Road sense

A new middleware platform developed by European researchers could help wirelessly connect almost all parts of a car and the road it is travelling on.

The platform, called EM2P, has been developed through the European Union (EU) funded EMMA project. The platform has been designed to make the functionality of a car's embedded sensors more accessible. The team claims this is a common problem with existing automotive embedded systems, which can sometimes be complicated and difficult to control.

Antonio Marqués Moreno, co-ordinator of the EMMA project, said: ‘We sought to hide the underlying complexity of in-car embedded sensors so that developers could quickly design new applications with existing electronics. EMMA will foster cost-efficient ambient intelligence systems with optimal performance, high reliability, reduced time-to-market and faster deployment.’

The platform will initially be used for in-car electronics, however, its developers believe it could lead the way to a range of possibilities in the field of co-operating wireless objects by taking the difficulty out of developing new applications for existing embedded sensors.