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Photos of the year

The tech year in pictures...
By Gemma Simpson, Contributor
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1 of 32 Gemma Simpson/ZDNET

The tech year in pictures...

2007 has seen a bumper crop of top tech photos from silicon.com, including the Apple iPod and iPhone launches, solar bikinis, St Pancras' reopening, trips to destinations including India, Kenya and Russia, sneak previews of the O2 - aka the old Millennium Dome - Heathrow's new Terminal 5 and a host of new apps from the ever-incumbent Google.

First up is Microsoft's fourth Innovation Day - hosted in Brussels - with partner organisations showing off the tech wares they predict could take off in the near future.

This photo shows a system developed by the Microsoft Research team in Cambridge, where the car learns how to drive around a track within a computer game. With further work it's hoped it can be tested on real vehicles.

The three green laser lines measure time to impact to various objects, while the lines on the road show the route the car has taken previously which it uses to perfect its line.

Microsoft has been eager to show of its wares in 2007, with pics of its Surface technology, touchscreen tabletop PC and remixed Zune featuring in the year's photo stories.

Photo credit: Tim Ferguson

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A British Airways 747 taxis past Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5, which will become home to much of the British Airways (BA) fleet from early next year.

Jointly developed by the BAA and BA, T5 is due to open on 27 March 2008.

silicon.com got a behind-the-scenes look at this five-year project.

We also saw exactly how BAA and BA will implement all the technology in T5. Plus, saw how the Heathrow Express trains running between the airport and Paddington are now kitted out with a wi-fi service.

Photo credit: BAA

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What's on your gadget wish-list this Christmas? silicon.com showcased the 10 devices for Santa to bring - including this Samsung F700, which is the perfect phone for smart phone lovers immune to Apple's iPhone charms.

See what else made the top 10 here.

Photo credit: Samsung

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Apple finally launched its iPhone in the UK in November and - unlike with the earlier iPod launch - Steve Jobs came to the company's London flagship store on Regent Street to give the details.

Jobs confirmed O2 will be network operator for the device which became available on 9 November, retailing at £269 for the 8GB version.

See the full photo story for more on the iPhone and see what silicon.com reporter Natasha Lomas found when she went down to Apple's Regent Street store to see who was in the queue on the day of the UK launch.

Photo credit: Steve Ranger

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Google unveiled the latest addition to its mapping technology in June. Called Street View, it lets people take a virtual walk down the streets of cities in the US.

Street View has caught some unusual shots of the American public, including this San Franciscan, raising questions around invasion of privacy.

See more Street View shots here.

Photo credit: Google

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First we got Google Earth and now there's Google Sky, which lets you explore the night sky.

This image shows the centre portion of a spiral 'edge-on' galaxy, similar to our Milky Way but lying around 55 million light-years away from Earth.

See our pick of the top galactic delights to be found on Google Sky.

Photo credit: Google Earth, Nasa and Space Telescope Science Institute

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7 of 32 Gemma Simpson/ZDNET

silicon.com talked to Graham Linehan, writer and director of tech-flavoured sitcom The IT Crowd this October, to ask him about his inspiration for the show's characters.

This is Moss - played by actor Richard Ayoade - aka the show's uber geek who still lives with his mum and has trouble communicating with anything outside the server room.

Click here to read the Q&A with Linehan and here for more photos from The IT Crowd.

Photo credit: Channel 4

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The Government Communications Headquarters - aka GCHQ - has launched what it claims is the world's first in-game recruitment advertising campaign. Job ads will appear in real-world scenarios - such as billboard and street advertising - in a number of online games.

This image is taken from a Ubisoft game called Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent. Find more pictures here.

Image credit: Ubisoft

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This team of polar explorers will travel to and traverse the North Pole next year to survey the thickness of the Arctic ice.

The Vanco Arctic Survey expedition team is pictured here demonstrating some of the equipment they intend to take with them.

Click here for more photos of the adventurers before their trek and here for pics from a more recent test of their equipment in the Arctic Circle, where the team sent the most northerly transmitted video message over their satellite communications system.

Photo credit: Gemma Simpson

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There are some unusual power sources on the horizon, so silicon.com had a look at what we can expect to emerge over the next few years.

From a solar-powered bikini to wireless electricity, there is certainly an interesting range of options.

This picture shows how a Japanese railway company is using the energy from passengers' footsteps to power its stations.

See more strange power sources here.

Photo credit: Japan Railways Group, New York Office

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Monday 15 October 2007 was the date for the fourth annual silicon.com CIO Forum - which brought together the cream of the UK's IT bosses for a conference on the theme of tech skills.

Pictured here is Atos Origin's account manager for the London 2012 Olympic Games, Rob Price, who gave a presentation to delegates on how the company intends to develop new tech talent as part of the Games' regeneration theme.

Click here to see more photos from the event.

silicon.com also unveiled its CIO50 list of the UK's top 50 most influential and innovative CIOs at an exclusive private party in London this June.

Check out the CIO50 special report to find out who made the list and see more shots from the CIO night.

Photo credit: Tim Ferguson

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Cambridge University held an innovation day in September giving entrepreneurs and start-ups the opportunity to showcase their ideas.

Among the inventions was this search and rescue flying saucer which has been developed by GFS projects to be used as an unmanned surveillance vehicle.

See what other weird and wonderful creations were on show here.

silicon.com also went along to an Oxbridge Dragons' Den-style event this year where budding Oxbridge entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to win a £5,000 cheque to get their businesses off the ground.

See who the winners and losers were here.

Photo credit: Gemma Simpson

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This cutting edge catamaran is able to adapt to different sea conditions.

The two 100ft long pontoons of the Proteus are flexibly connected to the centre of the vessel to allow it to adapt to the water surface. The boat was on show as part of an HP product launch event.

Click to see more of the Proteus in action.

Photo credit: Steve Ranger

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silicon.com visited London's newly reopened St Pancras station to check out what technology Eurostar passengers are benefiting from at the new high-speed train terminal.

This picture shows the famous Barlow train shed which houses the impressively restored Victorian station.

See our two photo stories that went behind the scenes at St Pancras before it opened in November of this year.

Photo credit: Tim Ferguson

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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has unveiled an £80m electronic military medical records system which allows the health records of military personnel to be transferred between practices electronically, instead of using the traditional paper-based system.

Other healthcare tech was also showcased - including a wrist-worn PDA system (pictured), which medical staff can wear while treating a patient and inputting information on any treatment received.

Follow the link to find out more about the MoD's latest medical tech.

The MoD also spent £250,000 on high-tech simulator equipment this year to provide more realistic training for frontline troops facing the threat of roadside and suicide bombs.

Click here to see pics of the MoD's training tech.

Photo credit: Gemma Simpson

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Philips Medical Systems unveiled a CT (Computer Tomography) scanner, which can produce detailed 3D images.

The Brilliance iCT scanner reduces the amount of radiation a patient is exposed to by as much as 80 per cent and generates images in a fraction of the time of other scanners.

The 256-slice CT machine builds up the 3D picture by taking a series of images using X-rays and then combining them to produce the final shot.

The scanner can capture an image of the entire heart in two beats and incorporates other technology - along with its relatively short exposure time - so the patient receives less radiation compared with a normal scan.

The scanner was unveiled at the Radiological Society of North America last month.

Photo credit: Philips Medical Systems

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Managed services provider Centrinet launched what it claims is the UK's first zero carbon emission data centre in July, housed in a former RAF radar station.

The data centre uses power that comes solely from Ecotricity wind farms dotted across the UK.

See what other clever tech the data centre uses to minimise its impact on the environment in our photo story. Pictured is a view down into the bunker.

And 2007 also saw the launch of a few of other unusual data centres, learn more about these server homes in this photo story.

Photo credit: Gemma Simpson

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The Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID) is testing whether the armed forces' latest technologies can cope with battlefield conditions.

In June silicon.com visited an annual field trial running military scenarios and testing tech such as the Skynet 5 satellite-based comms and VoIP phones as part of the military's Falcon project.

Find out more about the battlefield tech here.

During June, the RAF also tested a simulator which will allow RAF and US Air Force pilots to train together in the same virtual environment. See more shots of the simulators here.

Photo credit: Gemma Simpson

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The London Transport Museum opened it doors in November after a two-year refurbishment programme.

One of the new exhibitions uses technology to show visitors what impact their decisions could have on urban living and transport in the future.

This picture shows one of the possible scenarios in 2055.

See what else is in store for visitors here and click here for shots of a possible future driving tech - a race of driverless cars that took place on a former airbase in California run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Photo credit: Tim Ferguson

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silicon.com got a sneak preview of the new-look London Millennium Dome - or 'the O2' as it is now known - which has been transformed over the last two-and-a-half years into a music and entertainment venue, which, since opening, has hosted big name stars including Led Zeppelin and Prince.

Mobile and wireless technology will be widespread across the 23,000-seat arena with 320 wireless access points and GSM boosters to ensure there are no problems getting a mobile signal.

See more shots of the dome's tech-savvy offerings here.

Photo credit: Andy McCue

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Ever wondered where the maps on your sat-nav device come from?

A man-in-a-van approach may not seem like the most tech-savvy solution but the images and data that end up on numerous navigation devices are gathered by Tele Atlas' vans.

Van-mounted cameras, tablet PCs and hard drives make up the camper-van infrastructure. See more shots of the sat-nav technology here.

Pictured is a couple from Belgium who make up one of the Tele Atlas teams that clock up the road miles mapping Europe's streets and landmarks.

To see photos on how Germany uses tech-in-a-van with a wi-fi flavour to enforce its electronic road-charging system for heavy goods vehicles on the autobahn, click here.

And for more car-related iPods and gadgets, check out silicon.com's guide here.

Photo credit: Tim Ferguson

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The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is consigning the 7,500 pagers - which it used to summon its volunteers to lifeboat stations - to a watery grave.

The RNLI is replacing around 2,500 pagers per year. The new gadgets are smaller than their predecessors and have a range of different ringtones.

Pictured is a 'Mersey' class of all-weather lifeboat used at the Lytham St Annes lifeboat station on the North West coast of England.

To see more photos of the lifeboat and pagers click here.

Police forces and other emergency services are also being equipped with mobile devices to keep officers in contact with HQ and enable dispatchers to more efficiently allocate resources. To see pics of five mobile gadgets for cops click here.

Photo credit: Gemma Simpson

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Big brands are embracing Second Life to promote their real-life goods within the virtual world.

Pictured is part of a theme park operated by Samsung and Softbank.

AOL, BMW, Cisco, Dell, Intel and Sears are among the companies clambering for a piece of the virtual action. See more shots of these and other business' Second Life guises here.

Also featured in 2007's virtual worlds photo fodder was the virtual world with a real cash economy - the Entropia Universe created by Mindark.

During a Q&A with silicon.com, Mindark CIO Marco Behrmann said Entropia offers businesses a safe and secure framework to open up in.

See more images from the Entropia Universe here.

Photo credit: Second Life/Linden Lab

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The world's most powerful atom smasher - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - will be turned on next year and is expected to produce roughly 15 million gigabytes of experimental data every year.

Handling all this information and dishing it out to 5,000 scientists around the world is no mean feat so a global grid has been put together to distribute and filter the data.

Pictured is one of the LHC's four main detectors - called Alice - which will hunt for an exotic state of matter thought to have existed shortly after the big bang.

Find out more about the super-grid behind the LHC and see shots inside the particle smasher here.

Photo credit: Cern

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Earlier this year silicon.com editor Steve Ranger visited Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore to investigate the Indian technology industry.

This is a view across the Wipro campus in Bangalore. Around 20,000 people work at this site, which has basketball courts and other facilities including shops and a gym to keep the staff happy.

See more pictures from Bangalore's Electronics City, which is home to dozens of other high-tech companies.

For more news and pics from India visit the special report.

Photo credit: Steve Ranger

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This is one of the RFID scanners used in the Selexyz Maastricht BGN bookshop. The shop, housed in a striking 12th century church, is one of the first and most extensive rollouts of RFID tracking technology in the world.

Staff can use the handheld scanner - the beige box shown here - to read the tags held on the books. The titles are then displayed on screen.

Find out more about how the bookshop is taking advantage of RFID.

Photo credit: Jo Best

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At the Asklepios Klinik Barmbek in Hamburg, a wireless LAN (WLAN) is helping staff access digital images and patient records. Here an MRI scan is viewed on a laptop connected to the WLAN.

The hospital is also looking into using RFID tags - for tracking blood samples, medical equipment and even patients.

Follow the link for more images from Hamburg's high-tech hospital.

Photo credit: Tim Ferguson

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Microsoft unveiled a 'tailored' version of its Windows operating system to be used by NHS workers in March.

The interface lets clinicians see data in different formats - pictured above is a graph of how a patient's blood pressure has changed over time.

See what other apps are helping health workers here.

Photo credit: Microsoft

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With technology and Formula One more closely associated than ever, silicon.com reporter Tim Ferguson went along to the launch of the 2007 Williams F1 car at the team's base at Grove, Oxfordshire.

See more pictures from the launch here.

The ING Renault Formula One team has also opened up an island containing a race circuit within Second Life's virtual world.

See more of Renault's island and find out how silicon.com fared in a Second Life kart race here.

Photo credit: Tim Ferguson

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silicon.com's Will Sturgeon took part in a gruelling cycle challenge across Kenya to raise funds for Computer Aid International during February.

Here school children use PCs installed with Windows 2000 to prepare essays and documents. One of the 2,000 teachers trained by CFSK assists the children in their work.

Read more here.

Photo credit: Will Sturgeon

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silicon.com deputy editor Andy McCue took a trip to Russia to check out how the country is aiming to become a leading destination for IT outsourcing.

Pictured is the magnificent Moscow State University where four students compete for each place - of which there are a total of 500 - on offer every year at the faculty of computational mathematics and cybernetics.

See what else silicon.com found on the trip here.

Photo credit: Andy McCue

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With Vista's commercial launch in January of this year, Microsoft unveiled the first new PCs and laptops designed for the Windows Vista operating system at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas at the start of January. Click here to see more shots of Vista-enabled hardware.

A few days before the consumer launch, Microsoft decided to put Vista on ice in an attempt to 'wow' the crowds in London's Covent Garden.

Locked inside the letter 'O' of the giant ice sculpture is a laptop - which one member of the public won when they guessed a three-digit code to release the chilled computer from its sub-zero safe.

An uncool publicity stunt or churning up public interest? See more shots of the pre-launch event here and click here to see more of Vista's commercial unveiling.

Photo credit: Gemma Simpson

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