Three exciting projects from engineering and life sciences secured funding last month to prove their technology in Scottish Enterprise’s latest round of proof of concept funding. All hold exciting commercial potential for the future. Here are the plans:
Forget kids sitting motionless in front of their computers with a console controlling the action. When Stephen McKenna in applied computing proves this concept, the kids will be able to join in the action. The image on computer screens will mimic movement of people in front of it - running, jumping, waving - any motion - all with just a domestic PC and camera and without any special clothing or sensors on their bodies.
And more than mimicking movement, the beauty of this new software is that it does not merely track and mimic the visual, but collects and analyses data from the movement it sees. Imagine a golfer practising his swing. As well as being able to watch himself preparing and following through, the software will produce an accurate analysis of the all important physics of his movement so he can compare the essentials of his swing with the pros.
Stephen and his research associates Gordon McAllister and Tim Roberts think that their software will be useful not only in the entertainment industry, but could be used in the health sphere to screen people's walking for problems. Through this gait analysis, doctors could determine the nature of a walking defect.
Stephen believes that all this is possible with only a domestic camera and PC using state-of-the-art algorithms that share a common mathematical framework based on probability and models of articulated body structure and learned visual appearance.
One in seven people suffer from hearing loss during their lives. Currently technology is in place to help people with severe hearing problems through cochlear implants and those with slight hearing loss - with hearing aids. However existing implants have proved disappointing.
Eric Abel in the school of engineering has devised an implant which will fill a substantial gap in the market, aiding those people with moderate to severe hearing loss with a device planted in the middle cavity of the ear. The actuator on the device will vibrate the ossicular chain producing sound energy to be picked up by the inner ear - where the root of hearing problems come from. The middle ear implant will provide many of these one in seven people with a restored ability for acute hearing.
Eric believes that this project will overcome known technical shortcomings of previous middle ear implants and give substantially improved hearing to the 14% of people who suffer hearing loss.
A remote signal source using a novel method of signal transmission and power delivery not previously used in surgical implants will power a device that can be clipped to the bone of the ossicular chain. A complete prototype system will be developed and evaluated in conditions which mimic those found in the living ear.
Angus Lamond and Paul Ajuh in the school of life sciences have identified a new family of target proteins for developing new drugs which they hope will be able to cure or prevent fungal infections which can be fatal in cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy, AIDS, and transplant patients.
When the immune system is low, people are at a higher risk from fungal infection. The market for anti-fungal drugs is worth billions of dollars every year but so far scientists have not yet discovered a drug that is good enough to properly tackle human fungal diseases. Many of the existing drugs have dangerous side effects and doctors are reluctant to prescribe them for non-life-threatening cases.
This project, using the new target proteins and high throughput screening, aims to produce a drug that eliminates side-effects, and could form part of the patients’ preventative treatment, reducing the diseases that the weakened body can succumb to.
The proof of concept fund supports leading-edge technologies in Scotland's academic institutions, and aims to help export innovation from the lab into the global marketplace. The £33m fund launched in 1999 now supports 118 ground-breaking projects worth nearly £18 million and has created 287 new jobs. It concentrates on early-stage ideas which have typically reached patent level and could lead to the creation of new businesses, or licensing innovative technologies. Successful bidders must demonstrate that their ideas have originality and true commercial potential.
The projects supported via the Fund are high risk and will generally take several years to become commercially viable investments.
The objectives of the Fund are:
Further details on the PoC Fund, the projects that are currently supported and the application process can be found at: http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/proofofconceptfund