WHEN it comes to writing reports, British Telecom鈥檚 research engineers have
resorted to using Radar to make sure that their output is up-to-date and
contains all references to relevant research.
The Radar in question is a clever computer program named after the
downtrodden character in MASH, the sitcom set in a US Army field hospital. Like
the fictional soldier, the program knows where everything is and starts getting
it even before you know you need it.
Radar is a BT-developed Java applet鈥攁n embedded computer
program鈥攖hat currently only works from within Microsoft鈥檚 Word Package.
The applet scans the sentence surrounding the cursor and works out just what a
BT engineer is writing about. It composes search queries on the basis of what it
thinks is interesting.
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Radar also consults a user鈥檚 personal profile and adjusts the queries if any
preferences in the log are relevant. The search queries are sent off to a batch
of computers that launch them onto the Internet or a company database. The
results of the search or database query are compiled and pop up in a small
window in Word as the user keeps working. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all about bringing in
information right to you when you need it,鈥� says Barry Crabtree, one of Radar鈥檚
developers.
Crabtree says that although only 30 BT staff are using the software, it is
already proving popular, since it is relatively autonomous and teaches itself
what the writer is interested in. Radar鈥檚 testers all work at BT鈥檚 laboratories
in Martlesham, near Ipswich, and are using it to search the Internet and BT鈥檚
own internal network for technical abstracts relevant to their research
areas.