Institute of Digital Healthcare In 2008, WMG and the University of Warwick’s Medical School joined forces with NHS West Midlands to create the Institute of Digital Healthcare, a collaborative project aimed at improving people’s health and wellbeing through the use of innovative technologies. Based at the International Digital Lab, research is undertaken in the areas of remote monitoring, virtual medical training and serious games. The IDH has a five year delivery programme bringing new partnerships in public and private sector together for the benefit of the healthcare system in the UK. For more information visit the Institute of Digital Healthcare website.
	Research Award for Remote Laser Welding Research RLW Navigator is a three year, €3.9million project funded by the European Commission under the ICT-Factories of the Future programme that was awarded to the Digital Lifecycle Management Research Group in the International Digital Lab in 2011. Co-ordinated by Professor Darek Ceglarek, the project aims to develop an engineering platform for emerging joining technology from the automotive industry, Remote Laser Welding (RLW) that will enable the exploitation of Remote Laser Welding and ultimately support other joining processes. This project was one of the highlights from the work undertaken at the International Digital Lab because it brought together a local SME Enginsoft as well as 9 other partners including Jaguar Land Rover, Stadco and Comau.
	High Dynamic Range Television arrives on domestic TV WMG’s Visualisation Research uses novel techniques to deliver high-fidelity, multi-sensory real virtuality to provide a high degree of confidence in hypothesis testing within digital environments for industry and consumer markets. In order to commercialise this technology, a spin-out business goHDR Ltd was created in 2008 at the International Digital Lab and a number of collaborative partnerships ensued. In 2011, the Visualisation Team at WMG, goHDR Ltd and Altera®Toronto Technology Center partnered to develop an embedded system that could be connected to existing domestic televisions, allowing them to display High Dynamic Range (HDR) content. The partners gave the first ever public demonstration of HDR-enabled television working with a standard LED TV at the IBC 2011 event in Amsterdam. A specially created short film called ‘Morgan Lovers’ made in partnership with Morgan Motor Company and Vermillion Films was shot and manipulated to showcase the technology.
	Automotive Insulations Ltd Specialists in the design and manufacture of innovative noise reduction systems and thermal management solutions, Automotive Insulations Ltd worked with the WMG SME team at the International Digital Lab on a major social media project, looking at how the Internet based digital tools could help drive more sales for the business. The SME team spent time training up individuals in the business to set up and manage social media accounts and helped the company map out competitor activity and develop a strategy for business development. A key area of research within the International Digital Lab was to develop e-business models for small businesses. As a result of the new business drive through social media, 16 new jobs were created in the organisation.
	RDM Automotive RDM Automotive has supplied products and services to the automotive industry since 1993. The company required support with solving versioning and cost issues related to the large volume of printed technical drawings provided to the shop floor via engineering and production. The WMG SME Team at the International Digital Lab supported RDM through requirements capture, design and implementation of a bespoke low cost document viewing system called Advanced Low Cost Viewer (ALCOVE). The ALCOVE document viewer is a server thin client implementation providing a robust light weight method of viewing a range of document types including .doc, .pdf, .dxf and .dwg. The system helped drive efficiencies in the business and build capacity. Five new jobs were created in the business as a result.
	The Complete View Craig Golby, director of Dignitas Ltd developed an idea around 3D virtual environments for use in residential new build sales offices. A 24 hour virtual system that could be set up in sales offices would really add value to the sales process and allow customers to fully engage with the new build developments proposed to them. This idea was closely aligned with– Professor Alan Chalmer’s Visualisation Research Group and Professor Paul Jenning’s Experiential Engineering Research Group. PhD students in the Visualisation group at the International Digital Lab worked with Craig’s imagery and video to create virtual environments that could be manipulated via touch screen. They undertook customer usability sessions to capture user requirements and fed this back into the system. After much refining, software and hardware components were finalised and the product “The Complete View” was ready for trialling in the marketplace. It is currently under review by a number of construction companies.