Fiddling with a valve and pressure gauge on a cold winter morning to check tyre pressures is dirty, time-consuming and no-one's idea of fun.

Small wonder, then, that it is a job we put off, saving it for that long trip or special occasion. Everyone knows it is crucial for safety tyres are, after all, the only thing connecting your car to the road but the task is regularly ignored, at a frightening cost. Low tyre pressure has been linked to almost one in five road accidents.

So it would be great if there was a system that checked your tyres for you, without you having to do anything.

Cutting-edge work on developing just such a system is well advanced, but it is not motor manufacturing giants such as Ford or General Motors who are leading the way.

Two tiny high-tech companies are working separately on the problem, using different technologies and coincidentally close to one another at Heyford Park, the former nuclear bomber air base at Upper Heyford.

Transense Technologies has developed so-called Surface Acoustic Wave technology, which can be used to produce a lightweight, cheap system to automatically measure tyre pressure. Until now the only working systems have been seen on fabulously expensive sports cars and full-blown racing cars, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The Transense technology should allow everyone's car to be fitted with an at-a-glance display of tyre pressures. The first could be on the road in 2002.

Commercial director Mr Graham Eves said: "The company is concerned with technology transfer, not manufacturing, and the automotive market for sensors is growing rapidly.

"It is expected to reach one billion units in 2002."

The company, which has won grants worth £2m and works in collaboration with eight universities including Oxford and Oxford Brookes, has the exclusive worldwide rights to its products.

Established in 1991 in a converted mill near Banbury, it was originally funded by private investors and commercialises its technology by licensing manufacturers and application users.

Employing nine people, the firm, whose technology is covered by 15 patents, was recognised earlier this year when it was a runner-up in the innovation category of the Oxfordshire Business of the Year Awards.

The technology can also be used to produce sensors which will dramatically improve the performance of anti-lock braking systems and the use of more fuel-efficient electric power-steering systems.

The sensors are small, highly sensitive, accurate, reliable, cost-effective and can be interrogated 10,000 times a second. And they do not even need a battery.

Since moving into the Cherwell Innovation Centre in 1998, its business has developed rapidly and its market capitalisation has gone from £10m to a quarter of a billion in three months.

Ms Zarah Ford, of Transense, said: "We had four units when we moved in March 1998, now we have seven units and we are still expanding."

Not far from Transense, another firm, Rollagauge, has installed a full-scale "roll-over" tyre pressure measuring system at the former Heyford air base, aimed at the road haulage, bus and coach market.

By driving a vehicle over an array of sensors, in places such as a transport depot or petrol station, the Rollagauge accurately reads the pressure of each wheel.

One of the inventors, Mr Nigel Lewis, said setting aside the safety issues, the market drivers for the Rollagauge technology were economic bringing prolonged tyre life, lower fuel consumption and reduced vehicle down-time.

He said: "Initial market research shows a potential for some 7,000 systems in the United Kingdom and this suggests that the long-term market is worth in excess of £100m in the United Kingdom alone.

"The main competitor for Rollagauge is the 'do nothing' syndrome. For the commercial operator this is an expensive option. The conventional hand gauge is often inaccurate, has to be applied to every wheel, is a dirty job and takes time to use.

"Individual electronic pressure sensors attached to the tyre valve also exist, but become expensive across a fleet of vehicles."

Rollagauge is now seeking strategic partners who have already established distribution channels to the road transport industry.

For family motorists, the first application of tyre-pressure technology will be seen in February on the new Renault Laguna II, which uses a system developed between the French car maker and Michelin. The Cowley-built Mini, which will go on sale in the summer, will also carry a tyre-pressure monitoring system.

But until the state-of-the-art technology of the 21st century is safely installed in your dashboard, do us all a favour nip outside now and check your tyres.

**From The Oxford Times, November 24, 2000