HANOVER: ONLY THE BRAVE DESERVE THE FAIR!

The Hanover Industry Fair attracts almost half a million visitors each year to look at well over 6,000 exhibits, so tracking down nuggets of interesting technology requires some fairly careful preparatory work. Fortunately the organisers have upgraded their electronic search facilities so this year it was possible to obtain a consolidated computerised listing of likely exhibits arranged in order of stand and Hall number — there are 24 different halls! As it turned out, all the items described came from just two halls — Microtronics (Hall 7) and Research and Development (Hall 18). The Fair continues to grow and there is no guarantee that these will be the relevant halls in future years.