Intelligent Energy-Europe IEE

Last 20th of December, the call for IEE Programme was published for 2012 with a deadline for the submission of proposals of 8 May 2012, 17:00 CET.

Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE) offers a helping hand to organisations willing to improve energy sustainability. Launched by the European Commission, the programme is part of a broad push to create an energy-intelligent future for us all. It supports EU energy efficiency and renewable energy policies, with a view to reaching the EU 2020 targets (20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions, 20% improvement in energy efficiency and 20% of renewables in EU energy consumption).

Running until 2013, the programme is open to all EU Member States, plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. A budget of € 730 million is available to fund projects and put into place a range of European portals, facilities and initiatives.

Intelligent Energy – Europe creates better conditions for a more sustainable energy future in areas as varied as renewable energy, energy-efficient buildings, industry, consumer products and transport. Following explains which types of actions are eligible for funding:

Energy efficiency and the rational use of energy (SAVE)

Funding in this area mainly targets the improvement of energy efficiency and the rational use of resources in the industry, products and building sectors.

New and renewable resources (ALTENER)

In this area, funding is provided to increase the share of renewables in the production of electricity, heat and cooling, and to integrate them in the local energy systems.

Energy in transport (STEER)

This strand covers initiatives targeting energy savings and energy efficiency in the transport sector, including stimulation of demand for alternative fuels and clean and energy-efficient vehicles.

Integrated initiatives

These initiatives cover several economic sectors or several of the main areas of energy efficiency, new and renewable resources and energy in transport at the same time. Projects educating children, tomorrow's energy savers and consumers, are covered by this part of the programme.

More info:

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/about/index_en.htm

Source: CORDIS

Wellness Telecom wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Wellness Telecom receives the ANDALUCIA INFORMATION SOCIETY Award 2010 in R&D category

Wellness Telecom has been recognized his work in creating technology products and services aimed at developing the Information Society of Andalusia with the Andalucia Information Society Award 2010 (Awards ASI) in the category of R&D.

The awards jury was particularly impressed of Wellness Telecom's contribution in the design, development and management of innovative solutions to suit different sectors with the aim of improving the welfare of Andalusian society.

The Wellness Telecom CEO, David Garcia and the Innovation Factory Director of the company, Teresa Alamos, have been responsible for collecting the award at a ceremony that took place in the Marie Curie Tecnoincubadora Science and Technology Park Cartuja 93, a very representative for the company that had its first headquarters building.

This award, organized by the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Science Government of Andalusia, is given to all agents (ICT businesses or any other productive sector, local authorities, universities and associations) involved in the development of Information Society in Andalusia.

Source: Wellness Telecom
Photo: R&D Team

Location Based Analyser

Many businesses need to understand their customers' behavior within their premises (e.g. within their shop), to answer questions such as: "How long do customers wait to get served?", "How much time does a customer spend in my shop?", "How many of the customers entering my shop visit it again (in %), and after how long do they return (on average)?"

Many methods have been previously implemented to try to answer these questions, such as: loyalty cards, computerized queue management etc. Wellness Telecom is participating on LBA project, which will provide a low-cost generic and privacy-friendly solution to this problem.

LBA uses a low cost wireless sensor network, able to locate and track Bluetooth and WIFI devices used by many mobile phones. The system locates and tracks mobile phones on the premises and uses the data to answer these and other questions, providing business intelligence solutions at a fraction of current prices. Then it is possible to know how many customers there are on a specific restaurant, the correlation between establishments or to build opening time-tables according to the people demand over the day. Moreover it is possible to incentive people to move from one point to another by means of Bluetooth messages. Our studies revealed that 80% of the customers are willing to enable their Bluetooth on the mobile phone to receive alerts about special prices, updated time-tables and general information. This allows the system to get location data of as many mobile devices as possible in a complete seamless way for the customer.

The system can be deployed in both indoor and outdoor environments, and does NOT retrieve any data with which the phone's owner may be identified. Currently the system is tested over an amusement park and retail shops in Spain, Switzerland and Singapore.

More info: http://www.wtelecom.es/iplusdplusi/proyectos.aspx#/iplusdplusi/proyectos/lba

Source: Wellness Telecom

Art & Technology

New technologies are not only useful and entertanning but they can also become a source of beauty, awe and wonder. Just have alook to this inspiring project.

This project explores the invisible terrain of WiFi networks in urban spaces by light painting signal strength in long-exposure photographs.

A four-metre long measuring rod with 80 points of light reveals cross-sections through WiFi networks using a photographic technique called light-painting.

Immaterials: Light painting WiFi from Timo on Vimeo.

More here:

• nearfield.org/​2011/​02/​wifi-light-painting
• yourban.no/​2011/​02/​22/​immaterials-light-painting-wifi/​
• Behind the scenes: yourban.no/​2011/​03/​07/​making-immaterials-light-painting-wifi/​

Eurostars 7th Call

CDTI is organizing a new series of informative workshops to promote participation in the Eurostars Programme between November 17th and December 1st, a European funding programme specifically targeted to SMEs with intensive R&D activities. This programme is open to all fields and research areas.

The next workshops will be held at:

• Vigo: November 17th
• Almería: November 22th
• Jaen: November 23th
• Las Palmas: November 29th
• Lleida: November 30th
• Pamplona: December 1 st

Each workshop will consist of three parts:

• Eurostars Programme overview by the CDTI.
• Practical presentation, including exercises on the preparation and submission of a proposal EUROSTARS.
• Personal interviews (optional) of companies with representatives of the CDTI to contrast concrete ideas about potential projects for EUROSTARS

All workshops take place during the morning (between 9:00 and 12:00) and interviews with technicians CDTI will be developed on request between 12:00 and 14:00 hours.

Wellness Telecom has actively participated in this program in their previous calls, with several proposals submitted and a high success rate. Wellness Telecom is willing to both collaborate and support new project ideas for the next call, which deadline is 1^st of March 2012 at 20:00 CET.

If you are willing to participate you can count with Wellness Telecom's experience. Please contact us at factoriainnovacion@wtelecom.es

The Second National CENTAC Congress of Accessibility Technologies

The National Center for Accessibility Technologies (CENTAC) organized the Second National CENTAC Congress of Accessibility Technologies on 18 October in the Monasterio de laCartuja, Andalusian Center of Contemporary Art in Seville.

The aim of this conference is to provide knowledge and practical experience of successful examples in the ICT market focused on accessibility to address the many aspects of thismultifaceted reality with the participation of consolidated entities, promising organizations and people with real experience in this area.

Its ultimate goal is to promote the development of accessibility technologies at enterprise, industry and services, to improve the lives of people with disabilities, their families and caregivers through new technologies and information technologies.

Some of the entities that participated in the conference are:

1. Code Factory, presented some of their solutions:

• Speak TV: This application allows people who are blind or visually impaired to use all thecommon features of digital television in an accessible manner.
• Mobile Accessibility: is a screen application that enables blind or low vision people using anAndroid phone with an intuitive, easy and simple manner.
• Mobile Speak: screen readers that consist of software applications installed on the mobile phone, allowing you to use the device even if the person cannot read the screen. The information that appears on the screen is represented as voice output.

2. Google, products and services were presented to improve accessibility: Accessibility Engineering:

• Screen Reader, Chrome Vox
• Full Screen Zoom
• Color Correction
• Google applications: Google Docs, Sites, Calendar, Gmail, etc.

All speakers agreed that a product adapted to the disability must be a useful product for everyone, not created exclusively for these people, a product reaches the market and make life easier for us all.

The main challenge is the transition from research to market, so it is very important to have the support of associations, including:

• CEAPAT: Reference Centre for Personal Autonomy and Technical Aids
• COCEMFE: Spanish Confederation of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities
• FIAPAS: Spanish Confederation of Deaf Families
• ONCE

It is very important that the design and development of products takes place taking into account the sector's needs and can respond to their requests with new products that fit their lifestyle. In this area, they propose to carry out surveys, interviews, workshops with the people for whom it is addressed the product. Thus they become part of the product life cycle being able to ensure market acceptance.

The key concepts are:

• Accessibility
• Usability
• Design for all