News Article
New research centre at The University of Nottingham will develop digital technology to transform modern living
Published: 15 June 2009
The Horizon Digital Economy Research Hub centre is one of three announced by Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation. The centres will help to connect people with digital technology to radically improve the way we live, work, play, and travel to ensure that everyone is included in the digital future.
The University of Nottingham centre will develop new ways to use the electronic ‘footprints’ we leave behind whenever we use mobile, internet and other digital technologies, and new ways to utilise digital technologies to help business and stimulate economic growth.
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The Nottingham hub will focus on ‘always on, always with you’ technology. The hub will promote creative industries such as internet and mobile phone gaming as well as online smart marketing tools for retailers. The centre will also help reduce carbon levels by developing communication tools to encourage more car sharing — by combining global positioning systems (GPS), social networking sites and mobile digital technologies.
Building on plans to provide universal connectivity to broadband in the UK, the new research hubs are the biggest investment ever made by Research Councils UK in creating a Digital Britain. The other two hubs will be based at the Universities of Newcastle and Aberdeen.
The Hub will build on the track record Nottingham has already established in digital research. To take one example, GPS and WiFi technology has enabled cyclists to hear sound bytes from a film based on a book by Alan Sillitoe, and listen to interviews with the author himself. Bytes are played automatically as visitors to the city cycle around a specified route round relevant parts of Nottingham linked with Sillitoe.
Read more on The University of Nottingham's website.
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