These pages address emerging technologies. Technologies likely to have an increasing impact include:
Photonics
Photonics is the technology of generating and harnessing light. It includes:
- light emission
- transmission
- amplification and detection by lasers
- fibre optics and electro-optical instrumentation
It is an industry linked with some of today's most dynamic, high-growth markets, including genomes and proteomics research, and has become a key provider of enabling technologies for these markets.
Photonics can be embedded in everything from communications to medicine, military to consumer products and laboratory to manufacturing processes. As an enabling technology it has product and process applications in diverse commercial sectors.
Development challenges being addressed by the sector include:
- materials
- component development and miniaturisation
- device yields
- systems integration
Further information can be obtained from the following websites:
Photonics Ireland is an online centre for news, information, contacts, and jobs in the photonics sector in Ireland.
Optics.org is an online Photonics resource, founded in 1996 and claims to be the first web portal designed to serve the information needs of the worldwide photonics community.
Photonics.com provides news and information on products, events and suppliers in the photonicsindustry.
Photonics Online is a sourcing site for the optical engineering industry.
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Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is like Lego on an atomic scale. It deals with the application of materials science and engineering to the design and control of matter on the atomic scale. The term nano derives from the nanometre (nm), which is one billionth of a metre. To put this scale in context, a human hair is approximately 80,000 nm wide!
The Irish Nanotechnology Association website provides information on the latest innovations in this area.
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Grid Computing
Grid Computing is a type of parallel and distributed system that enables the sharing, selection and aggregation of geographically distributed "autonomous" resources dynamically at runtime depending on their availability, capability, performance, cost and users' quality-of-service requirements.
"The next big thing?" : Economist overview of Grid Computing.
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Biometrics
There is renewed interest in biometrics following the September 11 attacks.
Biometric systems identify a person based on physiological characteristics. The most popular biometric systems are based on face recognition and fingerprint matching, but systems using eye (iris or retina), speech and hand geometry are also available.
See Biometrics Resource Centre website for further information.
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Gerry McMahon
Tel: +(353 1) 808 2794 |
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