TECHNOLOGY-UAE: Arab scientists display their inventions

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is by the United Arab Emirates news agency (WAM)

SHARJAH, Feb 19 2003 (IPS) - Arab scientists worldwide have tasted the first fruits of success through their association with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sharjah-based Arab Science and Technology Foundation – but it is now important to keep getting Arab investors involved in such projects to reap the benefits within the region.

This was among the main messages of the foundation yesterday at its University of Sharjah head office. According to the ‘Gulf News’, which reported the story in its issue of today, Arab scientists have invented a clutch of intelligent systems through generous funding by the foundation. The foundation introduced the products to the media yesterday in the presence of the inventors: Arab scientists from North America.

The intelligent systems – a voice-enabled system, a smart inspector robot for long pipes, and a smart menu navigation system – will be unveiled and demonstrated before experts, officials from the telecommunications sector and potential investors, at a two-day workshop starting today.

"The main purpose is to introduce and develop the products invented by Arab scientists in the Arab region, instead of giving the production rights to any foreign companies, which have already shown great interest," officials said.

The target market for the new technology – users of mobile communication and in-vehicle automotive equipment – will have over two billion users worldwide by the end of 2005, with 200 to 250 million located throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Imad Ghandour, Business Development Manager, briefed on plans to develop products at a commercial level. In order to make its products commercially viable and generate funding for its research projects, the foundation has entered a partnership with Voice Enabling Systems Technology (Vestec), Inc, based in Waterloo, Canada.

Vestec is an emerging leader in the speech technology industry and was founded by two renowned Arab scientists, Dr Fakhreddin Karray and Dr Otman Basir. Vestec’s speech enabling development platform permits the rapid creation and deployment of speech enabled applications in a wide variety of languages, including many Arabic dialects. Once deployed, these applications can be operated with natural conversation-like speech, regardless of accent or intonation.

The new technology capitalizes on the increased opportunities available for speech technology, created by the combination of powerful portable computing devices, rollout of high-speed mobile data networks, and government legislation mandating the use of hands-free phones while operating motor vehicles.

The second technology development is an autonomous small robotic inspector for the insides of very long and small diameter pipes.

The third technology development is a smart system for navigating complex menus used in communicating with automobile devices, as well as a number of other menu-based devices.

Experts, scientists and investors, during the two-day workshop, will discuss several ideas about how to make these products useful to the Arab world, how to bridge the gap between Arab scientists and the Arab world, and ways of getting Arab investors involved in such projects.