Showcasing new technology

A group of sixth form students have been given an inside look into the high tech future of information and communication technologies (ICT) at a pioneering ‘Ideas Centre’.

Batelco invited the pupils from the neighbouring British School of Bahrain, along with head of the senior school Ian Gross, to its new state-of-the-art facility located at its headquarters in Hamala.

The aim was to show the ICT whiz kids just how technology continues to transform the way we live and encourage the next generation of pioneers.

The Ideas Centre is the first of its kind in Bahrain and features the latest communication technologies and some emerging services that are still in development.

The telecom giant says the facility will continually showcase emerging technology and its investment in the project will be on-going.

Business development manager Mahmood Dashti said: “The purpose of the centre is to show people what technology will look like in the future and how it will work. And we also want to show people what products are under development and will be available in the near future. We have been working on the centre for six or seven months and have received a lot of support.

“Students are at a very good stage in terms of where technology is today. Their input will help everybody. That’s why it is a good idea to introduce students to the centre, especially because they can really think about everything they have seen. They can brainstorm and come up with great ideas.”

The innovation centre co-ordinator Marwa Al Faihani handed the students a tag to wear around their necks as they entered into the demo hall before she began the high tech tour.

As the pupils headed towards the TVs hanging on the sides of the walls, they were greeted individually on the touch screens, and Marwa quickly explained: “These are no ordinary TV screens ... they are digital signages.”

The digital signages supply multimedia content on electrically-controlled displays. They are used to deliver targeted promotional and informational content to a largely captive audience.

The screens detected the tags of the pupils as they contain Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips used for tracking moveable objects with applications in assets, people, supply automation, manufacturing and retailing … which ultimately allowed them to sense the students’ presence and welcome them by name.

Ms Al Faihani said: “It is the future of interactive advertising. You can customise it around your interests. For example, if you like fashion you can get updates and news about it. All the digital signages on show have different information each and can individually be controlled remotely from a centralised location. It is combined with object tracking.”

On show were also ‘Smart Home’ services including Scenario Control, which will allow users to have control of various elements in their home such as lights and sounds at the touch of a button using smart mobile applications.

However, this was nothing in comparison to what was to come. The students were able to experience first-hand a variety of gadgets that use Proximity Communications and Machine to Machine (M2M) technology, including the pupils’ favourites, iCoffee, which receives orders straight from someone’s smart device as well as the talking plant, which repeated ‘there’s too many people in this room, I need space to think’ but then cried ‘where are you going?’ when they walked away.

Amina Hejres, 17, from Sanad, said: “This centre is so amazing. You wouldn’t expect something like the talking plant and the coffee machine in Bahrain. It’s so new and innovative. I was honestly wowed!

“You can create your own coffee and customise it as you like all through Bluetooth. You would like it even if it tasted bad, just because it’s created like that!

“I’m really into technology and this just made it that much more exciting for me because it’s what I want my career to be based on. This is the perfect place for my imagination to go wild.”

The plant is a new addition to the centre and the students are one of the first to touch it. It has a twitter account and sends out a tweet noting how many times it’s been touched in an hour.

Hologram technology which created three dimensional representations of any object was also on show and described as a new interactive marketing application. A robot has been built around ‘Telepresence’ services allowing people to attend many different places without physically being there.

Syeda Zainab, 16, from Saar, said: “The robot was in one of my favourite shows The Big Bang Theory, and I didn’t think I would actually be able to see something similar here today. I’m going to tell everyone to come and check it out, they have to. It’s like the future of conferencing and Skype calls.”

In the ‘future living room’, as the students called it, was the mobile health devices. This allows users to remotely communicate their health measures in real-time with their doctor.

Ms Al Faihani said: “The number of people with diabetes and high blood pressure in Bahrain is extremely high, so a mobile health application has been developed where people can communicate their results directly to the doctor. Once the measurement is taken, the result will be sent automatically to the doctor.”

The future of shopping in Bahrain was also introduced to the students. A range of posters containing Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is used for mobile shopping. Products that have these NFC tags embedded in them can be tapped by any NFC enabled smart phone to obtain information about the product, its price and even allow you to proceed with different buying options.

Esther Kamgaing, 16, from Saar, said: “I thought the mobile shopping, coffee machine and the robot were absolutely amazing. I don’t really know much about technology but I am still very interested in it. I can’t wait for the day that all the stuff on show is out in the market and ready to be purchased. It’s going to change our way of life. It really is the future and I got to see it here today. I will definitely come back again.”

The Ideas Centre also includes an Entrepreneurs Zone which is a room used for ICT project development. This will initially be used for Batelco’s Start-up Weekend teams to develop their ideas.

Mr Dashti said: “There is a registration page, where anyone who has an idea can register and if we like it and know that we can help them, we invite them to use our services in the entrepreneur’s room. We are here to help and support them through it all from marketing to development.”

Afkar Ansar, 17, from Adliya, said: “I saw something similar to this centre on TV and I didn’t realise it was actually in production and happening right now. The experience has been amazing.”

The centre wasn’t just enjoyed by the teenagers; Mr Gross described the experience as ‘great’. He said: “I have loads of ideas buzzing through my mind. I loved it. I can see a lot of opportunities for the students to come down and get hands-on experience. I think we have a lot of ideas in the school that need something like this to tease them out, it’s a good catalyst.”
 
The centre will be open to the public soon.