DIGITAL jewellery which can maintain the bond between couples when they are apart, and a high-tech kitchen which can help elderly or disabled people maintain independence, could become realities through a £12m North-East digital technology centre.

Newcastle University was revealed as one of three university cities across the UK to receive a slice of £37m in Government funding to develop and research digital technology aimed at benefiting people and communities.

Newcastle, alongside Nottingham and Aberdeen, through funding announced yesterday by the Minister for Science and Innovation Lord Drayson, will now become one of the UK hubs to lead the charge for the creation of a Digital Britain.

The North-East centre will be created in partnership with global technology leaders Microsoft, IBM and Philips.

Projects which will be developed further at the centre, with a view to bringing them to market in as little as three years, include digital jewellery.

If a couple each wears a piece of the jewellery – which uses mobile phone-type signal technology – when one of them strokes it the corresponding piece will vibrate, even if the other wearer is many miles away.

A high-tech ambient kitchen, which has electronic tags and sensors built into the floor, utensils, appliances, cupboards and work surfaces to monitor and control the actions of the person working in it, and which is computer programmed to “know” every stage of a recipe, is also set to become commonplace.

This would benefit disabled or elderly people and help them maintain their independence.

Both innovations have been created by scientists at Newcastle University, but are set to be advanced much further with the establishment of the research centre.

This week, the announcement that Newcastle would benefit from the £37m funding – the biggest financial commitment ever made to the UK’s digital sector – was met with excitement.

Professor Paul Watson, the hub’s director, said the creation of the centre could mean technologies are on the market in the near future.

He said: “Our aim is to generate high-quality ideas that can make a real difference to people’s lives, and then to start commercialising them as the hub’s work nears its conclusion. As part of the hub, we’ve set up a core technical team of software and hardware developers, so we’ll be able to produce prototypes that are as close to the envisaged eventual products as possible. That means we could see life-transforming solutions reach the market within three to five years.”

Professor Chris Brink, vicechancellor of Newcastle University, said: “This is an excellent example of how world-class research can directly benefit society.

“Digital technology is changing the world in which we live and it is important that everyone shares in the advantages. Newcastle University is proud to be tackling this societal challenge.”