When the 1700 visitors to one of the world’s biggest IT forums arrive in Adelaide this week, retailers and hoteliers will have them literally in the palms of their hands.

A South Australian innovation developed at UniSA by two honours students in Information Technology Software Engineering and applied by telecommunications giant Motorola, will mean that visitors have an interactive palm-sized guide to Adelaide at their fingertips.

The 2001 graduates Stephen Hillenbrand and Todd Simcock say there is a strong sense of satisfaction in seeing their work applied and being used in the real world in such a short time frame. 

“Our aim was to develop a framework that would be really easy to use and adapt to different locations for people who don’t have a real background in IT,” Hillenbrand said. 

“Our prototype included a tourist guide to Mawson Lakes and UniSA’s campus and another application for North Terrace in Adelaide. The way the software works would make it quite possible for a graphic designer to insert maps and tourist information for any city in the world,” Simcock, now with RLM Systems said. 

The electronic tourist guidebook, which works with software extensions to the regular handheld personal digital assistant (PDA), is a walking guide to food, wine, art galleries, museums and retail outlets. 

Two key aspects of the guidebook include its global positioning system, which relies on satellite interface and its link to a futuristic wireless network being built in Adelaide by local consortium, mNet[1]. 

Those attending the conference have already purchased more than 40 of the palm guidebooks and Motorola will demonstrate further models during the conference. 

UniSA researcher in Computer and Information Science, Dr Bruce Thomas says this is really the first stage in smart technology that has the potential to move beyond the tourism market and into the everyday lives of workers worldwide. 

“This application will mean that people attending the conference will have access to the Internet through their PDA within the area that is ‘wired’ which includes the Adelaide Convention Centre precinct taking in the Radisson Hotel, the Hyatt International, the Wine Centre and the Museum,” Dr Thomas said.  

“Beyond that field which is the first stage of the mNet communications network planned for the Adelaide CBD, the palm guidebooks will allow people to take a stroll down North Terrace and track where they are, which local restaurants or retail outlets are nearby, where they can catch a movie, what is on display at the gallery or museum and a host of other information matched to their location. 

“The next phase of this research is to enhance the GPS mode so that it is interactive with a person’s own scheduled diary information. This will give your palm pilot the ‘smarts’ to cross-reference information, so that if you are in the city and have a meeting scheduled for 11.30 at Mawson Lakes, instead of notifying you 15 minutes before the meeting time, it will assess how long it will take to drive there and let you know 45 minutes beforehand that you have to leave. 

“You will be able to ask it to remind you when you are near a post office so that you can get stamps or pay bills. And when it comes to choosing a restaurant you will be able to key in that you want to eat lunch at such and such a price range and the food you feel like is Italian and the organiser will find the nearest restaurant that fills those criteria.” 

Dr Thomas said research into personalised, intelligent computer software and communications technologies was reaching a crest, with developments set to come thick and fast in the next five years. 

“UniSA’s relationship in educating young minds and in enhancing the connections between research, fresh talent and industry applications is a very important one for South Australia,” he said. 

“It is highly likely that many of the innovations made in IT and information systems and software development will be based on university research and quite possibly research done here at UniSA.”