Freedom of Information Act - revealing £635 Million pounds of UK Tax payers money

Released May 5th  2011 the spending of the Technology Strategy  Board on UK Research and Development 




News article in Research Fortnightly 18/5/2011

Spreadsheet here in Alphabetical order    indicating £635 Million spend on Research and Development in 2500
companies. The TSB will write to all these companies to inform them  their grant  information is now public. 




Rolls Royce received the largest share as leader of partners of £91Million
Let me know if any errors sensecam@gmail.com


Here is the letter about the Freedom of Information Request 

Salaries for TSB staff are here.



Girton Labs Ltd were awarded a share (approx £67,000) of a TSB grant of £683,536 for  SenseBulb technology  but we declined it in Sept 2011.  The SenseBulb is a novel  heat sensing  camera that tracks people and objects and  helps senior people feel safe in their home. Text messages are sent when a person falls or leaves the kitchen with hob unattended. It is a working prototype as image on iPhone shows. The initial design of it's predecessor SenseCam  was designed at Microsoft Research Cambridge. 

more details here

 The project on hold at present until funding obtained but Girton Labs is working on other innovative medical research projects at present. 


  I then decided to use the Freedom of Information Act to see which projects were successful using tax payer's money. You can view the 2500 companies in the spreadsheet and check yourself. 


 My thanks to the below for helping with getting the information and offering business guidance:

•  Andrew Lansley, UK Health Secretary and his staff
•  Ravinder Singh, Iain Gray , Richard Harrison, Graham Hutchins, Bob Reid,  of the Technology Strategy Board
•  Emma Butterfield of Trading Standards, Cambridgeshire
•  PayPal Fraud Detection, UK and Luxenbourg 
•  Colin Holloway, Clive Huntley,  Sensory Systems, Swindon
•  Stephen Telemetry Associates Limited
•  Dr Nigel Harris Director BIME 
•  Cambridgeshire Police 
•  East of England Development Agency 
•  Nominet 
•  Others not named here, including Cambridge lawyers

    It has taken 9 months  since Sept 2010 for me to get this information and I thank my friends for their support.


Lyndsay Williams FRSA 
www.sensecam.co.uk


Managing Director Girton Labs Ltd, Cambridge, UK
www.girtonlabs.com
sensecam@gmail.com
tel +44 (0) 7970 101578.

Cambridge Student Marches 24th Nov 2010

Cambridge Student Marches 24th Nov 2010 in Pembroke Street, approx 1245 GMT city centre

more here:

and exclusive HD  video here

video copyright Lyndsay Williams

TinySense - Micro GPS tracking real 3D objects on LCD screen

Girton Labs have developed a technology to track to within 5mm the position of multiple  physical objects on an  LCD  screen. The objects are placed on an LCD e.g. iPad (some testing on iPhone 4 ) with a graphic background. An example are  chess pieces which the user moves but computer needs to keep track of.  Other applications include games on pcs that use pieces e.g. Scrabble, models soldiers, ships. This sensing feature allows scores to be calculated automatically.There are music and audio applications with real control knobs on screen.
The technology is low cost, and works on many tested  lcd screens. The system uses object recognition.
Similar devices for adding object tracking to lcd screens are Microsoft Research's  Surface as here, but Microsoft's coffee table is  large and expensive,  (weight 150 pounds, cost $12,500) an iPad or standard non touch   laptop  is more suitable for consumer use in the home. iPad screen is robust for objects to be placed on with no fingerprints  ( tested this on iPhone 4).
TinySense is like GPS Satellite Navigation but for the home. It is portable and  handheld.

 iPhone 4 with test control.
Here is a video of a static sensor in test.




Advantages over prior work are:
1. works on LCD screen with graphics background
2. very low cost, approx $100 per system.
3. resolution to 5mm or better (theoretical)
4. Each object has unique identity.
5.  Very small objects can be used e.g. a MonoPoly games piece ,  with no batteries required for pieces. Battery power used for sensor receiver.
6. Multiple objects can be tracked.
7. The system can be scaled to very large displays and multiple sensors.
8. Sensing objects such as rotary controls and switches can be used.
9. Customer can fit the sensor to their own objects if they choose.

The system can also be used with printed electronics on paper (no LCD) and we are working with a Cambridge company on this system.  An example is a  MonoPoly board.


This research and invention by Lyndsay Williams was partially funded by the  East of England Development Agency. It is a research project and  not a production item yet. We are looking for developers and finance to complete.

This is the latest development of Sensesurface from Girton Labs.

TinySense and associated Intellectual Property belongs to Lyndsay Williams and Girton Labs Ltd.

 For more details contact Lyndsay Williams on +44 (0) 7970 101578, or sensecam@gmail.com
Current project name: TinySense

Lorry explosion and fire in Girton Cambridge 22/6/2010

First images taken 05:38 facing EastWeavers Field garden view

We were woken up at 5am with 3 very loud explosions. All I could see from house was black smoke behind the wood. There was a eerie silence, no traffic, no birdsong, no sirens, and no commotion. It was very scary not knowing what was behind the wood. I called  999  and then went to investigate.  The  incident was 200 yards from home. These images taken on an A14 cattle bridge Girton, Cambridge at approx 05:30 facing East. A14 closed in both directions Girton. Street image taken behind hedge from our garden.  There is some fire debris in our garden. There were no injuries, Cambridge Evening News has news on incident   here. 
Update Wed 23/6/10 here 

Cleaned up facing West 10am

Incident 500 metres  East of J31

View Larger Map

SenseCam human memory enhancement on BBC2 TV Eyewitness

12th May 2010 SenseCam, human  memory enhancement camera  invented by Lyndsay Williams, for Microsoft Research  on BBC2 TV as here  The video starts 17 mins  into program. BBC iPlayer for  UK viewers only, and  expires on 19 May 2010, but here  is an shorter 8 minutes edited version here on Youtube

The program shows MRI brain scan of memory enhanced brain. Research by Professor Martin Conway of Leeds University.

I  originally invented SenseCam  for Alzheimer's as described in patent here

Image below shows  memory enhancement in brain using Sensecam., click to enlarge.

Martin Conway and patient.

Contact Lyndsay Williams at sensecam@gmail.com or +44 ( 0)  7970 101578 for more details on  SenseCam and later versions.


 More on Lyndsay Williams' research  at Girton Labs.

Philips moving into smell research

Girton Labs has been working with Dr Jenny Tillotson  Sensory Design and Technology for several months on computer control of smell emission   and we now will be working with Dr Jenny Tillotson  and Philips on new smell research as here, scroll down to Philips. This is an   Arts and Humanities Research Council   Knowledge Transfer Fellowship .
Summary of project : Smell The Colour Of The Rainbow: Sensory Systems For Wearable Product Technologies To Reduce Stress And Sleep Disorders here.

From http://my.arts.ac.uk/e_brief/archive/30april.htm

Bright sparks

Jenny Tillotson, Senior Research Fellow at CSM has been awarded an AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship (£249,000) to work with Philips Research in Cambridge supported by Dr Raymond Oliver, Senior Research Fellow in Active & Interactive Materials from the RCA. Over the course of a year, they will engage in an active KT programme to explore opportunities resulting from her academic work in areas of interest to Philips Research. The project will also involve Lyndsay Williams' of Girton Labs (inventor of iPhone sensors and Microsoft's ‘Sensecam’ for Alzheimer’s) and smell expert Professor Tim Jacob from the School of Biosciences, Cardiff University.

The iPhone Achilles' heel

There has been enough comment from others re the loss of  Apple's   iPhone 4G on a bar stool and ending up in Gizmodo. People haven't asked, why was it found on a bar stool? Would person have placed it there and just walked off? Unlikely. It could well have slipped out of the pocket.  When I last visited Apple in Cupertino re sale of patent of my Invisible Phone  for iPhone sensors, the Apple person I met with was startled that my iPhone was in a pink  silicon gel case. I put it in this case as  iPhone as slippery as a bar of soap. ( I dropped it first day I had it on concrete, while trying to take a picture.) Apple attorney  said the designers would not like this as spoiled the smooth surface of iPhone which is designed to slip  in (and out) of  man's back pocket of trousers. I replied that ladies do not normally put phone in back pocket and I said if I did, I would not want it to slip out. Maybe this is what happened with recent loss of prototype.

There are far easier ways to find out what might be in future Apple products than checking out stools. A perusal of my 1997 BT SmartQuill  patent Apple bought recently covered here in The Guardian and patent  as here  shows a portfolio of sensing systems for phones. This is all in the public domain.

Interesting to note, that one of only two working SmartQuill phones as above was stolen from The Millennium
Dome in 2000.
I am now designing sensors for phones for the next 5 years, including 3D hand trackers,  not for Apple but a well known Far East phone company and others if interested . I am not allowed even to say if a Non Disclosure Agreement exists.  I also  have a system that will alert person if more than a few feet phone their phone. This is old technology based on radio systems that alert if a parent losses a child in a busy shopping centre.

I am still looking for the lanyard fitting on my iPhone....