Digital jewellery design, computers that translate spoken Zulu into text and steganography (where messages are encrypted and hidden in images) are just three of the projects being supported by Digital@Sera, a research initiative of the CSIR and the University of Pretoria.
Launched in December 2004, the initiative falls under the partners' Southern Education Research Alliance (Sera).
Its aim is to influence researchers to direct their work in relevant and applicable ways and to act as a conduit for partnerships with government departments and the private sector.
SA's research in ICT is patchy. Though universities produce high-quality information technology graduates and excellent research, their output is not widely applied (or relevant).
"Government has identified ICT as an enabler of economic and social development," says the head of Digital@Sera, Andrew Boake. "To achieve this, we must establish SA technology platforms, correctly channel the enabling funding for worthwhile research and development and encourage collaboration to achieve critical mass in focus areas."
Initial focus areas identified by Digital@Sera are human language technologies, computer security and open source software.
"Academics often have tunnel vision," Boake says. "All they see is their own research. But put them together and the cross-fertilisation of ideas and partnerships that emerges is extraordinary. Working together, we have the capacity to solve our own challenging problems.
"Then, what is a uniquely SA contribution often has unexpected, far-reaching application.
"For instance, the Zulu translation program has already aroused interest from Nokia," says Boake. "It is interested because Scandinavian languages are structurally similar to some African languages."
Dramatic innovation often needs a big flagship project to drive it.
"We need something in the ICT arena - like the development of an SA cellphone - that captures the nation's imagination, gets academia and industry working together, and provides real visible benefit," says Boake.
