CSIRO at CeBIT: Catching the eye of government and industry
CSIRO proved to be a showstopper at this year's information and technologies trade show, CeBIT.
The ICT Centre's DingYun Zhu shows NSW Premier Nathan Rees how to use his posture and gaze to guide a camera used in teleoperation.
Even before the
doors at Sydney's Darling Harbour officially opened, the ICT
Centre's teleoperations technology caught the eye of the NSW Premier, Nathan
Rees -
literally . PhD student Ding Yun Zhu sat the Premier down,
calibrated Mr Rees' eyes, and asked him to demonstrate new tracking technology
that enables a video camera's view to move in response to changes in eye
movement. The Premier's gaze, rather than a computer mouse,
determined how the camera moved.
Other popular
displays were of our sensor network technologies. CSIRO's
FleckTM sensors have been commercialised by a Tasmanian company The Powercom
Group - and the company had a display on the CSIRO stand this year. Also on show were new
sensor projects at Lake Wivehoe and Mt Springbrook, in south east Queensland,
and in the south Esk catchment in Tasmania. Both the teleoperations technology and a floating
sensor node were featured in a story that
night on SBS TV News.
Over the three days
of CeBIT the CSIRO stand was visited by Federal and State politicians, including
the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator
Stephen Conroy, and delegations from NSW, Victoria and Queensland. Trade and
government missions from Germany, Japan, Taiwan, England among others also
visited the ICT Centre's exhibits.
CSIRO also
co-sponsored two events at CeBIT: a forum on Australia's place in the digital
economy called AusInnovate and a networking event - Innovation Nation - which
attracted some 400 business leaders, government delegates and researchers.
"This year CeBIT
really was the place where ICT research met industry", said acting ICT Centre
Director, Gary Morgan. "Our researchers and BD staff worked around the clock in
some instances to excite and engage industry and government in our research.
Many old connections were renewed and new contacts made, demonstrating that
CSIRO is open for partnering and ready for business."
