let the hand know how tightly to grip an object like a coffee cup without dropping it, but not so tightly that it's crushed. It will also have an integrated slip-sensor which will tell the hand if something is beginning to slip out of its grip so it can grip slightly harder.’

Ends

Our 2007 full colour calendar features 12 stunning photographs, illustrating research highlights, student news, and latest building developments. If you would like a copy, email enquiries@ecs.soton.ac.uk Happy Christmas!

The US engineering profession's highest honours for 2007, presented by the National Academies' National Academy of Engineering (NAE), include the award to Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who holds a Chair of Computer Science in ECS, of the prestigious Charles Stark Draper Prize -- a $500,000 annual award that honours engineers whose accomplishments have significantly benefited society -- "for developing the World Wide Web."

The prize will be presented at a gala dinner in Washington, DC, on February 20.

The Charles Stark Draper Prize (official citation news release)

Timothy J. Berners-Lee imaginatively combined ideas to create the World Wide Web, an extraordinary innovation that is rapidly transforming the way people store, access, and share information around the globe. Despite its short existence, the Web has contributed greatly to intellectual development and plays an important role in health care, environmental protection, commerce, banking, education, crime prevention, and the global dissemination of information.

Berners-Lee demonstrated a high level of technical imagination in inventing this system to organize and display information on the Internet. He devised a number of innovations:

The uniform resource identifier (URI), which is used to identify or name a particular resource on the Internet.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML), which provides structure to text-based information on the Web. With HTML, text is not restricted to a linear format; it can contain links to text, images, or objects in Web documents located elsewhere.

One-way and universal hyperlinks that can point anywhere on the Web, a simple but profound difference from other proposals at that time.

HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which conveys or transfers information over the Internet.

Berners-Lee demonstrated brilliant vision by choosing to make the Web with public domain software that is scalable, so that it can always perform efficiently. Furthermore, the Web's open architecture permits other inventions to build on its unpredictable and limitless potential uses as needs arise.

Berners-Lee proposed his concept for the Web in 1989 while at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). He launched it on the Internet in 1991 and continued to refine its design through 1993. He persevered over widespread scepticism during these years.

Berners-Lee is now a senior researcher and holder of the 3Com Founders Chair at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a professor of computer science in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. In addition, Berners-Lee continues to guide the evolution of the Web as founder and director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an open, international forum that develops standards for the Web.

The Draper Prize was established in 1988 at the request of the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, to honour the memory of 'Doc' Draper, the 'father of inertial navigation', and to increase public understanding of the contributions of engineering and technology. The prize is awarded annually.

A technique which will allow silicon wafers to be stacked accurately and inexpensively in 3-D structures has been developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.

According to Dr Michael Kraft at the University's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), the major challenge when stacking silicon wafers is to align one wafer to another, matching all the features.

'The alignment needs to be accurate,' commented Dr Kraft. 'At the moment, big chunky machines are being used and the process is being carried out optically. The optical path is long and this introduces errors.'

Dr Kraft and his colleague, Professor Mark Spearing at the School of Engineering Sciences, worked with Dr Liudi Jiang, who is now a Roberts Fellow in the School of Engineering Sciences, to develop what they describe as 'an effective passive alignment technique for the achievement of nanoprecision alignment'.

The approach adopted by the researchers means that the alignment features consisting of convex pyramids and concave pits can be fabricated and chip scale specimens can be successfully bonded after the microfabrication process. An alignment precision of 200 nanometres has been achieved.

'We have demonstrated that we do not need expensive machines to create alignment,' said Dr Kraft. 'Our system will automatically fit the wafers together like Lego.'