Lecture Translator facilitates cross-cultural communication in business, study and social settings. Developed at KIT, Lecture Translator combines automatic speech recognition with machine translation and other functionalities to deliver automated simultaneous translations of spoken language. The system has already been trialed in lectures at KIT, addresses at the European Parliament and in joint projects with industry partners.

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• Press release of the Hannover Messe

Scent analysis is a market on the rise where so far only isolated solutions for specialized applications have been available. The "smelldect" project aims at the development, industrial production, and distribution of a portable scent analyzer for everyday use in private and industrial settings. This electronic nose - eNose for short – is meant to be inexpensive, teachable, and thus almost universally applicable.

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Thanks to the salvinia effect, certain plants, such as water ferns (salvinia), can breathe under water. They retain a thin air layer on the surfaces of their leaves that are covered with hair-like structures and are highly water-repellent. This strategy of nature is the model of a ship coating developed within the EU-funded AIRCOAT project that started in 2018. Ten research institutions are involved in the project that is coordinated by KIT.

At Hannover Messe, scientists of AIRCOAT will present the demonstrator of an adhesive foil that is applied onto the ship’s hull. The foil produces a thin air layer that significantly reduces drag and acts as a physical barrier between the hull’s surface and water. As a result, fuel consumption and exhaust emission of the ship can be reduced considerably. The air layer also reduces the emission of noise. Moreover, it prevents marine organisms from settling on the hull, so-called fouling, and the release of biocidal substances from the coatings below into water.

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Digitization is associated with a number of possibilities for companies to optimize existing processes or enter completely new paths. Production of a digital twin, a 3D copy of reality, enables innovative solutions along the lifecycle of buildings, manufacturing processes, and products. Today, digital twins no longer are of interest to large companies only. Also medium-sized enterprises can save costs and time, while flexibility is enhanced.

KIT will present a system developed by the Industry 4.0 Collaboration Lab. This system uses a central service to supply all 3D inventory data needed for a digital twin independently of the hardware and software. Automatic generation of 3D models from point clouds using the “Click & Build” technology is of crucial importance. New algorithms enable users to transfer the data measured by a drone, for instance, to virtual 3D objects by just one click.

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Preserving roads and bridges or ensuring stable water and energy supply is an expensive and complex task. To preserve infrastructure facilities, however, also new challenges, such as global warming or scarcity of natural resources, have to be mastered. More and more frequently, infrastructure facilities fail far before the expiry of their planned service life.

With a unique approach the KIT Innovation HUB develops preventive measures in the form of innovative products, technologies, and services. All stakeholders in the construction value change are integrated, from the raw materials manufacturers to the builder. Using the “nano-to-macro approach,” detailed knowledge on the behavior of construction chemicals on the molecular level is obtained. In the next step, marketable products, technologies, and services are designed in cooperation with partners from industry and science. This strategy has already been implemented successfully on the aviation areas of Leipzig airport and the Laufenmühle viaduct near Welzheim.

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