Ideas people in York and North Yorkshire could hardly be smarter.

Smart award winner Charles Cecil, managing director of Revolution Software Ltd, of York .

The area took nine out of the 40 Smart awards in Yorkshire announced today by the Department of Trade and Industry.

The Government is shelling out £2.3 million in the region in Smart awards - cash backing to get good ideas off the drawing board and into the marketplace.

Among the most dramatic of the bright, marketable ideas comes from games-maker Revolution Software Ltd in King Street, York, which gets £45,000 worth of help in its quest to create computer software which controls every aspect of how a "virtual actor" behaves, for use in the interactive entertainment industry.

The ten-year-old £2 million turnover firm which employs 26 people, including programmers, artists working with 3-D animation, writers, producers and managers recently achieved blockbuster hits in Germany and France with its interactive storyline games, Broken Sword and Broken Sword II. Now it plans to release another, In Cold Blood, in June.

Charles Cecil, managing director, said: "We are researching ways of empowering computerised actors to react intelligently to the world that the human game player dictates - whether it is cowering in the blast of an explosion or talking and behaving sadly when depressed.

"It will mean we are getting closer to the holy grail of actually making interactive films ."

Other Smart winners include -

Former Evening Press Business Venture of the Year winners, York Nutritional Laboratory Ltd in Murton Way, Osbaldwick, which gets money to develop a low-cost, low-risk self-diagnostic screening system to determine the extent of food allergies in people

Pattern Computing Ltd which will be helped to find a new approach to pattern recognition on moving images. The project will focus on monitoring and manipulating company logos, trademarks and products in television and video sequences

EDW Controls Ltd, of Birch Park, Huntington Road, York, which investigating how to generate mains-type electricity using conventional-style alternators

Multidrive Ltd, of Thirsk Industrial Park, York Road, Thirsk, which is trying to improve the mobility of trailers towed over tough terrain by using a "pulsed hydraulic drawbar" of variable length

The Castle Group Ltd, of Salter Road, Scarborough, which is researching and developing the electronics and software for a sound level meter that can define the noise being investigated

Medinox International Ltd, of Hornbeam Square, Harrogate, which wants to develop instruments for use in minimally invasive cryosurgery - freeze surgery using liquid nitrogen

Brigantia Software Ltd, of Harlow Moor Drive, Harrogate, which wants to develop a low-cost portable gadget to test vision in children and disabled people

Remote Marine Systems Ltd on the York Industrial Park, Malton, which wants to develop power assistance for manually operated manipulators in the nuclear industry

Bilaurand Laboratories Ltd, of Carnaby, Bridlington, which wants to formulate better healthcare products for pets.

see also 'Talent brings a Smart reward '

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.