A 'VIRTUAL human' won a special accolade from Science Minister Lord Sainsbury when he visited Oxford.

Computer company Mathengine has won the 1999 Foresight award from the Government for its virtual stuntman, a realistic simulation of the complex behaviour of human and animal figures.

A Department of Trade and Industry spokesman said: "The Interactive Virtual Human project will take animation technology far beyond that seen in acclaimed TV programmes such as Walking with Dinosaurs."

Mathengine, based at the Oxford Innovation Centre in Mill Street, Osney, puts the laws of physics into computer programs so that game developers can create more realistic 3D graphics. It employs 40 people in Oxford and another 40 at offices in Montreal, San Francisco, Helsinki and Tokyo.

Lord Sainsbury said: "Our policies promoting industry-university interaction, fostering the type of collaboration we see here at the Oxford Centre for Innovation, are beginning to have an impact.

"We are seeing more patents, more world-class technologies and more high-value, high-wage businesses."

The Interactive Virtual Human is being developed with the help of a £45,000 Government Smart award.

Smart awards are given to companies which want to develop pioneering technology and each year the most innovative is chosen for a Foresight award.

Lord Sainsbury said: "Mathengine is an excellent example of Foresight and innovation at its best. Mathengine's products have potential both for realistic crash simulations to help car manufacturers design safer vehicles and for better character simulation in computer games." Mathengine's program can also make realistic pictures of clothes and other goods for sale over the Internet.

Lord Sainsbury also visited Oxford Medical Imaging Analysis, based at the innovation centre, which won a Smart award to develop its computer system to help doctors interpret ultrasound pictures of the heart.

Founder Prof Mike Brady said it had already been used in more than 300 hospital procedures, including heart surgery. "You can use less invasive day surgery to do things that would otherwise have needed three months recuperation," he said.

The company recently won EC funding with Oxford University, the John Radcliffe Hospital and a hospital in Madrid to test and refine the software.

The company's associated laboratory at Oxford University this month received £8m from Government research councils for a six-year project to develop the science behind the idea.

Story date: Tuesday 29 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.