Home wireless

has been chosen as a technology provider to

£6.7million project focused on ultra-wideband communications technology. The project is aimed at reducing the cables within the home.

This is the third R&D programme from ITI Techmedia, the organisation that develops market-driven intellectual property for the benefit of the Scottish economy. Analysis undertaken by ITI Techmedia indicates that ultra-wideband (UWB) communications will be a source of major market opportunity in the next 3 to 10 years. It is estimated that the global UWB market for consumer and computing applications could exceed $1.2bn by 2010.

UWB offers very high-bandwidth communications, which has the potential to free equipment such as DVD players, audio speakers, high definition TVs, PCs and printers from the need to be connected by wires to record, play or exchange data.

In conjunction with two other major subcontractors - TES Electronic Solutions and Elonics - Cambridge Consultants, acting as the project’s lead technical authority, will work on UWB system definition, hardware, software and mesh networking technology, targeted at wireless enabling equipment such as PCs and other consumer electronic devices.

"UWB's very high data rate has the potential to increase an already-booming wireless marketplace," commented Richard Traherne of Cambridge Consultants.

ITI Techmedia's R&D programme is expected to last around 24 months.