The main objective of the AtlanticCrossing proposal is to develop a partnership between two higher education institutions, one Portuguese, Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon, and one from the United States of America, Bridgewater State University - BSU. This partnership is designed to be mutually beneficial, aiming to initiate the effort to develop joint specializations, postgraduate programs, and the awarding of joint academic degrees in the near future in scientific areas of mutual interest, such as Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and Language Technologies, Business Innovation, and Teaching-Learning. By collaborating, both institutions could leverage each other’s strengths and resources, enhancing the quality of education and research. The proposal also aims to develop skills for faculty and students through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), applied in Curricular Units (CUs) of undergraduate courses at both universities, focusing on the aforementioned scientific areas. The program includes activities throughout the academic year in a COIL environment and two short-term stays (1 week) for faculty and students: one organized at Iscte in mid-January, with the visit of BSU faculty and students, and the other at BSU, at the first week of June, reciprocally. We will coordinate joint and interdisciplinary research projects with an emphasis on Cybersecurity and Language Technologies. This will be conducted within the framework of project-based and applied research initiatives. Additionally, we will facilitate Iscte’s participation in BSU's annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, providing a platform for Iscte students to present their innovative results at this US event. In the field of Cybersecurity, we will organize comprehensive joint training sessions employing challenge-based and competitive environments, such as “Capture the Flag” and “Hackathon”. We will utilize BSU's CyberRange infrastructure - an exclusive resource in Massachusetts—...

The overall aim of this project is to promote the mental health and well-beingof students at Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, based on the Stepped Care model, developed in the program for the promotion of mental health in higher education - ACCES Program. Focusing on a promotion and prevention approach, and adopting a logic of collective participation, the following specific objectives are identified: 1. Development of mental health promotion, prevention and adjustment activities (level 1 and 2), with a view to improving skills related to mental health literacy, mental resilience and stress management; 2. Strengthening psychotherapeutic and psychiatric responses for students with common mental disorders of mild to moderate severity (level 3), with a view to early intervention and avoiding more serious pathologies; 3. Strengthening the mechanisms for identifying situations of risk or serious mental illness and referring them to specialized health services (level 4 and 5); 4. Promoting the active participation of the student association in the development, implementation and evaluation of activities;5. Inclusion of students with specific educational needs and other vulnerable groups (1st year students, displaced students, national and international students, students benefiting from school social action, scholarship students from PALOP countries, women students, and LGBTQIA+ students), across the board in the activities developed.

The RETIME project (Horizon Europe Innovation Action) aims to address impactful changes at both the contextual district level and individual homes of natural and human-caused disasters. It will introduce a data-driven tool that aggregates existing data from weather stations, sensor networks, and satellite images, automated on-site surveys to simulate the impacts of current phenomena and future projections. The innovative aspect lies in an advanced computational analysis that generates prospective scenarios based on socio-architectural and environmental studies, combined with local, territorial remote and on-site surveys.  

The main focus of this project is on the perceptions, emotions and behaviours of older people regarding different urban street designs. In specific, we are interested in exploring perceived discrimination due to age (ageism), a topic studied from a socio-psychological perspective. Hence, psychology is the main scientific area for this project. However, the multidisciplinary nature of the team is a major advantage, creating the opportunity to investigate people-place factors more deeply and use methodologies commonly used in other fields (architecture, computer science) in order to test our hypotheses (e.g., virtual reality studies).

AI4PA Portugal's strategic objectives and action plan are clearly aligned with the main focus areas of the Digital Transition Action Plan:    Pillar I - Empowerment and digital inclusion of people    Pillar II - Digital transformation of the business fabric    Pillar III - Digitalisation of the State    The Centre's activity will pursue six strategic objectives, aligned with the Digital Transition Action Plan, namely: optimising public policies in the various areas of governance based on Artificial Intelligence and the promotion of innovative digital technological solutions; improving the interaction of public services with citizens and businesses; assessing the social impacts and ethical implications of technologies, including Artificial Intelligence; increasing the digital skills of public entities and the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that provide them with services; disseminating good practices and reusable solutions of national and international origin; and improving governance for the digital transition at the various levels of state intervention.    AI4PA Portugal aligns its intervention with the model established in the European network of Digital Innovation Hubs, targeting the priority services of the Digital Innovation Hubs described in the Digital Transition Action Plan,    1- Experimentation and testing of digital technologies in the phase prior to the investment decision; 2- Qualification and training in digital skills; 3- Support in finding funding for investment in digital technologies; 4- Acting as a facilitator bringing together different actors.  

Blockchain is a key technology for economy and society digital transition. According to  the World Economic Forum, 10% of global GDP will be stored in blockchains by 2027 and the World Trade Organization, citing a study by Gartner, estimates that by 2030 the use of blockchain technology could add $3 trillion to international trade. According to PwC "blockchain technologies can boost the global economy by $1.76 trillion by 2030" with the sectors that will benefit most being public administration, education, and health. Despite this huge opportunity, Portugal has yet to take advantage of it: according to the EU Blockchain Ecosystem Development report, in 2020 Portugal holds an average maturity at European level.  This Agenda brought together several blockchain organizations, creating a cluster of 24 Portuguese blockchain companies, 15 Research and Technology Organisations (RTO), 5 Public Entities, 2 Associations and 10 other Associated Partners, connected by business and technology, aiming to become global players and, thus, contributing  to a significant change in the specialization profile of the Portuguese economy, by investing on cutting-edge technology and hiring highly qualified personnel. 

The InCITIES project aims to achieve the transformations of HEIs and their surrounding ecosystem centred around on cities’ needs of inclusion, sustainability and resilience. Its specific focus on widening countries (Portugal and Slovakia) will allow to overcome structural, sociocultural, economic, political and institutional barriers to transformation fostering. Addressing the European-global challenges of cities, InCITIES has 4 objectives: 1) Map institutional transformation strategies towards research-based sustainable universities including open science and career opportunities. 2) Build a long-term network of participating HEIs and surrounding ecosystems based on integrated knowledge HUBs. 3) Increase scientific, technological and staff capacity by sharing the best pedagogical, research, management and administrative practices in the consortium, and piloting leverages to widening HEIs. 4) Promote digitally driven universities by creating an open and innovative education and training platform in synergy with the project research and innovation agenda on inclusive, sustainable and resilient cities. The 5 methods jointly developed will set the foundation for the consortium role model: 1) Method for a common research map, 2) Capacity building actions based on the Learning by Developing pedagogical model, 3) Capacity building in talent scout and career opportunity strategy (attractiveness of research careers, including open science incentives), 4) Capacity building on equality, diversity and inclusion, 5) Methods to address enablers and barriers to integration of the InCITIES Alliance. From knowledge co-creation to joint production between European HEIs, surrounding ecosystems and citizens’ involvement, integrated actions play a key-role in achieving the consortium objectives. Capacity building actions implemented are a step towards the submission to the European Universities Initiative; it will strengthen the ERA, the EEA, and Europe’s approach to coope...

The global COVID-19 crisis triggered major changes across societies around the world disrupting the way we live and conduct business. Across Europe, the measures and restrictions enforced due to the pandemic have led to sudden changes in many paradigms paving the way for new business models and market exchanges. This dramatic disruption has accelerated some socio-economic trends, which were visible before the COVID-19 crisis, such as the adoption of sophisticated technology and data solutions to facilitate human-centered, people-smart, and sustainable operation models; the incorporation of sustainability and climate mitigation as non-negotiable principles of operating and doing businesses and last but not least, relying on smart data evidence-based solutions to guide decision making for optimal commercial and sustainability performance. The tourism industry is one of the global economic sectors that is most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated with its economic downturn, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation. UNWTO data states that the current crisis is responsible for a global fall in export revenues of between EUR 750-900 billion and a loss of direct jobs that could be between 100 and 200 million. With the fall in profits and lack of certainty for stable markets, the recovery shortly of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which according to UNWTO shoulder 80% of global tourism, is at stake. With lost revenues and subsequently, talent drain to other economic sectors, tourism SMEs face the need to adapt at a time of crisis with constraint capacities. Through the design of a dynamic technological solution (platform) for knowledge-transfer and experience exchange made available to a network of tourism SME clusters across six countries, this project will demonstrate how digitalization can accelerate innovation and uptake of new sustainability solutions in a sector that is built up mostly of small enterprises with limited resources for n...

Lisbon City Council invited  ISTAR to carry out a Technical Consultancy project, in close interaction with the Municipal Directorate of Culture (DMC), the Department of Cultural Heritage (DPC), the Municipal Archive Division (DAM) and the Information Systems Department (DSI), among others, with the following objectives   1 – Study, analyze and characterize the X-Arq information system of the Mind provider, including its various components (in particular, the various modules of X-Arq and X-Arqgestao, the Thesauros, the various modules of Kapture, including the printing sub-system and the interconnection with the Prisma system), from the perspectives: (1) of the logical, computational architectures and of the concrete installation of the system, (2) of the functionalities that allow the use and operation of the system within the scope of the processes of internal business of the relevant entities of the CML that use it, satisfying the legal and regulatory provisions applicable from the archival point of view, and (3) of the interoperability between the referred modules and other systems internal and external to the CML. 2 – Analyze the offer on the market and check if there are investment solutions or outsourced services that guarantee all the features supported by the current solution referred to in item #1. 3 – Carry out an economic cost/benefit assessment study for the digitization service of the Municipal Archive, which allows comparing the current solution indicated in item #1 with possible market offers. On the benefits side, the possibility that the new market solution(s) may or may not maintain, or even exceed, the service quality levels that the current solution offers will be evaluated. On the cost side, the necessary new investments (CAPEX) will be estimated, as well as the new operation and maintenance costs (OPEX), which the change to a new solution may imply, including the new costs of technological migration and information systems. , organizational...

Athena Project aims to develop the digital skills of university professors, reinforcing their response to the challenges that universities face today and in the future. The project seeks to foster cooperative learning environments, making them transformative and inclusive through the adoption of new technologies, such as e-learning, gaming platforms, virtual and augmented reality, systematically modeled to activate key competences in digital learning. The project will create models that teachers can adopt and adapt to their classes, using different pedagogical approaches.

The FCT project DSAIPA/AI/0122/2020 AIMHealth – AI-based Mobile Applications for Public Health Response, is being promoted by the Information Sciences, Technologies and Architecture Research Center (ISTAR-Iscte), in collaboration with the Center for Psychological Research and Social Intervention (CIS-Iscte), both from Iscte – University Institute of Lisbon, and as well with the Institute of Telecommunications (IT), the Association for Research and Development of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (AIDFM) and the Cardiovascular Center of the University of Lisbon (CCUL). This project is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), according to the FCT contract DSAIPA/AI/0122/2020 under the contest “AI 4 COVID-19: Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in the Public Administration to strengthen the fight against COVID-19 and future pandemics – 2020″. Framework Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, personal contacts were limited, and new solutions had to be developed to prevent the spread of the virus. Some of the technological solutions presented were contact tracing applications, which inform users and authorities about the potential or current risk of spreading the virus. However, among its users, this approach has raised concerns about security and privacy. Objective Encompassing such concerns, this project proposes the creation and availability of a smartphone application and a safe and reliable service distribution platform based on Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence technologies, to identify symptomatic and asymptomatic patients as well as the risk exposure, providing a preventive approach to Public Health strategies.

BIM is vigorously changing all phases of buildings’ life cycle, from strategic planning, design, construction, operation and decommission. Building operation, which is the longest and most significant phase, has it’s own nuances. Professional roles are different from other phases since architects and civil engineers are often replaced by managers and MEP (Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) professionals, focus is on maintenance, cost reduction and profitability and user comfort. BIM, as a natural tool for building information storage and use, is a natural part of a Facility Management System. We work on the development of BIM platforms for the management of large, multi-building facilities, such as education campus or hospitals, where scale, geolocalization and visual communication render traditional methods inefficient. We work with Facility Management platforms that link with and take advantage of BIM models and we employ Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies to enhance and visualize facilities’ data.

Urban areas are increasingly the predominant combat scenario and pose great difficulties to military commanders due to their complexity, presence of civilians, unpredictability and difficulty of communication. The infrastructures of the Centre for Combat Training in Urban Environments of the School of Arms, of the Portuguese Army in Mafra, Portugal, are well suited for training of combat planning of small combat units, from platoon up to company level, with a building campus called “Aldeia Camões”, a command and control room and a shooting range simulator. This is the appropriate place for development and testing of technologies that can increase training capabilities in the planning and execution of military operations in urban areas. This project develops a solution that uses Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies to support Planning of Combat Training in Urban Areas in the mentioned “Aldeia Camões”. 

The overall goal of IRIS is to provide a natural interaction communication platform accessible and adapted for all users, particularly for people with speech impairments and elderly in indoor scenarios. Human-Computer interaction with this platform will adopt the principles of universal design and natural user interfaces such as speech, silent speech, gestures, tactile and haptic devices, pictograms, animated characters and personalized synthetic voices.   The platform will provide a set of services that allow easy access to social networks, friends and remote family members, fighting social-exclusion of people with special needs or impairments. Application of these features will be performed in the context of serious games, virtual reality environments and assisted living scenarios. We will also explore the use of personalized avatars (that resemble with the user) in asynchronous human-human and human-machine communications, in situations where the user has lost his/her voice and in scenarios where it is not possible to have a video signal transmission due to low bandwidth or privacy reasons. Biometrics will complement the platform, in the sense that authentication and authorization are fundamental aspects for assuring access security to personal information in a natural way.

  The goal of the project is to support the daily living of blind and visually impaired people in challenging tasks like participating in urban mobility, providing a simple, effective and affordable door to door navigation and mobility assistance solution. Contrary to the usual tools providing only outdoor navigation, we also target situations when the blind person plans a journey which includes traveling through unfamiliar indoor environments (subway systems, train/bus stations) or when the journey targets visiting complex buildings (shopping mall, business center, public office). In our view, besides the help provided in the daily living for the blind and visually impaired citizens, the envisioned service would be also interesting for companies, offices or infrastructure operators (e.g. local government) where blind people can work or just turn-out, by helping them to integrate and manage themselves in an open community. In order to provide a truly door to door navigation service, which is currently missing from the market, we design and develop a service framework in which existing outdoor navigation services can be easily “plugged in”. Thus, the already familiar applications can be used in concordance with the proposed indoor mobility service, leading to cheaper and more effective door to door mobility assistance solutions. In the recent years, due to the remarkable steps in ICT innovation, a set of new possibilities have opened up, fostering the R&D related to mobility services (e.g. smartphone-based passenger information systems, route planners, navigators), where the travelers play a more active role like in classical Intelligent Transportation Systems. These people centered approaches aim to bring more interaction between the travelers and service providers, in order to provide user-centric, personalized and integrated multi-modal solutions. While these solutions promise the advent of eco-friendly multi-modal mobility systems by promoting active use...

This project aims to provide an answer to societal challenges by providing an innovative Organisational Life Assistant (OLA), a virtual presence that supports instrumental activities relating to daily living needs of older adults allowing them to be more independent, self-assured and to have a healthier, safer and organized life, while facilitates caregivers by supporting them on offering high-quality assistance OLA will mediate and facilitate interaction (communication and collaboration) between senior citizens and their informal caregivers or other services or professionals, through technological devices such as standard computers, mobile devices (tablets) and home automation modules.   These ICT devices will be based on an innovative multimodal model, embracing various physical/healthy and cognitive characteristics of the older adults and will specifically oriented to increase the level of independence of the elderly, by supporting the possibility of carers’ assistance remotely and by improving the accessibility to existing services on the Web, such as shopping on-line services. Moreover, the OLA will also provide a personalized well-being and safety advices to older users in order to avoid unwanted age related health and safety situations at their own home. Such a well-being and safety advisor makes uses of a combination of collected user information (personal physical/health and cognitive characteristics) and user interaction information extracted through emotion recognition and various sensor settings.

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a new approach to the challenges related with population aging and has as its main goals applying ambient intelligent technologies in supporting and training people with specific requirements (such as giving to elderly with memory loss products/services that help them reminding events or paths), and in developing safe environments to the maintenance of an independent life, promoting the active aging. Many national and international actions in the scope of AAL, more or less articulated, have been done, exploring several approaches to the development of innovative technologies. However, in general, we do not have a global understanding that determine and guide the Investigation & Development in AAL. In this context, the AAL4ALL project aims to develop a platform for the aggregation of products / services that promote the creation of assisted living environments, presenting an answer through the development of products and services ecosystem for AAL associated with a business model and validated by a large-scale pilot test.

FP6 IST IP MEDIANET, “Multimedia Networking” (2004-2006) MediaNet, is a key and the largest FP6 Networked Audio-Visual Systems and Home Platforms – NAVSHP IP project, which addresses the domain of digital multimedia personal communication and content distribution for residential markets, as well as cooperation schemes between content owners, service providers, network access operators, and telecommunication, computer, components and consumer electronics industries. The objective is to remove the obstacles in Europe to end-to-end digital communications and content exchange, from content/service providers to customers and between persons, over shared broadband access and home network infrastructures, while protecting at the same time suppliers’ and customers’ investments, content owners’ rights, assuring a fair revenues sharing to the stakeholders of the value chain, as well as permitting the necessary regulation actions. The MEDIANET open architecture model enable the deployment of a plethora of different multimedia services from different suppliers over common access and home networks. It will develop enabling technologies, equipment, architectures, services as well as related standards, business models and good practices, addressing content distribution and access services, access/home interworking at the gateway, common home networking, distributed media storage systems, multimedia terminal platforms, common content protection approaches with different digital rights management systems. Advanced coding/decoding circuits based on the latest standards will enable HQ audio-video distribution over wireless connections. More info at the European Comission website here.

NTERREG III B « ATLANTIC AREA », PIMHAI, “Multispectral and hyperspectral imagery analysis from acquisition to decision, making and expertise in environment management” (2004-2007) The objective of this project is to provide the industrial sector and the political/institutional decision-makers of the Atlantic area with an operational system including the acquisition and the analysis of aerial EO remote sensing images. This system will be devoted to the interpretation of information and the help in decision-making, to face the important environmental problems in their region. This system will be open and will integrate the recent and future developments of research in multisource/multicomponent imagery. More Information at the website here

FP6 IST STREP WCAM, “Wireless Cameras and Audio-visual Seamless Networking” (2004-2006) The WCAM project study, develop and validate a wireless (WLAN) seamless and secured end-to- end networked audio-visual system focused on the technology convergence between video surveillance and multimedia distribution over the Internet. It takes into account real time aspects as well as security and scalability. The project improves state of the art technologies in each of the technological components involved in the system and combine them. The WCAM system is installed and tested with users of both multimedia distribution and video surveillance communities. Recent progresses in flexible bit streams representation of video including Region-of-lnterest (ROI) have led to new standardisation efforts in the frame of JPEG-2000. WCAM pursues and enforces these works, integrating concerns like wireless, security, and annotations obtained by high-level analysis. WCAM delivery scenario includes both JPEG-2000 and MPEG-4 AVC platforms, which requires also addressing the efficient and seamless transcoding between these two recent standards. The WCAM platform includes the following key modules: – Camera video encoding incorporating scene analysis, object tracking and adaptive and efficient video coding – Automatic detection of events through scene analysis – Scalable access to video content through transcoding and Scalable Video Coding of MPEG – Multimedia storage and distribution – Wireless networking for local connectivity (WLAN) – Security, both at the network and content levels – Metadata driven access to content The technologies and systems developed within WCAM are validated during two trials: – the first trial takes place in Annecy (France) during the festival of animated movies in 2005 – the second trial is done in a video surveillance site and demonstrates the ability to operate a video surveillance platform on a wireless network. More info at the European Comission website he...

The E-NEXT Network of Excellence targets a key area of Information Society Technologies, namely computer networking. Framework Programme 6 aims to develop the technological basis and the people-skills necessary to deliver the promise of the information revolution – new audio-visual services and products, electronic delivery of business, health, education, entertainment, government, science and so on – and this will fundamentally impact every aspect of life and work. The delivery of all of these e-endeavours depends entirely on computer networks. E-NEXT aims to integrate a critical mass of expertise and to re-structure research practice such that Europe can take a lead in computer networking and act as a world force in this area. The main objectives of this NoE will be: the development of a virtual research centre to integrate the world-class research of the members and to stimulate the exchange of personnel, the education and training of personnel inside and outside the network, the dissemination of research results and in general the spreading of excellence, and the stimulation of innovation by appropriate technology transfer into existing and new companies, both large and small. E-NEXT will achieve these objectives through its management structure consisting of network and country coordination committees, and six workpackages: network coordination, joint research, integration and training, distributed work environment, spreading excellence, and dissemination. E-NEXT is targeted at line 3.1.8 in the First Call for proposals, Networked Audio-Visual Systems and HomePlatforms. This line aims to ‘support the innovation and development of technologies for end-to-end interoperable audio-visual networks, services and applications’. E-NEXT will make a major contribution to these aims, as well as potentially contributing to other areas of IST, for example to Broadband for All, and to Research Networking. More info at the European Commission website here.  

ESA HICOD 2000, “HIgh-performance CODing, protection and trading of satellite images, using JPEG2000” (2003-2005) The HICOD2000 (High-Performance Coding, Protection and Trading of Satellite Images, Using JPEG2000) project proposal, is based on a number of different technologies, aiming at: 1. Defining and developing an inexpensive, open architecture and high-performance Grid-based computing environment to produce JPEG2000 coded digital images obtained from Earth Observation (EO) digital products, of small to very large sizes, described in the PDS data format, requiring the trans-coding of such products into the JPEG2000 format. 2. Accessing JPEG2000 images in an interactive and flexible way. 3. Defining and developing a software architecture and introducing new concepts of electronic trading of EO digital products and/or related JPEG2000 images with end-users, able to provide secure access to such EO products in a flexible and scalable way (within the framework of a Digital Rights Management Architecture), enforcing contractual agreements between the content provider (ESA) and the end-user, as well as ensuring copyright protection of such digital items. The core enabling technologies of HICOD2000 are: 1. Digital Rights Management Architecture providing Secure Access to Multimedia Information 2. GRID-enabled High Performance Computing 3. JPEG2000, the new Digital Image Standard ADETTI was the coordinator of this project. More information at ESA website here.

FP5 IST-2001-34096, 2KAN, “(JPEG)2K Advanced Networking” (2002-2004) The JPEG 2000 Open Standard concept goes beyond image compression only. Parts 1 and 2 concern basic technical elements for image compression and file format, Part 3 provides a solution to extend Parts 1 and 2 to motion, Part 4 and 5 are technical complements while Part 6 addresses mixed raster images. A new set of 4 Parts has recently been initiated thanks to an intense European activity. The 2KAN project has addressed all 4 new Parts (Part 8 JPSEC – Security, Part 9 – interactivity JPIP, Part 10 Floating Point and Volumetric Imaging, Part 11 JPWL – Wireless) in terms of requirements, typical applications, user interface, protocols and signalling, use of metadata and required algorithms. Each part has been addressed by a common technical management workpackage and by a specific workpackage creating a reference software and appropriate tests and evaluation. It will also add major enhancements to the public JPEG website (www.jpeg.org), with the twin goals of encouraging a European dimension to the site, and allowing it to become self-financed through sponsorship and specific commercial services. More information at the European Commission website here.

FP5 IST-2001-34144, MOSES, “MPEG Open Security for Embedded Systems” (2002-2004) MOSES expands and enhances multimedia contnet transactions in 3 ways: – standards compliance from OPIMA to emerging areas; – MPEG IPMP Extensions and DVB-CP; – IPMP functionalities in trials to include controlling, copying, moving, exporting and importing protected content in a fully-interconnected environment both peer-to-peer, and in the more classical client server; – supported platforms; – porting legacy secure infrastructures to devices other than PC, e.g. typical CE platforms. MOSES will deliver code as independent of platform and vendor as possible by use of open development suites such as Windows CE and DVB-MHP. This approach, recognising content provider and user needs, and validated in trials will ensure interoperable European content delivery. Objectives: The main objectives of the MOSES project are: 1) extending the OPIMA interfaces and architecture to achieve compliance with the most recent security standards, some of which are still in the making like MPEG IPMP Extensions and DVB-CPCM; 2) extending current business models to encompass operational scenarios where the full set of functionalities pertaining to IPMP systems is implemented and tested, including means for controlling copying, moving, exporting and importing protected content as well as the relevant business and service data; 3) porting this end-to-end MPEG-4 compliant secure infrastructure to devices other than the PC, addressing typical CE platforms based on open development suites, like WinCE and DVB-MHP and point out additional actions needed for subsequent full and successful commercial exploitation. The developed software/hardware aims also at representing a European test-bed where new pieces of technology specified by the main standardisation fora in the field of content protection can be assessed and a co-ordinated European input to standard bodies can be provided. More information at the European Comm...

After myocardial infarction (MI) part of the left ventricle (LV) myocardium is replaced by fibrotic scar tissue and LV regional mechanical properties become regionally different. In the evolution of MI the LV undergoes a remodelling process whereas the remaining functioning myocardium has to undertake the mechanical burden. In this process the LV either effectively compensates for the tissue loss or doesn’t and the LV dilates and clinical heart failure ensues. Current imaging techniques have been applied to the early post-myocardial infarct period, however the geometric analysis they allow don’t predict the future development of remodelling, i.e. some ventricular shapes enlarge while similar ventricles will not. Current approaches either don’t calculate the regional mechanical properties or use simplified geometric assumptions that become grossly inaccurate when there are regional differences (e.g. in ischemic cardiomyopathy).The aim DIE-HEART is to develop a 2D/3D echocardiographic technique (a low cost, non-invasive, non-radiative video technique) able to describe the left ventricle mechanical properties, including the stress/strain relations, the elasticity & mechanical work, applicable in clinical diagnosis & research and animal models. The application of the new methodology will be tested in its ability to detect and calculate the global and regional changes in the LV mechanical properties.

P5 IST-2000-25436 UNITE, “Ubiquitous and Integrated Teamwork Environment” (2000-2002) UNITE has produced research and development on co-operative workplaces and their creation from a unified co-operation platform. This platform is the key system component which provides the facilities for devices, components, and networks to fully interact, despite the possible original inherent heterogeneity, and which takes care that a uniform and ubiquitous view is presented to all team members regardless of their physical location. UNITE has addressed systems requirements and architecture for seamless integration of virtual and physical workplaces. UNITE has built on technology convergence among communication and collaboration media as well as different network technologies. It has exploited the ability of appliances to notify their existence and characteristics to the workplace environment.   More information at the European Commission website here.   Partners ISCTE COVENTRY UNIVERSITY FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. IBM ISRAEL – SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LTD PENTA SCOPE GROEP B.V. STERIA Financing This project was funded under FP5-IST.

P4 ESPRIT 22038 AITEAR, “Advanced IT Infrastructure for Acurate Response in the Extended Enterprise” (1996-1998) The objectives of this project are: o Specify and build up a prototype of an advanced information technology infrastructure that will support Quick and Accurate Response in consumable goods manufacturing industries; o Develop an Accurate Response (AR) manufacturing model; o Promote the benefits of adopting AR solutions among industry; o Devise ways of using information and communication technologies to improve manufacturing business performance by providing an enhanced and proactive response to customer demands; o Encourage and exploit the project results through running several workshops where benefits of adopting AR solutions may be presented; o Generate specific recommendations to decrease the overall cycle from about 66 weeks to about 40 in the textile-clothing chain. Textile and garment are key sectors to the European economy, presenting some desired characteristics for this project, namely high diversity of seasonal products with a short life cycle. Those sectors have been facing huge competitive pressures from non-European countries. These are already eroding the European manufacturers’ market share and ultimately may reduce the consumers’ base. Our proposal firmly sustains that the adoption of AR solutions by partnerships involving textile manufacturers, garment manufacturers and retailers has an important role in the answer that can be provided to face this competition. AR can even support pro-active strategies to beat competitors in their local markets, and to take advantage of export opportunities presented by an increasing world population. AR, an evolution of the Quick Response concept, is an important competitive strategy in an environment where business relations develop at a global dimension. It enables to consider the various competitive dimensions that go beyond time with a particular emphasis on the re-evaluation of business processe...

ICPME ICOMPLAS – “Improved COMmunication and Visualization in the PLAStic Mould Industry, Plataforma de Comunicação e de Visualização para a Indústria dos Moldes Plásticos” (1999-2001) Projeto nacional da iniciativa ICPME (Comparticipado pela U.E. com Fundos do F.E.D.E.R.) ligado a uma iniciativa Internacional homónima EUREKA No. 2073, cujo consórcio foi o seguinte: um Centro de Investigação de Lisboa (ADETTI), um fabricante da Marinha Grande (TECNIMOPLAS – Indústria Técnica de Moldes, Lda), uma agência de design industrial e uma instituição de I&D da Holanda (EDC, European Design Center) e uma universidade Espanhola (UIB, Universidade das Ilhas Baleares). O projeto ICOMPLAS identificou requisitos do utilizador e desenvolveu soluções, nomeadamente: Requisitos associados à análise e avaliação da cooperação ao nível do negócio. Requisitos para a melhoria da interação nas parcerias. Requisitos para capturar os erros que surgem durante a troca de dados do produto. A necessidade de simplificar a complexidade inerente ao processo e de reduzir o número de ciclos iterativos de correção de especificação/projeto, visando obter melhor qualidade no produto final. O ICOMPLAS desenvolveu uma aplicação telemática que oferece a funcionalidade, o nível de pormenor e a precisão necessárias para preencher os requisitos da indústria. Paralelamente foi também efetuada uma caracterização das práticas cooperação no sector, assim como a apresentação duma metodologia e respetivo apoio informático, para permitir o desenvolvimento, coordenação e avaliação de parcerias. Os resultados obtidos pelo consórcio, foram atingidos de acordo com o planeado. As opiniões recolhidas dos diversos intervenientes nesta indústria têm sido positivas, sendo as expectativas quanto à aplicação dos resultados obtidos neste projeto muito animadoras. ADETTI was the coordinator of this project.

  MAID –  Multimedia Assets for Industrial Design - TELEMATICS  N.º IE – 2101 (1996) Participação como coordenador por parte da ADETTI e líder de Pacote de Trabalho, tendo desenvolvido um protótipo de sistema de realidade virtual distribuída e multi-utilizador para PC sobre redes IP e assente na plataforma CSCW JESP, o sistema mWorld. Colaborou com a Oficina de Arquitectura no suporte técnico ao segundo projecto com a Câmara de Eindhoven, neste caso correpondendo ao Programa Base de um projecto de arquitectura: o desenvolvimento de um Centro Comercial e de Lazer em Eindhoven totalmente de raiz. Este projecto utilizou uma tecnologia similar ao do projecto Visinet, mas contou com o suporte aplicacional do sistema mWorld sobre PC, utilizando a rede Europeia RDIS e do sistema de audio-conferência MUNE Phone. Promoveu a instalação na ADETTI de um Centro de Apoio ao Design Industrial, bem como a Projectos de Arquitectura: um “Design Service Centre”.