Metakall User Trial
So this is what I’ve been up to for the last year; building this pretty much from scratch (rebuilding it in fact) and getting it to the launched stage. Everything from low-level C code for custom servers, to custom freeRADIUS modules (again in C) to the MacOS and iPhone/iPod Touch clients I’m writing at the moment (Will, if you’re reading this, I’m finally using Objective C again 😀 ), and all the project management and dogsbody stuff you’d expect.
Fingers crossed it works properly 🙂
METAKALL USER TRIAL KICKS OFF IN TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
For Immediate Release
METAKALL USER TRIAL KICKS OFF IN TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
Dublin, April 10 — Metakall, a WiFi authentication and metering system, has begun its second user trial in Trinity College Dublin this week for students and staff, allowing access to the internet from mobile devices and allowing them to make phone calls over the internet in cooperation with FreeSpeech.ie.
Metakall, which is funded by an Enterprise Ireland grant, may be among the first of 300 companies to spin out under the new joint TCD/UCD Innovation Academy announced last month by the two colleges along with the Taoiseach, Tanaiste, Minster for Finance and Minister for Education.
Headed up by Dr.Hitesh Tewari, an expert in internet micropayments, the project has a working system but is still working on usability, testing, and on creating new clients for different platforms. Several companies including Eircom and O2 have expressed interest in the technology developed by Metakall, and talks are ongoing regarding a possible installation in San Jose.
The Metakall system was initially trialled in August last year in TCD. Significant changes have since been made to the technology, which consists of a client which runs on the user’s laptop or mobile phone, connecting them to the wireless internet system on the TCD campus as well as in satellite sites in Trinity Halls, St.James’ Hospital and Santry.
This client, which runs under Microsoft Windows XP, Vista and the new Windows 7 operating system, as well as on several mobile phones, utilises Metakall’s Zero Touch Authentication technology to allow users to use the internet on their netbook or phone. Clients for MacBooks and both the iPhone and the iPod Touch are in active development. Clients for Google Android and the Palm Pre are planned.
Those students and staff who are interested can find out more and sign up for the trial, which has places for up to a thousand users, on the Metakall website at http://metakall.dsg.cs.tcd.ie.
Ultimately, the team hope to spin out and form their own company to market the technology commercially at home and abroad. Metakall received 400,000 euro in funding from Enterprise Ireland for the initial development of their technology.
PHOTOS AND GRAPHICS:
http://metakall.dsg.cs.tcd.ie/Press/Metakall.jpg
http://metakall.dsg.cs.tcd.ie/Press/MetakallUSBKey.jpg
http://metakall.dsg.cs.tcd.ie/Press/MetakallLogo.png
CONTACT DETAILS:
Hitesh Tewari, Principal Investigator htewari@cs.tcd.ie 087 212 2008 Distributed Systems Group School of Computer Science and Statistics Trinity College Dublin Dublin 2 Mark Dennehy, Project Manager mark.dennehy@cs.tcd.ie 085 774 7546 Distributed Systems Group School of Computer Science and Statistics Trinity College Dublin Dublin 2
🙂