Communications Technologies, the VTT Roadmaps

VTT has created a roadmap on information and communications technologies that covers the period of the next ten years time period. The most important communications technology areas for Finland are smart human environments, interoperability and mobility in future networks, micromechanical radio frequency systems and service architectures.
" Our view is that these fields have a lot of business potential in the coming years", estimates Research Professor Markku Sipil'�. VTT has launched eight new research projects based on the roadmap. According to Sipil'�, the first profitable results can be expected within a year.

Approximately 10 per cent of the Finnish GNP already comes from the fields of information and communications technologies. In the future, the role of those technologies will increase significantly, as they are likely to develop faster than other fields.

In the near future information and communications technologies will become a more concrete part of every day life. Information will be available for the consumer, always and everywhere.

Smart human environments serve people naturally

VTT believes that in the future, the technology built in the human environment knows how to respond to different needs spontaneously. An interactive environment can be operated with many different devices or by new modalities like speech and gestures. Smart human environments notice e.g. the individual needs of the user, his/her location and social context. A user centred design methodology guarantees the user-friendliness of the services provided by the environment.

Closer co-operation among Information networks

According to VTT, Information networks are going through a transitional period, as the information to be transferred and the number of users are going to increase significantly in the near future. Nevertheless, the information networks that are in use today are predicted to remain in use for a long time. One of the greatest challenges of the future is to make the data terminals work together with several different information network environments.

Products communicate with one another

In the future, products will be able to communicate with each other with the help of "mini radios". Because of the new micromechanical manufacturing technologies, the components of a radio can be made inexpensively and into a small size. The mini radios can be applied e.g. in the identification of a product, location or in quality control. The system can offer cost saving e.g. in the fields of commerce, transport and logistics.

Seamless service provision always and everywhere

Service architecture enables versatile supply of services in an environment with different data networks, terminals and systems. VTT has a vision where the electronic services adjusted in the future can be offered in the terms of mobile users always and everywhere. Creation of a service architecture requires extensive co-operation between e.g. component suppliers, network operators and content and service developers and providers.

Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)

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Communications Technologies, the VTT Roadmaps

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