September 2008

InnovationLab, one of the five initiatives that make up this program, is developing solutions for education and crime prevention using hi-tech virtual environments. These solutions could result in local sales revenue of approximately R30 million and potential sales export opportunities of the same amount for entrepreneurs and their partners.

Using a virtual classroom, for example, InnovationLab will look at creating comprehensive ICT solutions for schools, including networking solutions and surveillance products.

The virtual classroom will be launched in a year from now, and policy makers and investors will be able to visit it and see how they can invest in developing educational solutions for rural areas.

For more information, see Cisco’s press release.

A virtual demonstrator is a room that takes the user into a simulated world, where he or she can use and experience new technologies in close-to-real circumstances.

The virtual demonstrator features the following:

• 360 degree display of 3D environments that surrounds the users;
• theatre surround sound;
• interconnectivity with real devices (for example, cell phones, GPS devices, and computers);
• interconnectivity with an innovation show case;
• software that simulates environments, artificial characters and specific scenarios; and a
• industrial acting stage.

Supporting this immersive area is an observation station, where the reactions and behaviour of users in a test situation can be monitored.

The demonstrator as a tool that supports innovation has many uses; it can serve as

• a test bed;
• a usability lab;
• a training facility; and
• a technology showcase and playground.

The virtual demonstrator will make many of the tenuous ideas of new technology explicit, and so help reduce the number of unknowns that characterises innovation before it is taken to market.