AUTOMOTIVE

Asia Netcom was the preferred provider based on its flexible communications options, prior experience in the academic/research environment and industry-leading network, which the company built, owns and manages. "We are pleased to renew our partnership with SingAREN, and are honored to play an active role in advancing academic research and next generation Internet development in Singapore and around the world," said Bill Barney, Asia Netcom's president and chief executive officer. Associate Professor Francis Lee, president, SingAREN said: "Asia Netcom has helped push SingAREN to the fore in carrying out high level initiatives with research institutions in Asia Pacific, the US, Canada and Europe. We are excited to continue this collaboration." SingAREN consists of an international link to the United States and a link to Taiwan. In the US, SingAREN is connected to the Internet2 via the Abilene network. This provides access to other international research and education networks peering at Abilene. Within Singapore, SingAREN connects to the universities, polytechnics and research institutes. Recent SingAREN activities include a 'live' eye surgery trial that was performed in February this year. The Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) hosted a 'live' surgery transmission to demonstrate a new telemedicine platform using its unique 3D-HD system with Asahikawa Medical College (AMC) of Hokkaido, Japan. This is the first time vitreo-retinal surgery was transmitted using the 3- D HD format 'live' from Japan to a medical audience in Singapore, using IP multicast technology, with a separate IP video conferencing unit based on the H.264 standard for communication between doctors from AMC and SNEC. This technology now enables 3-D surgery visualization to be transmitted on screen and in high definition clarity to be viewed by every doctor under training greatly enhancing the surgical training potential.