Event news: NICTA Techfest 09

A future bionic eye that recovers lost vision. A wireless transmission system that downloads several gigahertz of data in seconds. Devices that collect, interpret and transmit biometric information about human performance in real time.

The ideas exhibited at NICTA Techfest 09 might sound like science fiction, but each of them has a real-world application that meets an immediate need.

“NICTA’s vision is that our imaginative research drives Australia’s ICT future,” said NICTA CEO Dr David Skellern in his Techfest opening address. “The first step in achieving this is to show that we can generate a sustainable flow of technologies that can fuel globally competitive ICT companies. That's what NICTA is all about.”

NICTA has over 630 staff including 270 information technology PhD students working across five Australian labs, one of them at the ATP. Techfest, NICTA’s annual technology showcase, provides stakeholders with an insight into the way Australia’s largest dedicated ICT research organisation is contributing to the digital economy.

NICTA Techfest 09, held at the ATP in August, showcased 31 research projects to over 400 visitors including venture capitalists and other potential customers. This year’s event, opened by Dr Ya-Qin Zhang, Microsoft corporate vice-president and chairman of Microsoft China’s R&D Group, gained a huge amount of media coverage.

Projects attracting special attention included a show-stopping display from NICTA’s Vision Processing for the Bionic Eye project. Visitors could try on special glasses that demonstrated how a new generation of assistive tools might change the lives of people with vision impairment: Over 50,000 people in Australia alone are legally blind, with the number growing as the population ages.

When completed, this technology could be worn or potentially implanted in the human retina, bypassing damaged photoreceptors and recovering some lost vision via electrical stimulation of the retina. NICTA is part of a national research collaboration that is actively working toward this outcome (bionicvision.org.au).

Other project teams at the ATP and in Victoria are developing ultrahigh-speed wireless technology that is more than 100 times faster than current short-range wireless technologies. NICTA has even succeeded in integrating it with a single silicon chip. One day soon you could be downloading a movie, in an uncompressed high-definition format, to a personal device at a public kiosk in a flash.

And the Human Performance Improvement project, run in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Sport, has produced small worn and implanted devices that reliably monitor the biometric status of people such as elite athletes. The information is provided in real time and in a format that can readily be used to ensure an individual’s peak competitive output. The technology will also help to improve the performance and safety of emergency services workers and defence personnel.

Information about these and other groundbreaking research projects, as well as the full wrap on Techfest, can be found at nicta.com.au.

Other recent and coming events at the ATP Conference Centre:

IKEA catalogue launch (August)
PortfolioConstruction Conference 2009 (August)
Animania Festival 09 (September)
Wine Women & Shoes Degustation Cocktail Party (September)
Annual NSW Health Expo and Awards Ceremony (October)
CSIRO IT Centre Conference (November)

Image: Human performance improvement device.