SINGAPORE : Five winners received the infocomm industry's highest accolade on Tuesday for their efforts in applying innovative technologies and solutions to benefit consumers. They are picked from a total of 110 submissions.

Among them were YCH Group for the first Radio Frequency Identification-enabled supply chain nerve centre in the Asia Pacific, and BuzzCity for its community-based mobile advertising network called myGamma.

A new category this year for small- and medium-sized enterprises saw Pictureworks bagging the top spot for its PictureAnywhere software, which taps on Wi-Fi to integrate and improve the photo-taking and printing process.

The two other recipients for the biennial National Infocomm Awards were Intelligent Transport Systems Centre and Advanced Network Technology Labs.

Cutting travel time on the road can mean savings of over US$27 million a year for the economy, according to traffic control experts.

With 800,000 vehicles on Singapore's roads, the Land Transport Authority wants to help motorists keep their journeys as short as possible.

Using a series of technologies called the Intelligent Transport Systems, traffic and road condition information is monitored and sent to various websites for motorists to refer to.

"Using the information provided to them, they will be able to choose a route that will save them the most time to get to the destination," said Chuai Chip Tiong, deputy director of Intelligent Transport Systems Centre.

Controlling traffic of a different kind is the role of another National Infocomm Award winner - Advanced Network Technology Labs.

It has invested over US$1.5 million to develop a data security solution called "Securite" that Internet users can install on their computers.

"When the (Internet) user is doing an online transaction, (be it) Internet banking, making a payment, or even logging onto a social website, the software works to protect the end-user when they are keying in their user ID, password, or credit card information," explained Kwang Tat Ang, CEO of Advanced Network Technology Labs.

Securite is deployed at the free Internet terminals at Singapore's Changi Airport as a way to minimise the possibility of travellers' private online information from being hacked. - CNA /ls