December 3, 2001 - Dusseldorf, Germany,

For Immediate Release -
Category : News / Awards/ Software / Technology

VIRTOOLS™ wins the European IST Grand Prize, Worth €200 000

Dusseldorf, December 3, 2001 - The European Commission and the European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering (Euro-CASE) have announced the three Grand Prize Winners of this year's European Information Society Technologies Prize (EISTP).

The Grand Prizes - each worth €200 000 - were presented by Erkki Liikanen, the European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society, at Information Society Technologies 2001 event (IST 2001), held in Düsseldorf from December 3-5.

"All twenty EISTP winners are good examples of the growing capability of applied research in Europe - all bar one, in fact, are SMEs with demonstrable research capacity," remarked Commissioner Liikanen. "If we are to realise the Lisbon agenda - to transform Europe into the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010 - we need to encourage and support companies and entrepreneurs like these."

"As always, the quality of all twenty winners was very high, but these three projects are quite outstanding and the jury reached a clear cut agreement very quickly," said Thierry Breton. "I was also very impressed, as I visited all 20 winners at the exhibition, with the team spirit within the group as a whole. The human side of innovation was very much in evidence."

More details of these companies and their products, the other 17 winners and the IST 2001 event can be found in the Annex.

Per HAUGAARD: +32 2 296 01 40

ANNEXES

1) The Three Grand Prize Winners

VIRTOOLS (F)
Virtools™ Dev 2.0: A development platform that allows users to graphically create 3D interactive content

Description of the product

Virtools' revolutionary technology allows you to create interactive applications by graphically assembling "behaviors" in Dev 2.0's intuitive interface. Flexible and easy-to-use, Virtools' reusable "behavior building blocks" accelerate the production cycle and reduce production costs. Use the "behavior library" or create your own behaviors with Virtools' Software Development Kit (SDK). No programming experience is required to develop with Dev 2.0, so designers can free themselves from programming issues, focus on content, and release their applications on the Web or CD-ROM.

Applications authored and published with Virtools technology deliver the highest level of interactivity available. With stunning results, Virtools applications generate revenue with a measurable ROI. With Virtools technologies companies cut development time by 50%. Using Virtools solutions you save up to 35% on development costs.

The company and the team

Founded in 1993, Virtools™ S.A. is the leading provider of 3D interactive media authoring tools. Virtools' mission is to enhance our clients' business performance. Using our advanced real-time 3D content development tools and proven production process, Virtools™ is a market leader in delivering high quality, efficient, cost-effective business solutions for e-learning, e-marketing and game markets for the web or CD Rom. Costs and timeframes are kept under control through a scalable set of software and server-based solutions that reduce the risks associated with developing interactive 3D applications.

Contact
Stéphane Dupasquier
93 rue vieille du Temple
75003 Paris France
Telephone: +33 1 42 71 46 86
Fax: +33 1 42 71 86 53
dupasquier@virtools.com
www.virtools.com

ECO-DAN A/S (DK)
ECO-DAN Guidance Systems: Guidance systems based on computer vision and laser technology enabling farmers to cut the use of herbicides by 75 % and increase working capacity by 300 %.

Description of the product

The backbone in ECO-DAN's patented guidance systems is a camera unit mounted on agricultural machines or tractors. The digital camera continuously takes photos of the row structure, which the machine must follow, i.e. plant rows, tracks or ridges. The images are analysed in a dedicated embedded computer based on a Digital Signal Processor. The output from the image analysis process is control signals, which automatically activate an electrical or hydraulic actuator controlling the alignment of the machine. The system is operated from a monitor panel with a choice of 7 languages. One of the most promising applications is band spraying reducing chemical use for weed control by 75 %. Another groundbreaking innovation is the introduction of 3-section implements, with each section controlled by its own camera unit and actuator. The farmer can treat 3 beds and triple the area in one path! In organic farming the time required for manual hoeing can be cut by 50-75 %. In all applications higher travel speed and accuracy is achieved together with relief of the driver from a demanding and tiring precision steering of tractor or machine.

The company and the team

ECO-DAN was established in 1999 by two pioneers from the early days of the Danish windmill industry. Backed by venture capital and in close co-operation with universities, research institutions and private companies, an aggressive schedule for product development and market introduction was launched. Already in 2000 ECO-DAN received the Agromek Award in Denmark and the Wageningen Award in the Netherlands for the most promising development within arable farming. The guidance systems are being distributed through importers or sold to international agricultural machinery manufacturers on OEM-basis, also outside the EU.

Contact : Thorkil Dahlgreen
Bøgeskovvej 6, 3490 Kvistgaard, Denmark
Telephone: +45 49 13 82 30
Fax: +45 49 13 82 32
td@eco-dan.com
www.eco-dan.com

MISON AS (N)
SonoWand: A computer-aided, ultrasound-based navigation system for improved brain surgery.

Intra-operative 3D ultrasound of high quality and precision enables the surgeon to remove a greater portion of the brain tumour through a smaller incision in the normal brain.

Description of the product

Neuronavigation systems have become very common in neurosurgery in recent years. Conventional systems offer the capability of navigating surgical instruments into the brain based on MR or CT images that are several days old. As the operation proceeds, such images can no longer be trusted, "the map does not correspond with the terrain".

SonoWand enables the surgeon to easily update the map during surgery. It takes only a few seconds to scan the brain with high quality 3D ultrasound. The surgeon can then navigate tiny instruments down to the tumour and perform image-guided surgery with high precision (approximately 1 mm). Ultrasound images of similar quality as MR-images simplify identification of small remaining tumour structures towards the end of the surgery, and the high precision navigation system simplify localisation and removal through a smaller opening in the normal brain. Expected clinical results include fewer neurological side effects, increased longevity and better quality of life.

The company and the team

MISON is a spin-off company from the Centre of Excellence in 3D ultrasound in Trondheim, Norway. The company was established in October 1998, and employs today 13 people.
MISON's core technology is the integration of ultrasound and navigation, and the business idea is to offer surgeons products for ultrasound guided minimally invasive surgery. MISON is about to introduce two products to the European markets, and are presently building up the organisation for expansion to world distribution.

Contact
Aage Gronningsaeter
Center of Medicine and Technology,
7489 Trondheim, Norway
Telephone: +47 73 55 10 64
Fax : +47 73 55 10 61
Aage.Gronningsaeter@mison.no
www.mison.no

2) The 17 PrizeWinners
The other 17 EISTP Winners, each receiving €5 000, are:
- 2C3D medical (CH) for EndoNavigatorTM: A software based medical device for 3D navigation and guidance for Minimally Invasive Surgery.
- BATM Advanced Communications (IL) for Titan T6: A large, scalable IP switch router with Quality of Service. Supports numerous Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
- Definiens AG (D) for eCognition: The first commercially available object-oriented image analysis software system that classifies distinct image objects.
- Dresden 3D GmbH (D) for Dresden 3D Display: An autostereoscopic (true 3D) computer monitor for the high-end visualisation of 3D data.
- Geutebrück GmbH & CO KG (D) for MULTISCOPE II: A network based, digital video recording, transmission and event management system for CCTV applications with scalable client/server architecture.
- ICONAG Aktiengesellschaft - Internet Control and Automation (D) for Web.Node: Platform for network-based services (E-Services) in the field of simple home automation, property control and technical facility management.
- International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering - CIMNE (E) for GiD - The personal pre/postprocessor: A universal, adaptive and user friendly graphical user interface for geometrical modelling, data input and visualisation of results for all types of numerical simulation programs in computer science and engineering.
- interzart AG 3D COMMERCE® (D) for 3D Snapper®: Easy creation of 3D content for Web applications from 10 to 16 digital images of single objects.
- IWI (F) for FASTBUILDER: A software tool set to produce realistic 3D virtual city models of any size in an automatic and highly advanced way from various types of geographical information.
- LTU Technologies (F) for Image-FilterTM: Image-based filtering solution to detect child pornography on the Internet
- LuraTech Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrttechnologie & Multimedia mbH (D) for LuraDocument document compression software: A software for compression of scanned coloured, multipage documents.
- OMNIKEY AG (D) for CardMan Dongle: A portable, 6cm mini-smartcard reader with a USB-plug on the one side and an insertion for a SIM-plug-in smart card on the other side.
- Syngene division of Synoptics Ltd (UK) for GeneGnome: The world's only automatic DNA imaging system dedicated to chemiluminescent samples.
- Steinbeis-Transferzentrum Medizinische Informatik (D) for Mobile CHILI: A compact, mobile, interactive medical teleconferences system, running on personal digital assistants over wireless ethernet or UMTS, with image transmission capability.
- VISUCOM® GmbH (D) for Motion Pro® - 3D Display Systems: A display system where real 3D objects can fly out of the screen up to one meter.
- VITRONIC Bildverarbeitungssysteme GmbH (D) for Vitus smart: Fast whole body scanner for precise 3-Dimensional measurement of human beings.
- Wany S.A. (F) for Pekee and Ti'Bot: A family of mobile robots targeting a wide range of businesses: entertainment, home-use, surveillance, research.

3) IST 2001
The European IST Prize is one of three strands to IST 2001 - the latest in a series of annual conferences designed to discuss and showcase European policy and research in the fields of IT and communications technologies. Together, the three strands emphasise this year's theme - 'Technologies Serving People.'

The other two strands are:
· a Conference, composed of several plenary sessions featuring political and industrial leaders from around Europe, and 27 sessions on subjects as diverse as copyright in the Information Society, e-health, e-environment, entertainment;
· an Exhibition: 4000m2 of space, featuring 60 pilot projects funded by the IST research programme, the 20 EISTP winners and more.

A dedicated web site (http://istevent.cec.eu.int) provides full conference session materials, live and archived webstreams, exhibition project details, details of all 20 EISTP winners, the Euro-CASE Jury and more.