BT previews research projects at Adastral Park [part 2]

 

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Posted on 2 Jun 2004 at 13:35

We continue our peak at future projects under development at BT's research campus, Adastral Park.

See BT previews research projects at Adastral Park [part 1]

Having looked at projects involving nature-inspired computing, pervasive gaming and virtual reality systems, our next stop on the tour involved telecare systems. Specifically, the BT Exact Centre for Care in the Community.

Telecare (as in 'distant caring') is an important market for technology companies, second only to security in terms of revenue, Steve Brown and Ian Neild, Research Technologists at BT, told us.

The new work involved the innovative use of networked sensors to help provide an analysis of someone's general well-being. The challenge, we were shown, was how to gather data unobtrusively. The idea was not to record sound or video of elderly people within their houses, but to record more abstract data. For example, the team use sensors attached to water pipes, which indicate taps being used, or discrete movement sensors to monitor the opening and closing of doors, to record movement to another room.

Another constraint was the power that could be drawn by such sensors - low-maintenance was another priority and this further tests the ingenuity of the researchers.

What these sensors can ultimately present is a time-based map of an inhabitants movements within a house - when they were in the bedroom, bathroom, lounge or kitchen. For example, the water-pipe sensor can detect activity in the bathroom, which is confirmed by a door sensor. When this movement is colour coded, one can view a 'bar-code' of a subject's activity. A rather startling view of someone's day, it nonetheless presents a 'DNA fingerprint' of their daily existence, subsequent deviations from which can be detected early (as a patient's level of well-being falls).

It is vital, we were told, to detect early any deterioration in the general level of well-being, before a situation becomes critical and conditions become chronic.

Of course, once data has been gathered it has to be processed meaningfully - the system needs to report on a client's status of health rather than a list of sensor data. For this, they draw on data-analysis experience from other BT groups. A rule-based fuzzy logic system is used and the team are still testing a number of analysis algorithms.

You can read more about the team's previous research in this area on the BT Exact website.

Sweating copper

Finally, on to the hot topic of broadband, as Kevin Foster, Manager of BT's Advanced Copper Technologies Unit, guided as around an idealistic, gadget-laden Broadband Home.

As the first person to have DSL broadband in Britain - back in 1992, he told us (2Mbit/sec downstream, 16Kbit/sec upstream) - Foster is well placed to have an overview on the development of broadband so far. His specialism is VSDL (Very high data rate Digital Subscriber Line), which actually grew out of his research work and an MSc dissertation, and he also lead the work towards its standardisation in 1995.

Unfortunately for us, however, it is the Far East that has apparently picked up and run with this particular technology, with it being particularly suited for the compact, high-density housing of modern Asian cities (over and above local exchange issues, it's role out in the UK will require a new generation of VSDL-supporting street cabinets)