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Eidos snaps up IO Interactive
Plus liquid lenses at CeBit
Europe in Brief Entertainment software giant Eidos is to acquire IO Interactive. The Danish-based studio is responsible for the hugely successful Hitman game franchise.
The acquisition of IO secures the future rights of the Hitman series and will strengthen Eidos' European creative base and development resource, the company says.
France: monitoring patients during transport
France Telecom has tested a system for wireless transmission of medical data on patients transported by ambulances in Avignon. By using sensors and electrodes and measuring blood pressure and oxygen saturation continuously, hospitals can monitor the patient during transport.
Traffic in major cities often delays the patient's arrival at hospital, so transmitting data to waiting doctors is obviously a potentially life-saving process. The 'Medical Emergency Mobile' service is to be sold commercially at the start of 2004.
Germany: Fluid lenses at CeBIT
Philips Research will use next week's CeBIT in Hanover to demonstrate a variable-focus lens system with no mechanical moving parts. Suited to a wide range of optical imaging applications, including digital cameras, camera phones, endoscopes, home security systems and optical storage drives, FluidFocus mimics the action of the human eye by using a liquid lens which alters its focal length by changing its shape.
The lens is shock resistant and operates over a wide temperature range. Philips says it has tested the lens extensively, although it will take another two years to finish the product. ®