‘Living book’ software wins €200,000 European IST Prize

Glasgow-based Picsel Technologies (www.picsel.com) has won Europe’s biggest IT competition, the € 200,000 European Information Societies Technologies Prize, for its ePage multimedia content software that creates an interactive ‘book’ on almost any device, from smart phones to games consoles. One of only three Grand Prize winners out of a shortlist of 20 companies Europe-wide, Picsel received the award at the IST2003 conference in Milan on 2 October from Erkki Liikanen, European Commissioner for the Information Society, Dr Lucio Stanca, Italian Minister for Innovation and Technologies, and Pasquale Pistorio, President and CEO of STMicroelectronics and Chairman of the IST Prize executive jury.

Picsel’s ePAGE is fast becoming the mobile content delivery platform of choice for the world’s leading device manufacturers and network operators. The ePAGE multimedia content engine allows a broad variety of consumer electronic devices to easily access, view, edit and print any electronic document, regardless of how the document was created. ePAGE handles all popular content formats, including HTML, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, Flash, and Images, and has full support for static, dynamic and interactive content including video, browsing and animations.

At the heart of ePAGE is a unique architecture and rendering engine that surpasses all existing performance benchmarks. Utilising innovative graphics and user interface concepts, the system allows the user to zoom, pan, and scroll the visual display with instantaneous response. Users are also able to mix documents and images in the same display screen, for example an Excel spreadsheet with streaming video, and move them independently without the complexity of a PC-style windowing system, content re-engineering or the need for separate applications for each format. Picsel’s ePAGE technology is deployable in many ways, and to date is available in two industry-leading applications – Picsel File Viewer, and Picsel Browser.

„I am delighted that Picsel’s innovative ’e-page’ technology has received the EU IST Grand Prize,” says Professor Tariq Durrani OBE FREng FRS, Deputy Principal of Strathclyde University. The technology is set to revolutionise mobile computing, and is already leading to novel products, that are being marketed by some of the key world-class players such as Sony and DOCOMO. I am grateful to the Royal Academy of Engineering for bringing the European IST competition to my notice, enabling me to persuade Picsel to submit their e-Page technology for the Prize. Picsel is a young company with a dynamic management team, ably led by Imran Khand, and an extremely creative and versatile technology group, which will go far.“