Software Innovations on show

A simulation of "smart cars" that can drive themselves and a game to help children with diabetes were just two of the latest software innovations to be put on display by students at the Department for Applied Computing at a recent showcase.

Also on show by the final year students were two projects aimed at helping non-speaking people communicate more easily.

The "smart cars" simulation has been devised by Andrew Kilgore from Londonderry and features a traffic simulation which has cars approaching an intersection and booking a time slot so they can just drive through without any traffic lights and without the danger of colliding!

Another final year student Graham Taylor has produced a prototype of a game to help children who have just been diagnosed with diabetes to learn about the importance of diet management and which types of foods are beneficial.

Software to ease communication for non-speaking people has been created by Peter Watson and Simon Miller. Peter has developed a method of displaying and editing on computer the alternative alphabet system Blissymbolics which is used by non-speaking people to communicate.

Meanwhile, Simon has investigated ways of representing a Bliss word processor on a hand-held PDA device. Simon has had a paper describing his project accepted for the International Conference on Computers Helping People With Special Needs to be held at the University of Linz in Austria in July.