Dundee and Angus

Latest News for Dundee & Angus

Police turn ‘inn keeper' software’ to keep tabs on troublesome drinkers across the county. Tayside Police is to become the first force in Scotland to adopt an innovative computer system called ‘Inn Keeper’ to help tackle the problem of alcohol-fuelled violence. Chief Inspector Lorna Robbie of Tayside Police explained: “The Innkeeper licensing system has allowed staff within Tayside Police to record information in a more systematic way, easing the retrieval of information in relation to all aspects of licensing.”

The university was honoured for its "Dare to be Digital" competition at the Develop Industry Excellence Awards winning the Education New Talent category for hosting the Scottish leg of the contest, which sees students create a computer game in 10 weeks. While Scottish based organisations picked up nine out of 17 of the prizes at the ceremony, Rockstar North, Edinburgh. Confirming Dundee’s strengths in the sector, Abertay visiting professor, Richard Leinfellner also collected the Best Services Award for his company Babel Media.

A team of Dundee University design students (the Underwonders) are taking part in the Microsoft Design Expo 2008 being held in Seattle at the end of July, along with teams fro the US, China, India, Mexico and the Netherlands. (L to R) Joanna Montgomery and Neil Dawson of Interactive Media Design, and Natalie Montgomery and Lee Murray of Innovative Product Design worked with an initial brief to create two interactive objects to bridge the gap between two generations have created a prototype machine that uses images and sounds to tell stories, with a rolling film made from still images.

Virtual Learning Angus from Angus College in collaboration with Robert Gordon University involves using the very latest online technology to help deliver virtual tuition in management, computing, administration, care and engineering. It is being funded by one of the biggest awards yet from the European Social Fund which will provide Â£214,000 to support Â£725,000 worth of new educational programmes split in two projects.

Dundeeâ€™s sewers will soon be used to deliver next generation ultra high speed connectivity and broadband to every home, business and organisation in the city. H2O Networks Ltd, the pioneer of Fibrecity, siad it will be putting fibre optic cable which is capable of speeds in excess of 100 Mbps into the cityâ€™s sewer pipes.

Clearly aimed at the rich games market livewires comes Harvest Country Homes latest development of 35 showpiece houses in rural Monikie, near Dundee, which, to quote its slightly over the top release "ooze quality and craftsmanship, but while the exteriors boast solid traditional quality materials and the interiors display carpentry and design at their peak, these homes also have high technology coursing through their walls. The houses are equipped with the latest smart home technology from Square D, a brand of Schneider Electric." No, no robots yet or and free iPods offers appear over in the housing scene.

First minister, Alex Salmond opened the new Â£2.5m learning facility at Abertay University and was given a tour of White Space by university principal Professor Bernard King. The facilities on the Dundee campus form the heart of its computer games technology, computer arts teaching and knowledge-creation activities to combines the talents of computer arts and games students, PhD researchers and lecturers, together with business people, broadcasters and artists.

Gaberlunzie admits a fascination with the natural world lowtech spinoffs for hightech uses, from beetles providing the template for photonic crystals to slime secreted by algae embedded in special bioreactors bind metal contaminated water to photosynthetic bacteria capable of f converting or organic acids and alcohols into methane with low levels of light energy input. Now a common backyard fungi gets the accolade for being able to handle depleted uranium.

Realtime Worlds, the independent video game developer, has regained the global distribution rights to multiplayer online game All Points Bulletin or APB, an original MMOG for the PC platform, under development in the company's Dundee studio, from Korean online entertainment company Webzen Inc, which originally partnered with Realtime Worlds in 2005.

Realtime Worlds the Dundee video games producer raised m in second round funding from US investment house Maverick Capital with existing investors New Enterprise Associates and WPP. The firm, founded in 2002 by former DMD Games CWO Dave Jones, will use the funding to launch a new online urban action game All Points Bulletin.

In her first major interview with The Sunday Herald since taking up her post as transition director, Anne Bonnar stressed that Creative Scotland's interests will be wider than the two agencies - Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council - being merged to form it. "Creative Scotland is a new organisation," she said. "It inherits what was great about Scottish Screen and the Scottish Arts Council but it critically isn't the same. Creative Scotland has a wider field of vision."

Dare to be Digital, the computer games design competition for students, is back for 2008, promising to be bigger and better than ever. This year amBX is offering selected teams the chance to become amBX licensed developers for Dare 2008 and teams will receive amBX Premium kit hardware and software tools allowing them to create ambient experiences for their competition projects.

Dundee gaming company CobraMobile has bolstered its growing reputation with the production of a mobile phone game based on the iconic and much loved Guinness World Records Book. Working with TT Games Publishing and mobile media publishers Player X, Cobra Guinness World Records Mobile is released this month across all major UK and European carriers including T-Mobile, Vodaphone, Telefonica, O2 and Orange.

A scheme involving student playing Nintendo DS for 20 minutes before school is now be widened to 16 schools in the Western Isles, Dundee, East Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire, where students will take part in another 10 week trial, observed by Her Majestyâ€™s Inspectorate of Education and researchers at the University of Dundee.

Axis-Shield plc, the in vitro diagnostics company based in Scotland and Norway, has pledged to remain in Dundee after it booked a health rise in sales and profits. The firm, which develops and manufactures diagnostic kits, saw sales to the end of December up to Â£66.7m from Â£60.8m with profits up 41%t to Â£2.9m after a year of sales (435 to US) of its Afinion diabetic testing system, which performs multiple tests. Currently being developed are tests for patients on blood-thinning drugs which will launch early next year, said CEO Ian Gilham.

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is the technology of choice for Dundee based IDMoS which focused initially on R&D of dental disease detection and monitoring with the CariesScan launched in late 2007 and its associated device the CarieScan Monitor which provides real time displays of tooth measurements viewable by both dentist and patient. It has also been the technology of choise for a small Milwaukee start-up Paradigm Sensors LLC which is attracting strong interest from local angel investing groups and is launching its first product, a biodiesel fuel blend analyzer, at a national industry conference writes Gail Purvis

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