Various estimates have been made for the time engineers spend looking for information, with figures of 50 to 80 per cent being quoted by the likes of product lifecycle management (PLM) software vendors. Results from laser scanning can be referenced into plant design systems and used as background for brownfield projects, says Keith Denton. The arrival of low cost CMOS image sensors has opened up the market for portable multimedia applications. But while the latest standard CMOS technology allows more processing and data handling to be integrated onto a single chip, this integration is still some way off for some practical system design reasons. Nick Flaherty reports.