Hot at CeBIT: New trends in action

Ensuring biometric data is properly protected, intelligent shopping, low-cost surfing on your smartphone and keeping tabs on social networks. These are just a few of the topics many companies will be focusing on with their latest technology developments at CeBIT 2011, the largest technology expo starting on 3 March in Hannover, Germany.

Free entry to CeBIT 2011? No problem with the new “Perso””!

Forget VIPs, now is the time for eIDs! The new German identity card (Perso) has an intelligent core that includes our electronic identity (eID). It will be making its first major public debut at CeBIT 2011, where visitors with the new identity card will be admitted free of charge.

To open the gate to the world’s most important event for the digital industry, all visitors have to do is activate the online function on their chip card. Inside, numerous IT companies will be on hand to highlight the whole range of potential applications that await eID in the future.

Anyone for tennis?

Do you fancy a game of table tennis against a robot or playing golf on a virtual ergometer – in the middle of CeBIT 2011? You can at Sports & Health. This year, Hall 19 is being transformed into a huge fitness studio to provide all manner of activities for visitors to try out.

Key players include Barmer GEK, Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe and the media partners ZDF and Bild am Sonntag. Germany’s nationwide health initiative “”Deutschland bewegt sich!”” will be presenting an active program on a huge showtruck with the help of a few famous faces, including long jumper Heike Drechsler. Another sporty date for your diary – don’t forget the CeBIT Run for charity on 3 March 2011.

Intelligent shopping in the supermarket of the future

Things are changing in the supermarket, too – in the future, there will be no more price tickets on shelves that have to be renewed and changed around only to slide out of place or fall off. The plastic price tags will be replaced with high-tech displays, while intelligent assistance systems will provide support for employees and customers alike. In Hall 7 at CeBIT 2011, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) will be unveiling the latest developments from its innovative retail laboratory.

One such example is an instrumented series of shelves that recognizes all the different kinds of fruit and vegetables. Screens then display the type, origin, grade and price of the products and give tips on how to use them. If the shelves are changed around, the displays adjust automatically. Also on display at CeBIT 2011 will be the RFID gate that replaces the cash desk. This clever system automatically recognizes the products in a shopping cart. The next logical step is that shoppers in the future will be able to pay for their shopping with a single fingerprint.

Low-cost surfing on your smartphone – wherever you are

People are increasingly leading their virtual lives through their smartphone instead of the office or home computer. To keep mobile surfing, e-mailing and networking costs down, Deutsche Telekom is introducing two highly competitive flat-rate data tariffs for its prepaid cellphone customers.

There are two options: The “”Xtra Handy DayFlat”” tariff is ideal for anyone who uses their smartphone to access the Internet only occasionally. And the “”Xtra Handy Flat”” tariff is intended for people who surf and send e-mails on the move more often.

Staying in control with social media monitoring

An innovation originally intended for private communication is now an attractive option for companies, too. The vast majority of businesses now use social media platforms such as Facebook, Xing, Twitter and YouTube for marketing purposes.

The Dresden-based company Social Media Evolution (SME) is exhibiting its social media monitoring tool at CeBIT 2011. This tool enables businesses to keep a check on exactly when their company and products have been talked about on social networks, which platform has been used and how they have been rated.

No need to delete data – STRATO has it covered!

It’s a familiar story. Sooner or later, you have to delete photos, texts and videos from your home computer due to a lack of memory space. STRATO’s HiDrive online hard disk solves this problem.

At CeBIT 2011, STRATO will be unveiling a new additional function. HiDrive users can now invite friends to store photos or videos of their last vacation together on their HiDrive. This makes it easy for STRATO customers to share large files without clogging up their inboxes.

Innovation in Lower Saxony – the host region flexes its muscles

The world of IT is coming to Lower Saxony and so it is only right that the host region should take to the floor. Using three stands at CeBIT 2011, the region’s representatives will provide an insight into some truly fascinating areas of IT.

In Hall 9, the “”Innovation Lower Saxony”” stand will be showcasing all the latest developments from universities, research institutes and Transferstellen – organizations that help bridge the gap between theory and practical application. Meanwhile, in Hall 7, ingenious telematics solutions for vehicles, aircraft and logistics will take center stage. Finally, visitors to the “”Mittelstand im Mittelpunkt”” (SMEs in focus) exhibition in Hall 6 can find out more about services and products from small and medium-sized enterprises based in Lower Saxony.

Impressively realistic – 3D technology from the Hasso Plattner Institute

Virtual worlds, cities and landscapes – all in impressively realistic 3D. During CeBIT 2011, scientists from the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) will be revealing how fantastic three-dimensional quality can be achieved on mobile devices and in web applications.

No matter how complex data is, it will soon be possible to utilize interactive 3D models that are reliable, robust and portable. Before long, specific customer requirements will be met by systematic, low-cost solutions that can be seamlessly integrated into existing workflows and Internet portals.

Security for biometrically recorded data

Gait, body size, handprint, facial structure – there are any number of biometric characteristics that can be recorded. However, archived biometric reference data is incredibly sensitive – and can even be irrelevant to actual identification.

This makes it all the more important to ensure biometric data is protected efficiently. During CeBIT 2011, the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD) in Darmstadt will be exhibiting Template Protection, a process that protects biometric data by preventing users from making inferences about biometric information.

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