Researchers in MAIA, an EU funded project, have shown how a person can control, using only their brain, the wheelchair on which they are sitting.

This requires tapping into the person's neural network, interpreting the cerebral signals in real time and then developing a mechanism that could respond to these instructions and steer the wheelchair with a high degree of accuracy.

As of May 2007, the mobile emergency device that was tested in the international project MobilAlarm will be marketed. empirica co-ordinated this project from April 2004 to August 2005. The European Commission supported MobilAlarm in the framework of its programme eTEN electronic Trans-European Networks.

EU Member States and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway have adopted a common declaration on their commitment to pursue structured cooperation on cross-border electronic health services across Europe.

"By adopting today's Declaration, we seek to ensure that, in the future, electronic health services for Europe's citizens do not stop at national borders," said the German State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Klaus Theo Schröder.

At 18-19 April 2007 eHealth Conference, representatives of European Union Member States and members of the European Economic Area adopted a common Declaration. The representatives agreed to pursue close interaction and collaboration in the area of cross-border electronic health services throughout Europe. The representatives agreed to pursue close interaction and collaboration in the area of cross-border electronic health services throughout Europe.

European researchers will soon have access to a world-class high performance computing infrastructure, thanks to the new Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PACE) initiative.

PACE brings together the supercomputing centres of 15 European countries, with the goal of strengthening European science, engineering and supercomputer technologies. At a ceremony in Berlin on 17 April, the partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the new initiative.

Running shoes, ski bindings and foot prostheses all have one thing in common: They must be tested thoroughly. This is now done by a robot-based 3-D test rig which simulates human movements, thus enabling any kind of load test to be carried out under realistic conditions.

As approximately 1.9 million elderly people in Europe experience a form of dementia. A pan-European research project is seeking to help them 'navigate their day' and improve their quality of life.

The recently launched CogKnow project, funded under the EU's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), aims to help people to remember, maintain social contact, perform daily life activities and enhance their feelings of safety.