Photos: Tomorrow's tech showcased by inventors
Translators, wearable gadgets and underwater broadband
Some of the UK's most promising tech entrepreneurs gathered at the Cambridge Enterprise Conference Cambridge to show how their ideas could shape the future.
QIO Systems has come up with connected clothing thanks to a remote control woven into the interior of the coat or the strap of a bag, which can then be used to control a gadget such as an MP3 player.
The system works by meshing aluminium wires into a nylon strap attached to a textile touchpad at one end and dock for the gadget at the other.
Touching the piezoelectric textile pad lowers its electrical resistance causing a current to flow through the aluminium wires and sending the signal to the attached device.
The system currently works with MP3 players and Bluetooth mobile phones but the company plans to adapt it to work with more devices such as GPS and says it could even control self-heating or illuminating jackets.
The company has already sold tens of thousands of the touchpads to clothing manufacturers, some through Marks and Spencer and also through European fashion store Celio.
Photo credit: Nick Heath/silicon.com
UK company Axon Automotive has developed a featherweight car that claims to hit 100 miles per gallon.
The Axon car replaces traditionally heavy vehicle panels and chassis with a carbon fibre alternative that is both lighter and stronger.
The car has also been redesigned to be more aerodynamic, reducing drag across its body.
Dr Steve Cousins, founder of Axon, seen here showing off the cars sleek and colourful design, said: "There is lots of inefficiency built-in to a standard car.
"The two main sources are the weight of the vehicle and relatively poor aerodynamics, both of which we have addressed."
Photo credit: Nick Heath/silicon.com
Norfolk-based Sonar Link claims to offer the fastest underwater data connection available, about five times the speed of the usual 38Kbps offerings.
This means data for aquatic research projects by oil companies or academics can be collected in one week rather than three, and batteries for underwater sensors last up to three times longer.
The system, seen here, works by sending an acoustic signal from a data collector on the sea bed to a base station, usually attached to a ship or oil platform. The Sonar Link system speeds up the process by allowing data collectors to send their information at the same time.
It is also good news for dolphins. The company claims the system is up to 800-times quieter than current underwater data transfer methods, which it said can generate the same amount of noise as a jet engine and can disorientate sea creatures.
Photo credit: Nick Heath/silicon.com
The NHS has developed a system that eventually will let doctors talk to patients from practically anywhere in the world.
The Multilingual Interpreting Communication System (MICS) was born out of the needs of doctors in Ipswich in Suffolk, where there are large Arab and Kurdish communities.
MICS will allow a doctor to speak into a mic attached to a tablet PC, which will immediately translate the question for the patient.
Initially the system will work by the doctor choosing from a selection of about 2,000 phrases, as seen on screen here, and a synthetic voice speaking the language.
Within a year Health Enterprise East hopes to pair the system with a speech recognition engine to translate doctor's speech on the fly.
The questions do not rely on the patient's knowing English as they can either be answered with yes or no, or the patient will be able to point to a phrase or possibly eventually a graphic, such as a body map.
Dr Cort Williamson, who will begin trials of the technology soon with the Suffolk Community Refugee Team, said the technology will make a huge difference.
Photo credit: Nick Heath/silicon.com
Here's some really cool technology in every sense of the word. Camfridge's proprietary system uses nothing but magnets and metal to cool air.
The system does away with the gases and vibrations of a traditional fridge or air-con system, and claims to be twice as efficient as traditional compressor coolers.
The so-called "magnetocaloric" metals, such as gadolinium alloys, heat up when exposed to a magnetic field. It exploits a recent scientific breakthrough that allows magnetocaloric metals to work at room temperature.
The heat is then removed from the materials and the magnetic field is weakened by moving the magnets, which in turn causes the metals to cool below their original temperature.
The Cambridge-based firm is in talks with three major manufacturers about implementing the technology into their fridges and other coolers.
Managing director of Camfridge Neil Wilson said: "The magnetic cooling engine is a step change - a radical way to redesign existing systems to give higher efficiency and lower cost."
Photo credit: Nick Heath/silicon.com
"If anything deserves to be called AI then this does."
It is a bold claim to make but William Tunstall-Pedoe, founder of the True Knowledge "internet answer engine" believes the system will change the way we access information on the web.
The system throws away the traditional search approach of returning long lists of links with an attempt to directly answer the question presented to it.
Tunstall-Pedoe said its success rate is currently about 40 per cent but said the Cambridge-based company has recently attracted £2m in venture-capital funding.
He said the engine works by "capturing information as discrete facts that can be understood by a machine" and then "generating an extensive knowledge-base that it can call upon to deduce the answer to a question".
Here Tunstall-Pedoe shows off the engine answering the topical question "Who was president when Barack Obama was a teenager?".
Photo credit: Nick Heath/silicon.com
Combating the MRSA and C.difficile bacteria is a priority for hospitals.
Cliniweave can be applied to anything from smocks and cushions, as seen here, to papers and folders to destroy the bugs.
Tests carried out by Imperial College in London show the Cliniweave technology, which draws on a bactericidal compound already used in household products, is more than 1,000 times more effective than its rivals.
Here is George Costa, founder of Intelligent Fabric Technologies, the company behind Cliniweave, showing off the product.
Costa believes the technology behind Cliniweave could also be applied to paints and varnishes on walls, floors and furniture in future.
Cliniweave can withstand more than 100 washes at 80C.
Photo credit: Nick Heath/silicon.com