SW company drives mobile multimedia on the new Samsung Galaxy tablet
A chip and system developer in Chippenham is providing the technology for a new generation of mobile multimedia on the latest smartphones and tablet PCs from Samsung being shown at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.
IPWireless, which has over 100 engineers in the region, has teamed up with US company AmDocs to run various multimedia applications on the Samsung Galaxy S phone and Galaxy Tab tablet PC, which are both running the Android operating system.
The technology, called Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB), has been endorsed by the GSMA and means mobile operators can use dormant 3G spectrum by overlaying a highly economical content delivery network on top of their existing 3G network. IMB-enabled networks bypass increasingly congested and allow popular content and applications to be streamed simultaneously to an unlimited number of devices: approximately 40,000 short form videos, 44,000 full length music tracks, 1,700 TV shows, or over 100,000 video advertisements can be sent in a single day. However, it needs a new generation of technology to do this, and IPWireless is working with companies such as Amdocs and ST-Ericsson, which has chip design in Bristol, to develop the whole system. Meanwhile operators Vodafone in Newbury and Orange in Bristol and O2 in Slough are running trials of the technology which could allow video to be sent to phones and tablets more cost effectively.
The company has some good connections already – last month it launched a ‘dongle’ for the Apple iPhone and iPad to connect to such services. It also last year set up a research lab in Chippenham with Sony America.
“IMB has the potential to deliver the multimedia experience consumers want at an economic model that makes sense for operators,” said Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing at Amdocs. “Amdocs and IPWireless bring advanced application features that enable service providers to move beyond Mobile TV and offer innovative and intelligent new broadcast services that will lead to an enhanced consumer experience.”
Related articles
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (P7100) Dual-Core Android 3.0 Honeycomb Tablet (mydigitallife.info)
- Samsung announces slimmed down Galaxy S II smartphone and upsized Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet (gizmag.com)
- IP Wireless enlists ST-Ericsson to design in mobile TV (go.theregister.com)
- SouthWest electronics firms shine in Barcelona (swinnovation.co.uk)
SW grants re-open
The Grant for Business Investment (GBI) scheme has reopened to applications in the SouthWest after an announcement that they would close to new applications from 1st February.
The Grant for Business Investment is a discretionary grant that supports businesses with investment projects which will increase productivity, skills and employment. It is specifically targeted at those businesses with high skills and salaries that contribute above industry average benefits to the economy and does not support projects which offer a purely local consumer-type service, so should be aimed at innovative technology projects, although the focus seems to be more on capital equipment.
In the South West GBI grants are funded by the European Regional Development Fund (which is also backing the iNets), and the outgoing South West RDA has applied for and received its own State Aid notification enabling it to continue to receive applications for the time being. This is not the case anywhere else in the country, says SWRDA
“We have worked hard and very closely with the Department for BIS and the European Commission and the decision to reopen GBI is a real boost to the region and will be supported by many small and medium sized businesses throughout the South West,” said Richard Hoskin, SWRDA’s Business Investment Manager.
For most of the SouthWest outside Cornwall, applications are for 20% of the capital costs of the project for a small company (under 50 people) and 10% for a medium sized company (up to 250 people) and can range from £10,000 to £1m. Details are here.
Related articles
- INets launch to stimulate SW innovation (swinnovation.co.uk)
Ubiquisys drives femtocells forward
Ubiquisys in Swindon is providing the technology behind 20 new femtocells at this year’s Mobile World Congress. The new femotcells – small 3G basestations that can be used in the home and to help improve coverage – include home units with integrated Wi-Fi and applications, units for the office that form self-organising networks (SON), and outdoor models that can bring coverage to rural areas via satellite and extra capacity in metropolitan environments.
They all use the Ubiquisys Femto-Engine system which allows hardware makers to produce many different designs based on the same software, and the technology is now deployed in volume by several mobile operators across the world, including SoftBank Mobile in Japan and by SFR in France.
“The key value in femtocells is their intelligence, not their miniaturisation. This intelligence, the ability to listen and make autonomous decisions in real-time, opens the door to a new generation of low-cost cells of all sizes that actively complement traditional macro networks,” said Chris Gilbert, CEO of Ubiquisys. “By encapsulating that intelligence in software, we have released a wave of innovation from leading device manufacturers as they work with operators on new femtocells for new environments. This is just the start of the proliferation of intelligent femtocell technology.”
Public Wireless in the US is demonstrating six outdoor small cell platforms with the Femto-engine, while Ubiquisys partner and investor SerComm has developed 15 distinct models, covering residential and integrated devices, enterprise, metro and rural. Femtocells developed by the two companies have already been commercially deployed in hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. The range includes 8-call standalone residential models, femtocells integrated into home gateways, USB clip-on femtocells and 16-call enterprise versions with extended range. Another box maker, Tecom in Taiwan, has shown the first model in its femtocell roadmap. The FT1020 residential femtocell supports eight individual calls and high speed data up to 14.4Mbit/s while using less than 5W of power.
Related articles
- Ubiquisys announced the world’s first attocell [Boost your phone’s signal, laptop required] (intomobile.com)
- Nokia Siemens, Ubiquisys Join Forces on Femtocells (pcworld.com)
Spacecraft that think for themselves
The world’s first control system that will allow engineers to programme autonomous satellites and spacecraft to think for themselves has been developed by scientists from the University of Southampton.
Professor Sandor Veres and his team of engineers have developed a cognitive software agent control system called ‘sysbrain’ that uses natural language programming (NLP) to ‘read’ special English language technical documents on control methods. This gives the vehicles advanced guidance, navigation and feedback capabilities to stop them crashing into other objects, as well as agent-based control with mission execution capabilities and the ability to recognise and reconfigure faults. This approach can be applied to other automated systems.
“This is the world’s first publishing system of technical knowledge for machines and opens the way for engineers to publish control instructions to machines directly,” said Professor Veres, who is leading the EPSRC-funded project. “As well as spacecrafts and satellites, this innovative technology is transferable to other types of autonomous vehicles, such as autonomous underwater, ground and aerial vehicles.”
To test the control systems that could be applied in a space environment, Professor Veres and his team constructed a unique test facility and a fleet of satellite models, which are controlled by the sysbrain cognitive agent control system. The ‘Autonomous Systems Testbed’ consists of a glass covered precision level table, surrounded by a metal framework, which is used to mount overhead visual markers, observation cameras and isolation curtains to prevent any external light sources interfering with experimentation. Visual navigation is performed using onboard cameras to observe the overhead marker system located above the test area. This replicates how spacecraft would use points in the solar system to determine their orientation.
“We have invented sysbrain to control intelligent machines. Sysbrain is a special breed of software agents with unique features such as natural language programming to create them, human-like reasoning, and most importantly they can read special English language documents in ‘system English’ or ‘sEnglish’,” said Professor Veres. “Human authors of sEnglish documents can put them on the web as publications and sysbrain can read them to enhance their physical and problem solving skills. This allows engineers to write technical papers directly for sysbrain that control the machines.”
Related articles
- British scientists develop control system to allow spacecraft to think for themselves (scienceblog.com)
MITIE launches £10m fund for entrepreneurs
Support for innovation can come from unexpected places. Bristol-based outsourcing conglomerate MITIE has launched a £10m fund to help entrepreneurs with good ideas get customers.
Better known for cleaning windows and hospitals and gritting roads, the company has helped create 90 business over the last 23 years with only five failures, says John Telling, group corporate affairs director and nephew of the founder. MITIE takes a 51% share and the businesses can access the groups 26,00o customers. The group is particularly targetting information technology and new systems to increase the efficiency of managing the different companies.
Related articles
- Rebalancing the economy: Private sector jobs and growth (number10.gov.uk)
- Entrepreneurs Hold Key To Economic Growth (news.sky.com)
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