CMIS Projects at Hannover Latest News from Hannover
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 The Hannover Messe Fair ran from 19 to 24 April 1999.
It is the world's biggest industry technology fair,  attracting over
330,000 visitors from 100 countries. Hannover Messe offers an insight into what's
available on the world market. As more companies pursue global sourcing policies, Hannover
Messe provides a basis for investment and procurement decisions.
The CSIRO/Australian stand, organised by CSIRO and co-sponsored by the Department of
Industry, Science and Resources, was in Hall 18, the Research and Technology Hall. There
were about 30 technologies on display at the stand from CSIRO and Australian companies in
software, instrument manufacture, transport systems and more. The theme this year is
"Australia's Innovative Spirit".
Last year, many new business contacts were made. This year CMIS was represented by the
following projects:
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Applied Mathematics
General Purpose Finite Element Modelling - Fastflo
Simulations of Granular Flow
Decision Support
Rapid Transit System Software
Scheduling Trade Show Appointments - SATE
Staff Rostering Software - SORT
Traffic Management - TRITRAM
Transport Scheduling - LITRES-2
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Software Development and Engineering
Automatic Software Documentation
- ISOLDE
Catalogue Text On-the-fly - PEBA-II
User Interface Evaluation - EMA
Imaging and Multimedia
Computer Assisted Closed Captionning - CACTUS
Generating Sports Highlights
Webflix MPEG Software
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For more information about Hannover Messe visit:
The official Hannover Messe site
CSIRO's main Hannover page
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Latest News from Hannover
from Carrie Bengston
The Last Word
The Australian stand attracted about 100 serious enquiries a
day, logged as 'contact reports'. These are being followed up at the moment. It is a bit
early yet to tell whether any will lead to new business for CMIS. However, CMIS's
participation at Hannover certainly helped 'wave the flag' and give visitors a better idea
of the quality and diversity of R&D in Australia.
Fastflo attracted the most contacts from among the CMIS technologies at the Fair. Most of
the others attracted a fewer than expected number of enquiries. However, contacts from the
attendant publicity (media coverage, brochures, CD-ROMs) may take longer to emerge.
One of the advantages of going to the Hannover Fair was seeing what was on offer in terms
of technologies from around the world. CMIS staff visited stands related to their work and
heard a number of seminars too. It was also a good opportunity to see what other groups in
CSIRO were
up to.
Thursday 22nd April
A party is being held tonight at the Australian stand to invite
contacts made during the fair. Another busy day at the stand with about 100 contacts made
yesterday and many more people just looking. Staff at the Australian stand have been
attending seminars at various halls around the Fair on topics of interest - finding out
what it is happening on the global scene. Today's pictures.
Wednesday 21st April
Today the stand has been busy. Over 300 serious enquiries have been
made for information in the first three days of the fair and already some visits have been
arranged to local companies. Ceramic Fuel Cells' display is especially popular. Visits are
being made to the stands of potential collaborators and customers so the information is
flowing freely! Here's some more pictures.
Tuesday 20th April
Yesterday over 60 people registered an interest in receiving more
informaiton about the technologies on display. There is certainly an interest in
technology from Australia. Most of the stands are from Europe, so there is a lot of
curiosity about what we do. Some of the stand's visitors include dignitaries and VIPs.
They are also interested in what technology Australia has to offer. Visitors also include
students, delegations from various countries as well as the majority - business people.
Here are some pictures of the stand, staff and visitors.
Monday 19th April
All the fun of the fair!
Last night (Sunday) there was an opening ceremony for Hannover Messe 1999 at Hannover's
Congress centre. The fair was declared open by Gerhard Schroder, German Chancellor.
CSIRO's stand was well-attended today, the first day. The stand is large and bright and
has many things that turn, filter and stir. CSIRO's facial recognition software is very
popular. People approaching the stand see themselves on a large screen. The computer draws
a square around their faces, captures the image and quickly compares it to a database of
faces to see if it is recognised.
Some enthusiastic visitors to the stand today. A German TV producer in interested in the CACTUS captionning technology. An energy company is
considering using Fastflo to model heating and
cooling of homes.
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John Williams welcomes visitors
to the CSIRO/Australian stand.
Catalogues of the exhibits are available in German and English.
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The filtered arc
deposition system (FADS) demonstration. The Australian display has
several models that are attracting attention from industrialists.
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Putting together the water filtration model as part of the MIEX DOC exhibit.
Nothing a bit of glue won't fix.
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A shiny display of coins. Part of
the FADS
system display at the stand.
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The completed water purifier
model. The square tank on the left has a brown resin
floating in it that attracts and binds dissoved organic carbon (DOC) impurities in the
water.
The resin with the organic carbon molecules attached forms clumps and settles
out leaving purified water at the top, which is coming down the tube on the right.
The resin was developed by CSIRO and developed into a working system
by ORICA, and plants are being set up in SA and WA.
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Jack Bhalla and Graham Reynolds at the captionning exhibit.
This has already attracted attention from European TV producers
interested in foreign language subtitling.
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Uma Srinivasan at the captioning
stand. The CACTUS technology
on display is continuing to be developed with the Australian Caption Centre.
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The UMIS system
has attracted a lot of interest.
A seminar is being organised on the stand for those interested in finding out more.
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The thin film measurement
system uses a laser to measure the thickness of metal sheets
and other thin films. At the Hannover Fair, the system is attracting interest
among metal producers for the automotive industry.
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FASE promises
better quality from mobile phone calls.
Ron Sharpe is demonstrating the system at Hannover.
Media release.
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Fastflo is making a
second appearance at the Hannover Fair.
It has several new features since it was shown here last year.
Developed by CSIRO with industry partners, Fastflo is distributed in Europe by the
Numerical Algorithms Group whose representative in Germany,
Christina Eschenbach, is shown on the left. Noel Barton of CSIRO is on the right.
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Traffic management is a problem almost everywhere but TRITRAM software
is world class. CSIRO's Phil Kilby discusses the system
with a journalist. Media
release.
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How durable is your currency? Not many people have taken up
the challenge
to immerse their currency in water with the eighty Australian dollars shown here.
The polymer
notes, developed by CSIRO and Note Printing Australia,
are a curiosity in Hannover because European notes are made of paper.
Besides Australia, polymer notes are in use in some countries in Asia,
Oceania and the Middle East.
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TV crews are regular visitors to the Australian stand.
Yesterday a Brazilian TV crew came by. Channel 9's Business Show
is filming some segments on Thursday.
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The display from Ceramic Fuel Cells
has been the most popular on the
Australian stand because of the high energy efficiency the cells offer.
It is one of a number of energy technologies on show at the Fair.
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Kerry Siebold with the Farley Cutting
Systems Display.
Press release.
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CSIRO’s Graham Mills with the rostering and scheduling display.
With labour costs in Europe being high, the SORT optimisation software
on show offers cost effective ways to best use a company’s workforce.
It’s flexibility also allows for different customs, preferences
and labour regulations to be accommodated.
Good news for a company with staff in different European countries
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Terry Cocks from Integrated Spectronics with a hand-held
infra-red sensor
developed by CSIRO with Integrated Spectronics. CSIRO’s expertise
in optics has been used in this sensor and a multi-spectral
sensor
also on display at Hannover.
Integrated Spectronics developed the electronics and the detector systems.
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Cecile Paris is demonstrating technologies that automatically create
documents and that make software easy to use.
Favourable comments from visitors show that these are
addressing problems of real relevance.
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Buses ferry visitors from hall to hall. With 24 halls at the
Hannover Fair
over a large area, it can get tiring walking around!
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The Fair grounds are like a small town. Among the
exhibition halls
(hall 2 shown here), there are small parks, supermarkets, flower shops,
restaurants, newsagents, rail booking offices and lots more.
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Hall 18 is the Research and Development Hall. There are two
levels of stands.
CSIRO/Australian stand is on the ground level. Other exhibitors in the hall include
universities,
research institutes, companies, and regional governments.
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The tower shown here is home to Deutsche Messe, organisers of
Hannover Messe, CeBIT and other fairs in Hannover. Trade Fairs are the main industry
of Hannover and Deutsche Messe employs 400-500 people.
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