A Collaborative ExperienceINTERACTIVE INSTITUTE

Gas turbines are extremely complex pieces of machinery designed to meet the highest demands, and advanced visualization technology is crucial to the development. Interactive Institute Swedish ICT has created an interactive visualization tool for Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery to support the entire turbine development process, saving both time and money.

Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery in Finspång produces world-class gas turbines with a high degree of efficiency and low emission levels. For the development of the new gas turbine SGT-750 the team at Siemens needed a new tool for interactive 3D visualization suitable for collaborative design reviews, team meetings and presentations.

Together with the Siemens team, Interactive Institute developed a visualization table solution that allows real time collaborative exploration of massive 3D models of the turbine. The CAD models are exported from Siemens’ system and presented on a 55” multi-touch system, allowing teams to explore the turbine using an intuitive user interface. The solution helps users to interact with the entire turbine, from the surrounding building down to the smallest bolt.

“It’s a fascinating experience for existing and potential customers to explore the design of a gas turbine in such depth, and to learn more about the turbine features and benefits in this interactive way”, says Madeleine Davidsson at Siemens Corporate Communications in Finspång.

Unlike most traditional 3D CAD systems, the interactive visualization system is very fast and responsive despite the enormous amount of data and detail. A fast system with a high user experience has proven to be vital for efficient collaborative sessions and impressive presentations. The solution also turned out to be a very efficient tool for marketing and is now being used for global marketing of the gas turbine segment by Siemens AG.

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Swedish-Brazilian Cooperation to Reduce Carbon Dioxide EmissionACREO

The EU has a climate target to reduce carbon emissions by 2020. One solution could be to store carbon dioxide in bedrock. Acreo Swedish ICT is part of a new Swedish-Brazilian consortium with a mission to develop the necessary measurement techniques.

The EU’s climate target puts carbon-intensive industries under pressure. They will not only have to reduce the amount of carbon in the air, but also develop techniques to handle the emission of this greenhouse gas. One possible solution would be to store the carbon dioxide under high pressure in bedrock. International experiments show that the method can work, but also that it places great demands on quality assurance and continuous measurement. This requires advanced measurement instruments that can withstand extreme environmental conditions.

Acreo Swedish ICT participates in a Swedish-Brazilian consortium to develop a system to monitor carbon layers, with special focus on pressure measurement and the measurement of carbon dioxide concentrations.

“It is particularly gratifying that three high-tech companies in Hälsingland are globally significant in environmental innovations” says Åsa Claesson, department manager at Acreo Fiber Optics and site manager in Hudiksvall.

The Swedish companies in the consortium complement each other greatly. Acreo has extensive experience in developing advanced and robust measurement techniques, SenseAir is a world leader in carbon dioxide sensors, and Fibertronix AB develops and produces optical fibers for demanding sensor applications, particularly in the energy sector.

“For SenseAir the project means that we can both customize our products to another exciting and demanding application, and that we may have access to a new market in Brazil,” says Hans Martin, research director at SenseAir.

In Brazil the system development is carried out at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in close collaboration with, among others, the Brazilian energy giant Petrobras. The funding comes from VINNOVA and the participating companies.

Information at the Touch of a LabelACREO

Just by touching a printed smart label, a smartphone can access and analyse information with the human body acting as a transmitter of that information. Behind this innovation are Ericsson, Acreo Swedish ICT and Linköping University.

The technology enabling use of the human body as a communication link opens up new opportunities to communicate with objects just by touching them. Information from the object is then passed on from mobile phones to Internet services for analysis and storage. A number of actions can be triggered and everyday objects can be connected to the Internet using the body and the mobile network.

Each printed label is equipped with an electronic part containing an identity, a printed antenna and a small printed battery that makes it possible to send data. By touching the label the information is sent through the body to a hypersensitive receiver, which is contained in the smartphone. No electric current passes through the body. The mobile phone has a receiver that reads the signal and sends the identity on to a suitable app within the phone, for further processing.

- If this technology is used for future packaging it would be possible to gain information on the quality of the content as well as the handling of the package. It´s really about getting information very easily, says Jan Hederén, R&D Ericsson.

The Connected paper has now been demonstrated successfully at both the Consumer Electronics Show and the Mobile World Conference and has attracted huge interest.

Linköping University has developed the transmitter and receiver circuits and Acreo Swedish ICT is responsible for the integrated printed label. The new technology was developed in a project funded within the VINNOVA program “Challenge-driven Innovation”. The aim of the project is to develop green communication by extending the capabilities of smart phones with the help of smart and dynamic labels, capable of collecting information.

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Business Model Innovation for Electric VehiclesVIKTORIA

Electric cars largely replacing internal combustion engine cars would contribute to the solution of several major social problems, such as oil dependency, local air pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases. But despite these effects being widely known, very few people chose to drive an electric car.

The aim of the project Business Model Innovation for Electric Vehicles (BeliEVe), has been to study how alternative business models can increase the interest in electric cars in Sweden. The project, which has been carried out in collaboration with Viktoria Swedish ICT and Ericsson AB, has developed four business model proposals that are all expected to promote electric cars onto the Swedish market much more efficiently than the traditional business model does.

Mats Williander, research manager of the application area Sustainable Business at Viktoria Swedish ICT, says that an explanation as to why so few electric cars are sold, is that car buyers are faced with a social dilemma; the short-term best choice for them personally is an internal combustion engine car. When the majority of car buyers make their choice based on what is best for them personally in the short term, the result is that the whole community is worse off.

- There are two ways to solve this problem. You can let the community reduce the social dilemma by using different control measures, and you can make the electric car more attractive using an alternative business model.

In the business models developed within the project, hassle-free access to a car is a common denominator. Interest in car ownership is decreasing and customers are becoming more interested in buying a service rather than a product.

One of the business models proposed by the project is a leasing chain for electric cars. The business model is based on the assumed lower overall cost of electric car ownership and eliminates uncertainty about the electric car’s residual value. The idea is that the electric car is leased out for several cycles to different customers, each with different preferences regarding their car’s condition and costs.

Through the partnership with Ericsson, the project has been able to ensure that there is a technical platform that supports the services that are deemed necessary for the business models to be successful when implemented.

Detecting Suspect Behavior at SeaSICS

SICS Swedish ICT has developed a new model combining existing approaches in order to detect ships behaving in a suspect manner. This will help authorities to prevent or mitigate accidents and detect illegal activities at sea.

The three-year SADV project concluded in 2013. It was a collaboration between SICS, Saab AB, the Swedish Coast Guard, the Swedish Customs Service, the Swedish Armed Forces, and the Swedish Space Corporation. The project has significantly expanded existing methods for anomaly detection within maritime surveillance, and shown that these methods can detect unusual situations.

There are essentially three different approaches to anomaly detection, and the result of the study is a hybrid of all three:

1. Statistical anomaly detection. Situations that are very unlikely to come from that model are considered anomalies.

2. Rule based anomaly detection, where rules are designed to detect situations of interest.

3. Model based (or simulator based) anomaly detection, where real observations are compared to simulated results. A difference indicates an anomaly.

SICS has evaluated the developed methods on real maritime data from The Baltic Sea, Skagerrak, Kattegat, and the North Sea.

Combining the three different types of anomaly detection into one framework was not an easy task, but the researchers have managed to design a general architecture that fits into several maritime surveillance platforms and, at the same time, is able to handle several anomaly detectors of different kinds.

The key to the architecture is to identify the information flows that are common to all surveillance platforms and for all kinds of anomaly detectors. The next step is to identify similarities between the different kinds of anomaly detectors. The indications from one anomaly detector can be fed into another, thus combining rule based and statistical detectors in more advanced ways, rather than just having them run in parallel within the same system.

People in Smart GridsSWEDISH ICT

Sweden has set ambitious goals for its energy and climate policy, which will place new demands on the grids. Sweden is well placed to become a pioneer in smart grids, and turn this into a growth industry. A project at Swedish ICT promoting this development is FlexibEL, which is all about household customers in future smart grids.

A smart grid can provide flexibility of the electricity systems and will contribute to more efficient and sustainable energy use. This is where the project FlexibEL comes in, to study how we can steer electricity consumption. The project manager is Cecilia Katzeff, research director at Interactive Institute Swedish ICT in Eskilstuna, and adjunct professor in sustainable interaction design at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology). After preliminary studies of household habits in electricity consumption the project group, consisting of designers and behavioral scientists, have created a design concept and built a prototype with the working title Natural time. The prototype provides the opportunity to study how households could steer their electricity consumption from congested times, when electricity is most expensive, to times when it costs less.

“We have created a prototype that will inspire discussion, and encourage people to think about doing something other than consume electricity. We want to stimulate different senses, and through sound and scent people should get a signal that it is time to do other things,” explains Cecilia Katzeff.

In 2013, Swedish ICT actively participated in the government's Coordination Council for Smart Grids. The Council will motivate, inform and plan the development of smart grids that contribute to increased customer influence and a more efficient and sustainable energy use.

Carin Torstensson, Business and Innovation Area Manager Smart Energy at Swedish ICT is part of the Coordination Council and Cecilia Katzeff is included in a reference group focusing on the consumer aspects of smart grids. The question is how smart grids should be designed for households in order to be more influential and manage the electrical system to fit their needs.

“A central issue for the Coordination Council investigative assignments is how smart grids and smart energy services can contribute to increased customer influence and active customers. In an area where the focus is heavily on technology and marketing functions, there is a need for the knowledge of the behavioral aspects that Cecilia and Swedish ICT provide,” says Karima Birch, committee secretary, specializing in the electricity market.

Photo: Jaan Lipka

Cecilia Katzeff, research director at Interactive Institute Eskilstuna and adjunct professor in sustainable interaction design at KTH.

Is the Connected Cyclist at Risk?VIKTORIA

Using electronic devices, such as bicycle computers, applications in smartphones, pulse watches and so forth while cycling, is becoming increasingly popular. Therefor a relevant question is whether these devices create visual distraction and lead to increased risk for the cyclist? This is what the project “The connected cyclist” has been investigating.

Different categories of cyclists use electronic devices for different purposes. The typical athlete, who uses their bicycle for exercise, generally uses electronic devices to support their training. Commuters on the other hand, who use their bicycles primarily as a means of transportation, often use electronic devices for listening to music for example thus improving their cycling experience.

Regardless of the purpose of use, accidents caused by the use of electronic devices can be found in statistics. During the period 2010-2012, a total of 27 364 bicycle accidents were reported in Sweden. 97 of these where in some way related to use of electronic devices.

The use of electronic devices may increase the risk of accidents in three different ways. First, it leads to a reduction of the ability to detect obstacles in the surrounding environment. Secondly, the physical handling of the bike is affected and finally, the ability to predict potential incidents is affected.

To be able to study the effects of visual distraction caused by interaction with electronic devices during cycling, the project developed a bicycle simulator. The simulator made it possible to record the behavior of a number of cyclists during their interaction with an electronic device. Their behavior when cycling without a device was also recorded and the difference in behaviors under the different circumstances could then be registered.

From the results of the study it can be concluded that the visual distraction caused by the use of electronic devices affects cyclists’ behavior in terms of alternated speed, however no significant difference in, for example, steering stability could be proven.

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Aerial Drones - Bridging the GapSICS

Aerial drones are formidable mobile computing platforms. They can move in an almost unconstrained manner to areas that cannot be reached by traditional devices. As drones become more affordable, they will be more widely used. SICS Swedish ICT is investigating ways to equip and program drones for different tasks.

As the cost of aerial drones drops, they are expected to play a role in bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds. This will enable currently unforeseen applications, such as pollution monitoring at high altitudes and autonomous last-mile deliveries.

SICS researchers are, for example, currently investigating how to equip aerial drones with service-oriented interfaces. These devices can be perceived as “mobile” web services providing sensory data that can later be input into standard online services at company back-ends or in the cloud. The ability to seamlessly blend aerial drones with the existing IT infrastructure will facilitate their large-scale adoption within industry and the public sector.

SICS is also researching ways to facilitate the programming of a fleet of drones. Custom programming abstractions will create the illusion that the drone fleet can be programmed as a single device, making the programming process far easier.

SICS is using drone technology to localize wireless sensor networks. Drones can be used as mobile anchor-points to localize stationary sensor nodes that are deployed over a given area.

Uppsala University, Colombo University, and SICS are starting a project on elephant monitoring in Sri Lanka. Drones will be used to monitor elephants with the aim of preventing them from entering villages and damaging crops.

The projects above are rendered concrete using actual prototypes that SICS is creating, utilizing commercially available drone technology. For instance, in Aquileia (Italy), the programming systems are helping archeologists to obtain aerial maps of a 32,000 m2 site

The Importance of Monitoring Lithium-Ion BatteriesACREO, VIKTORIA

Most of today's plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, as well as all-electric vehicles, use lithium-ion batteries. Thus the estimation of battery states is extremely important for safe, reliable and efficient use of these batteries. The challenge to efficiently measure the battery state has now been taken on in a new project called BatterySoC.

Energy storage systems, usually batteries, are essential for electric drive vehicles, such as hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and all-electric vehicles. Most of today's plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and all-electric vehicles use lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are also used in most portable consumer electronics such as cell phones and laptops because of their high energy per unit mass, high power-to-weight ratio, high energy efficiency, good high-temperature performance, and low self-discharge.

BatterySoC is a joint project between Viktoria Swedish ICT and Acreo Swedish ICT, with support from several representatives from the industry. The focus is on battery state estimation by direct measurement of the battery’s physical state of charge.

“Estimation of battery states is of very high importance for safe, reliable and efficient use of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles as well as other applications. So far such estimation has proven to be challenging”, says Niklas Legnedahl, specialist at Energy Storage Systems and Function at Volvo Powertrain Corporation, Drivelines & Hybrids.

The main object of the pre-study is to prove and verify the concept of estimating states of lithium-ion batteries with the aid of an electromagnetic sensor which measures the physical state of charge of a battery cell. The new sensing technique has been tested on different types of Li-ion batteries and the result so far is very promising. Our next objective is to plan and prepare for the main study, in which the concept will be demonstrated and evaluated.

Screening “On the Fly”ACREO

The aim of the new EU FP7 project, called TeraSCREEN, is to provide automatic detection and classification of body-borne threats for security screening. This will significantly improve the security, privacy, efficiency and experience at security checkpoints.

Security checks at borders must be both thorough and fast, as studies have shown that this is where the passenger’s stress is at a maximum. These problems are being addressed by Acreo Swedish ICT in a consortium of eleven partners, comprising research institutes, component and equipment developers and manufacturers, together with security and ethical specialists from six countries across Europe.

“The most promising improvement with TeraSCREEN - in terms of passenger experience, cost saving and hassle removal - is the possibility to screen the passenger “on the fly”. This will help us provide a new type of security checkpoint where the passenger will not be stopped - offering a high level of threat detection but a low level of unpleasant interference”, says Daniel Castagnet, Special Airport Systems Director, ADPI Designers & Planners.

The new technology will operate at several Terahertz frequencies in active and passive mode. The resulting multi-frequency, multi-mode images will be processed automatically in real-time to reveal the location of potentially harmful objects concealed on a person. Such automatic recognition of threats reduces the level of attention required from the operator. Privacy Enhancing Technologies will be used in such a way that the information will be displayed to the operator on a generic computerized silhouette. No anatomical details will be shown or saved. Terahertz radiation is non-ionizing, and reliable studies have shown that active operation in this frequency band is harmless to humans.

The project runs over the next three years and the TeraSCREEN Prototype System will be demonstrated at a live checkpoint. The feedback from the End-User and Advisory Board members will facilitate the conversion of the prototype into an innovative new security screening product.

eHealthSWEDISH ICT

Increased health care costs, an aging population and an increase in the already heavy burden on public health care providers - that is the reality facing us. One of the solutions may be "eHealth" - a term that encompasses all that technology can offer to aid in health care. This may involve sensors in the home, digital security alarms, rehab exercises via video games and much more.

Swedish ICT operates a number of projects in the field of health care services. In the project known as COPD, researchers have already carried out a number of successful demonstrations. The project brings together a range of stakeholders from research, industry and health care.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, is one of the major diseases with at least half a million sufferers in Sweden. The vast majority of sufferers live at home. Using advanced technology, they would receive better care in their own home, and a continuous monitoring of their health status will contribute to increased quality of life.

The vision is that a chronic sufferer would see an end to routine doctor visits and instead keep in touch via the Internet and mobile phone. Based on the patient's reports and collected health data, health care workers could follow the development of the disease. Per-Olof Sjöberg is head of the business and innovation division eHealth at Swedish ICT and the senior scientist at Swedish ICT. He stresses that this is an integration project that uses existing technology solutions and concentrates on developing the glue needed to create a cohesive solution.

“We have identified a new role - the care operator - who will become the spider in the web in the future. The care operator estimates the need for different measures, and may also be in touch with the relatives. Contacts with the health care system are facilitated and serious illnesses can be avoided thanks to a close dialogue,” says Per-Olof Sjöberg.

Michael Runold, chief physician at the pulmonary clinic at Karolinska University Hospital emphasizes that physical activity is more important than drugs for COPD patients. For many sufferers, it is difficult to get to a physical therapist. He is very pleased that the project proved to be a workable solution at a demonstration in October. Via a terminal in the home, the patient can carry out his training, and interact with others in a group. For instance, during the workout, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation in the blood as well as heart rate can be measured, and thus counteract any deterioration.

“The cooperation on this project has worked well and with excellent results. There are participants from many different areas - also from patient organizations, which is very good,” underscores Michael Runold.

Photo: Joel Höglund

In the picture: Demonstration of rehab exercise at home. Via a terminal in the home, the patient can carry out his training, and interact with others in the group, while physiological values can be measured.

Enabling Healthcare InnovationACREO

Through collaboration with Acreo Swedish ICT the new, small company Observe Medical AB launched its first product onto the market during 2013. SIPPI is a unique, single use, digital urine meter. The product is expected to capture a significant part of the market potential – about 15 million disposable units per year.

Kidney failure is a common problem in the ICU. The amount of urine produced is therefore an important parameter to control a patient's kidney function. So far, the measurement has been entirely manual at the risk of erroneous measurements and subsequent risk of miscalculations.

Observe Medical AB was founded in January 2009 to develop innovative medical technology products that benefit patients and healthcare professionals. The first product is a system for digital and automatic measurement of the amount of urine produced.

The company had a solution to their product idea, which they wanted to have evaluated and refined. Through collaboration with Acreo Swedish ICT the company obtained partial funding for a feasibility study. The pilot study carried out with Acreo Swedish ICT had two directions: to evaluate the desired capacitive measurement technology with regard to function and accuracy, and to evaluate the technique of using a siphon to empty the measuring chamber when it is full. The evaluation work was carried out both theoretically and practically, with the help of calculations, simulations and measurements.

"It was valuable for us to get our ideas confirmed and illuminated from a more theoretical point of view," says Mikael Löfgren, technical director, Observe Medical AB.

As a result of the pilot study, Observe Medical AB continued the development of the product. During 2012, the system was evaluated in near real conditions. After design changes and improvements the product was launched in Jun 2013.

Speeding up the InternetSICS

To date, researchers have focused on delivering capacity, i.e. bits, to increase broadband speed. To some extent this has led to faster response times, and this poses a problem for interactive services. A new research team is focusing on reducing the response time, also referred to as “latency”.

Latency in a system is the “waste of time” that occurs when part of the system is waiting for another part to finish its job, for example, the time between a click on a web link and when the new page is displayed. A new team comprising researchers from SICS Swedish ICT, Mälardalen University and Karlstad University will investigate solutions to reduce latency. The research team has five-year funding from the Knowledge Foundation (KKS).

Spotify and SICS have been cooperating on efficient media distribution for some time. SICS’ research on “information-centric networks” has resulted in a method for caching popular content in the networks to reduce download times.

“Response time is everything”, says Javier Ubillos, Product Manager for operational monitoring at Spotify. “Short response times are crucial for the quality of our product. This greatly affects the customer's attitude to the services.”

Mälardalen University works closely with ABB on real-time wireless communication on industrial automation, and these real-time communication systems are now moving to the Internet.

“New standards will be required in the future to effectively deploy time-critical applications over large geographic areas”, predicts Johan Åkerberg, Global Research Area Coordinator at ABB Corporate Research.

Karlstad University contributes with research on traffic management to handle congestion, together with BT, Alcatel-Lucent, and other stakeholders.

“We complement each other perfectly in addressing the challenge to reduce latency. Now, we have both the resources and the focus to do something about it,” says Bengt Ahlgren at SICS, who is leading the initiative.

Field-Trial for Tomorrow’s InternetACREO

Ever increasing traffic on the Internet creates congestion problems, which could be resolved by faster optical fibers. Acreo Swedish ICT and Transmode have taken us one step closer to a technological solution, with a successful transmission of 100 Gbit/s over a 1640 km installed optical fiber in Acreo National Testbed.

Mobile broadband and fiber access has led to a dramatic increase in traffic over the Internet and an increasing need for capacity in optical networks. We are facing a technology shift towards more intelligent and faster optical transmission systems in the so-called coherent systems. 100Gbit/s is now available commercially, as shown by the Acreo and Transmode experiments.

The Acreo National Testbed, ANT, is a meeting place for a wide spectrum of regional, national and international institutions and companies working with research and development of todays and tomorrows ICT products and services. In a successful field-trial a 100Gbit/s signal was transmitted over several already installed optical transmission systems in the Acreo National Testbed. The experiment demonstrates how it is possible to extend existing systems from several different manufacturers, with a 100 Gbit/s signal parallel to the existing traffic at 10 Gbit/s.

"A brilliant example of good cooperation between industry and research institutes. Acreo National Test Bed allows us to demonstrate and evaluate our technology under real conditions, in an environment of interoperable equipment from many manufacturers," says Sten Nordell, CTO at Transmode

In the experiments the optical signal was generated by one of Transmode's 100 Gbit/s line cards. The signal was then coupled to two optical transmission systems to a total length of 1640 km. These two systems, originally designed for transmission at lower bitrates, are installed on separate fibers. The experiment was performed both with and without optical dispersion compensation.

The field-trial was conducted as part of the research project COSYNET funded by Vinnova with Acreo Swedish ICT, KTH, Syntune, Skanova/TeliaSonera and Transmode as partners.

Cars Communicating With Each OtherSICS

In the future we will see cars communicating with each other using apps down-loaded into their computer systems. This is part of the Internet of Car research at SICS Swedish ICT. A radio control model car is being used to demonstrate the smarter cars of the future.

Volvo and SICS Swedish ICT are collaborating in a project to open the computer systems within cars for plug-in software. Apps could make the trip safer, more efficient and a lot more fun. The framework builds on Autosar, the leading automotive architecture standard, used in millions of cars.

Building on its expertise in the field of the Internet of Things, SICS is working on a vision of the Internet of Cars in which interaction between vehicles provides new services to drivers. The idea is to let vehicles exchange the information that they normally collect, for example the state of the road, traffic jams, the exact time of arrival.

The solution needs to be flexible, allowing for changing needs. The types of services will vary substantially, both geographically and over time; consequently, automotive software will need to be highly upgradable. It is also important that standard interfaces exist between the different vehicle models.

The demonstration platform being developed at SICS comprises a radio control (RC) model car equipped with single-board computers. Original Autosar-based software is extended with dynamic functionality, allowing information and control signals to be received and shared between vehicles.

The model car platform is built on the latest theoretical concepts developed at SICS. It provides an open-source hardware and software platform for research on the Internet of Cars infrastructure and applications. The current work is aimed at reaching an even more realistic Internet of Cars level. This includes equipping the model car with more sensors, developing challenging applications, and transferring the technology into real-world prototype vehicles.

Exploring Digital Literacy in Co-Creation with ChildrenINTERACTIVE INSTITUTE

Children’s interest in computer programming and digital creation proved to be much greater than expected when the course “Hackerklubben”, founded by Interactive Institute Swedish ICT in Gothenburg, opened registration before midsummer 2013. In less than one day the weekly club for children aged 8-12 was fully booked.

Code and programming are important tools in nearly every imaginable situation in a digital society. The aim of "Hackerklubben" is to make people and society richer through providing children with the opportunity of learning to code. The pedagogy at “Hackerklubben” is based on experiential learning, active participation and experimentation. Through playful and experimenting means children are encouraged to explore programming and digital creativity.In a workshop format projects are created out of their own wishes and capacity. It could be games and interactive media, but also physical programming of robots or other digital devices.

"Hackerklubben is a great example of just how many kids are interested in learning to code and build with technology,” says Jacob Möllstam, teacher from Partille.

"Hackerklubben" is one of the acitivities within Collaboratory, a participatory DIY environment for co-creation research and development located within Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg. Interactive Institute, Story Architects and Gothenburg Film Studios are the leading actors behind this next generation maker space, and the focus is on games, film and ICT, but also work with technological and social innovation.

Interactive Institute is actively involved in researching, developing and exploring open innovation practices, as well as innovation practices within the hacker- and maker scene. The vision is to develop Collaboratory to a unique and leading maker environment for participatory culture, playcentric expressions, communication architectures and innovation in Sweden, with global collaborations.

A Safer Traffic SystemVIKTORIA

Self-driving cars, or automated vehicles, are seen by many as the next step in technological development towards a safer and more efficient traffic system. In the i-GAME project Viktoria Swedish ICT takes part in arranging the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge 2016, an international competition designed to stimulate research and development within this strongly progressive area.

Today the majority of research on automated vehicles focuses on autonomous systems. Each car is acting by itself, depending solely on in-vehicle equipment such as radar and cameras. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) cooperation has, when used, been based on single vendor, single controller solutions or been solely for non-critical information such as weather warnings.

The i-GAME project takes automated vehicles to a new level by more actively combining existing in-vehicle safety systems with V2V communication for controlling the vehicle, enabling new safety solutions and more advanced traffic cooperation.

“We clearly see an increasing research focus in the area of automated mobility, improving areas such as traffic safety, environment and more efficient traffic flow,” explains Cristofer Englund, responsible for the application division Cooperative Systems at Viktoria Swedish ICT.

“i-GAME encourages research within the project framework as well as in adjacent areas such as HMI and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, with the aim of speeding up the deployment of automated and cooperative mobility,” he continues.

The program, which has its roots in the "Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge" (GCDC) conducted in 2011, will allow industry and research partners to collaborate on both a national and international level. The overall target is to create an international arena for the development and implementation of cooperative traffic systems.

“In 2011 three Swedish university teams, managed by Viktoria Swedish ICT, successfully entered the Grand Cooperative Driving Challenge (GCDC). From this point TNO and Viktoria have gradually built a strong and fruitful cooperation in the area of (connected) automated vehicles and we are now partners in the i-Game FP7 project. We look forward to a rewarding collaboration and our target is to arrange a successful GCDC competition in 2016,” says Bastiaan Krosse at TNO.

The i-GAME also plays an important role by supporting a multi-vendor approach where vehicles from different manufacturers can cooperate, based on a minimum set of common rules such as safety regulations and communication protocols.

"Watch the video!

'Ballade of Women' – an exploration of women's rightsINTERACTIVE INSTITUTE

The right to express one's opinions is a core value to any democratic society. Today, however, online threats and harassment intimidate many women off the Internet and into silence. In the summer of 2013, “Ballade of Women” – an interactive exhibition exploring perspectives on women’s rights – was shown in Siena, Italy, inviting the audience to confront and reflect on other people's opinions on social media and online forums.

'Ballade of women' allows the audience to, through the lens of the personal experiences of three historical female characters, explore three fundamental themes; emancipation, self-determination and violence. In the installation, representations of three paintings portraying such characters are fragmented and float in the space, as panels on which content is projected. This setting expresses how information we have about these characters has been fragmented by history, politics and the speed of our world.

The exhibition articulates around the concept of fragmentation. Images, information and people's points of view are fragmented in the installation. The installation “locks” on some of the people entering, allowing them to see, from three special points in the room, one complete painting for a very short amount of time. People can contribute to compose a harmonious picture of the complex world of women’s rights, by actually getting close to that world, represented by the installation itself, and by confronting the opinions of other people debating the theme worldwide.

The project 'Ballade of Women' responds to Interactive Institute Swedish ICT's intention to, through design, explore domains related to ethics, engagement and social innovation. The resulting installation, which consolidates a relationship between Interactive Institute Swedish ICT, the University of Siena and the Eindhoven University of Technology, was exhibited at the Fondazione Monte de' Paschi di Siena, between June 18th and July 2nd 2013.

Watch the video!

An ICT Breakthrough for the Papermaking IndustrySWEDISH ICT

Paper and pulp is one of Sweden's most important export products and is an important part of the Swedish economy. For the pulp and paper industry, it is important to offer higher quality while being able to reduce costs. Vasasensor offer a product - PressEyes Portable - which can help to do just that.

THE PRODUCT IS BASED ON sensor technology from Acreo Swedish ICT. Researchers at Acreo Sensor Systems (former Imego) had to wirelessly read off from thin pressure sensitive films without contact. This made it possible to measure the pressure in harsh environments where it previously had been impossible. The idea was transferred to the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship, where a couple of students evaluated and commercialized the technology under the name PressEyes. In 2004 the company Vasasensor was spun off.

“This was a technology that "sought" its use. We got into the process during the patent application phase. It has been incredibly exciting to be involved in the journey from early technology to implementation in production. It's also particularly fun to work with realization in a major industry,” explains Sophia Kocher - one of the former students and now CEO of Vasasensor.

In 2012 the first product - PressEyes Portable - was launched, and in 2013 it secured its first customers. The product measures the pressure profile between the rolls of the paper machines during operation, something the industry has attempted to achieve for a long time without success. This was a problem that could be solved with the new technology, which will mean big profits for the paper industry.

For the paper mills the new technology means that they have better control of dewatering in the press section of paper machines and thus can optimize the process. The measurements are made dynamically, under normal production conditions, which is a major difference from the technology used today when the measurements are static. This means that the paper mills can increase quality, increase production, reduce waste and increase the lifespan of the equipment.

Sophia Kocher, CEO Vasasensor

Alarms that Speak for ThemselvesINTERACTIVE INSTITUTE

Alarm signals in control rooms serve to alert operators to deviations from normal conditions. Often however, the alarms are positioned carelessly, using sounds that are annoying and confusing. In a recent research project, Interactive Institute Swedish ICT produced a groundbreaking solution to increase efficiency and improve the work environment for operators.

Paper producer/manufacturer Smurfit Kappa Kraftliner volunteered to be the test site when Interactive Institute wanted to try a new idea for auditory alarms in control rooms. Being aware of the stressful work environment in the control rooms, Smurfit Kappa Kraftliner saw an opportunity for positive change.

The challenge was to design sounds that guided the operators to the production section where an alarm is going off. The sounds should also convey the grade of priority without being perceived as irritating. In a user centered design process, Interactive Institute designed sounds that could be used to identify the different operating sections: a water drop represented the washing section, the sound of a hissing steam kettle the cooking process, and a breaking twig the wood chipping area.

After being thoroughly tested under real working conditions, the project was presented and evaluated. The response turned out to be extremely positive. The operators thought it was easy to identify the location of an alarm, and they also felt that the work environment was more pleasant and that they therefore could focus on problem solving.

“From a workplace safety point of view, it has been an incredible change for the better.”
Lars Jönsson, Smurfit Kappa Kraftliner

Smurfit Kappa Kraftliner has bought a first prototype, and Interactive Institute is now looking into ways of further developing the solution and commercializing the results.

The LJUDIT project is financed by: EU Structural funds, the County administrative board of Norrbotten, the municipalities of Piteå and Skellefteå and RISE.

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Improving Quality of Life for People with Neurological DiseasesACREO

A new sensor based device, for diagnosing and treatment of patients with neurodegenerative diseases, has been developed by Acreo Swedish ICT in cooperation with university hospitals. This technique will improve life for people suffering from epilepsy or Parkinson.

Approximately 80 000 Swedes suffer from epilepsy or Parkinson. It is challenging to diagnose and find the optimal treatment because of the lack of objective data on the movements or seizures of patients during their everyday life.

Acreo is developing systems based on accelerometers and gyros to analyze the movement from patients with neurodegenerative disease, such as epilepsy and Parkinson. In the future doctors will be able to make their diagnosis based on a large number of measurements taken during the patient’s daily life between visits to the hospital.

Sahlgrenska Academy and Acreo were assigned 500 000 SKR from Promobilia for the continued development of a motion sensor for the detection and logging of epileptic seizures. The measurements are made at the Sahlgrenska Hospital.

Acreo Swedish ICT is also collaborating with the Karolinska Institute in the diagnosis of Parkinson. The purpose is to develop a sensor system that can recognize the degree of Parkinson based on a specific test motion. The project has financing from Innovationskontoret Väst in order to validate the ideas.

The aim of future products is to give objective data on the patient´s movement and thus a much better base for the treatment. This will improve the process of finding the right treatment and thus reduce time and cost for health care and for the patients. The patients will also feel secure in the knowledge that objective data concerning their state of health is stored.

The motion sensor was presented and demonstrated for a larger audience at Digital Health Days in Stockholm, August 2013.

Ecofriendly Media DistributionACREO, SICS

How do users access media today, and how will they do it in the future? What aspects influence the performance of media distribution, and what can we do to ensure optimal performance and end user experience, especially since there are so many different actors involved in the distribution chain?

These questions, and several others have been dealt with in the challenge driven project EFRAIM, coordinated by Acreo Swedish ICT. 2013 was a very active year for the project and many good results were generated.

Video streaming services, such as SVT-play, are using so-called adaptive video streaming, which means that the quality of video is changing over time, based on the available bandwidth of the connection. To understand how users are experience this, experiments with end-users have been carried out.

“The results show that users seem to prefer a lower quality as long as it is constant, rather than a better quality which changes. Unless of course that constant quality is very low”, says Acreo’s Kjell Brunnström, project leader of EFRAIM.

NetInf is a new technological paradigm for delivery of content, which has been studied and developed by SICS and Ericsson for some time. A live video streaming Android application based on NetInf for TV4-play has successfully been implemented and demonstrated. Energy consumption of media delivery has also been investigated, particularly on whether the understanding of media consumption patterns can be used to reduce the energy consumption of the network. The results clearly indicate that under certain conditions such savings are possible.

Business models have also been investigated. The goal was to find and analyze the most important trends and their effect on the market regarding delivery of content. A specific area of interest has been the investigation of willingness to pay based on quality of service.

EFRAIM is partly funded by VINNOVA and will finish August 2014. Project partners are Acreo, SICS, LTH, Ericsson, SVT, TV4, TeliaSonera, Spotify, Qbrick and Peerialism.

Contributing to Clean Water for AllACREO

Access to clean water is one of the major global challenges for the future. Acreo Swedish ICT has been granted SEK 500 000 funding from VINNOVA for a feasibility study to establish a test bed for resource-efficient water management. SENSABILITY is the present name for the new test bed.

In 2020 the majority of the world's population will live in areas with water shortage. But the fundamental questions of resource management and water quality are not limited to areas with a shortage of water. In areas with good access to water it is expected that increasing heavy rainfalls will contribute to flooding, which in turn will increase the spread of infection and contamination of the water.

Water management in Sweden is currently a field in which there are a large number of smaller players with the potential to grow, and where multidisciplinary collaboration could lead to new solutions. A test bed would strengthen this development since many of these smaller players need support to be able to grow, develop their products and embrace new solutions.

“For us at Cerlic - a company that develops, produces and sells measuring sensors for water purification – it would be very useful to have access to a test bed, where we can verify that our products work, and also meet user requirements for accessibility and function, "says Pär-Håkan Bergström, Founder and Senior Advisor at Cerlic Controls AB.

The feasibility study will build on the consortium in the Challenge driven innovation project SENSATION that was started in late 2012. Partners from water-intensive industries, drinking water operators, producers of technology, technical developers and scientific advisors will formulate a plan for the test bed. The feasibility study will result in a plan with demand and requirement specifications, partnerships, a test case or demonstrator and a clear development strategy for the test bed with a budget, before going into a full-scale B project.

At the Forefront of Process Industrial IT and AutomationSICS

SICS Swedish ICT Västerås has been assigned to host the program office for a new Strategic Innovation Area of Sweden: Process Industrial IT and Automation. Collaborating with the automation industry in the region and Mälardalen University, the plan is to develop this strategic area for the nation.

Sweden is at the forefront of research in the area of process industrial IT and automation. Swedish companies excel at developing, delivering, integrating and using automation technology. The Swedish government sees this as an opportunity to enhance the competitiveness of Sweden, and has acknowledged industrial automation as one of the five new strategic innovation areas for the nation.

SICS Västerås, with its close ties to Mälardalen University and the automation industry in the Mälardalen region, has been appointed to host the program office. The quarter of a billion MSEK program will encourage additional, better and more efficient projects in research, development and innovation for the entire industry.

Three Examples

Safety first!

New demands for functional safety and security in the process industrial IT and automation industries.

Focus on functional safety and security to ensure that automation systems behave as intended and are not tampered with.

Industry partners: ABB, Boliden and Volvo CE

Business Models

New business models are part of the third wave of automation.

When industrial control systems come online and big data can be analyzed in detail, the third wave of automation will have arrived. New business ideas will be needed to match the technical solutions.

Automation for Construction Vehicles

Integration of construction vehicles into production will greatly improve process efficiency.

The project will propose architectures for management and remote monitoring services for systems with integrated construction vehicles.

Industry partners: Komatsu Forest, Boliden, LKAB, ABB, Ericsson, and Volvo CE.

In the image: Helena Jerregård, CEO SICS Västerås.

Recycling Rare Earth Materials will Save Energy and CostACREO

Several rare earth materials are critical components in modern electronics. A new EU-project is aiming to develop innovative solutions for recycling these rare earth materials, thus providing large energy savings and reducing both production costs and the environmental impact. Acreo Swedish ICT is one of the partners.

The lack of rare, industrial critical metals has been a topic of discussion for many years. Limited and expensive supply has hindered the European electronics and energy industries, so to overcome this problem a consortium was formed. REMANENCE is the name of the EU research program aimed at dramatically increasing the amount of rare earth materials recovered and remanufactured from existing waste streams. The focus is on recycling Neodymium magnets as these contain critical material such as Neodymium, Iron and Boron. Neodymium magnets are used in many products including hard drives, speakers, cell phones, electric motors and generators in wind turbines.

- Our aim is to develop the innovative technologies, business models and market information required to exploit this valuable resource, reducing dependency on primary sources. Advanced sensing and mechanical separation techniques will be developed in combination with innovative processes to recover the rare earth magnets, says Jakob Blomgren, project leader at Acreo Swedish ICT.

REMANENCE brings together European industry and academia across the supply chain; sensing, disassembly, recycling technology and material processing in a multi-disciplinary project. The consortium consists of C-Tech Innovation Ltd, Acreo Swedish ICT, The University of Birmingham, Stena Technoworld AB, Leitat Technological Centre, OptiSort AB, Chalmers Industriteknik, Magneti Ljubljana and Kolektor magnet Technology GmbH. The consortium is led by C-Tech Innovation Ltd. REMANENCE is funded by FP7, the Seventh European Framework Programme for research and technological development, and is expected to run until mid-2016.

Sea Traffic ManagementVIKTORIA

The number of ships along our coasts is increasing steadily. At the same time demands for efficiency and profitability within the maritime sector are very high. To be able to meet the demands and still be able to fulfill expectations on safety and minimal environmental impact, studious planning and coordination of sea traffic will be necessary.

Up until now the maritime industry has not had a common traffic and information management system of the type used by the airline industry. Every ship has to manually collect and monitor data and information that can influence its route, and only the ship knows the details of its own route. Maintaining an overview of the surrounding world induces a considerable administrative burden for the crew. The procedure also leaves a lot of room for human error, which might result in fatal consequences.

Within the MonaLisa 2.0 project, a common system for sharing information within the maritime industry is being developed. The system is intended to enable all actors in the maritime transport chain, on sea as well as on shore, to share detailed information with each other. The aim is for improved operations, higher efficiency, increased safety and less environmental impact. The project is funded by the European TEN-T program and is coordinated by the Swedish maritime administration. Viktoria Swedish ICT is responsible for one of the work packages of the project.

“The vision is to shake up and sharpen the whole transport chain by making real-time information available to all interested and authorized parties. It is called Sea Traffic Management (STM) and it will change the maritime world. It is like introducing the Smartphone, at first no one really knows what they need it for, and then they cannot live without it,” says Magnus Sundström, at the Swedish Maritime Administration, project manager for the MonaLisa 2.0 project.

A sea traffic management system enables optimization of both routes and times for arrival at the port. Shorter routes and speed adapted to match availability of port services will contribute to saving time, money, and the environment. The environment can also benefit from Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas being avoided with proper route planning.

The system developed will be inspired by Air Traffic Management and adopted and scaled to suit the maritime sector, an approach that is likely to reduce the time required to set a new worldwide standard.

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Simulating Electrified RoadsVIKTORIA

A simulator is flexible, safe and cost effective, and thus the perfect tool for studying concepts and technologies that are not yet available. During 2014 Viktoria Swedish ICT, in cooperation with VTI (the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute), will use a new simulator to demonstrate and evaluate different concepts for transferring electricity to a moving vehicle. A solution to this challenge is considered crucial if we are to enable the major part of our future fleet to run on electricity.

In the project, models for electrified roads, electric vehicles, payment systems and driver assistance systems will be developed. The technological alternatives under consideration have both advantages and disadvantages in regard to capacity, safety, and aesthetics. By modeling the different solutions in a driving simulator, interaction between infrastructure, vehicles and drivers can be studied.

The focus of the project is mainly on users and on the system’s ability to save energy. The researchers will study drivers’ experience and acceptance of electrification. Since the position of the vehicle on the road is important for the electricity transfer to operate as intended, user studies will also test drivers’ ability to keep this position. Another important aspect is to study how electrification of roads can be integrated into the physical environment, taking both safety and aesthetical factors into account.

- As a first step, we will create a virtual demonstration environment. In the simulator, drivers can experience what it's like to drive on electrified roads and we can study their behavior, says Arne Nåbo Project Manager at VTI.

The demonstration environment will provide both a meeting and a working place for organizations that are active within the area of electrified transports. Another goal is to position Sweden as a pioneer in the use of model-based development and real-time simulation in the early stages, strengthening Swedish competitiveness.

- Demonstrations in a simulator are very efficient when promoting new transportation solutions. In a second stage of the project we will run demonstrations for funders, stakeholders and media in order to spread knowledge and experience of the concepts, says Conny Börjesson, researcher at Viktoria Swedish ICT, and Arne Nåbo.

Stockholm Royal Seaport - the smart city districtINTERACTIVE INSTITUTE

Stockholm Royal Seaport is one of Europe's biggest city development projects and a future home for many Stockholmers. It will be fully developed around 2025. Together with 17 partners, Interactive Institute Swedish ICT is developing solutions for increasing awareness of “green behavior” in Stockholm Royal Seaport, with the vision of creating one of the world's most sustainable city districts by using real time data.

One of the targets set for the average Royal Seaporter is a maximum of 1,5 tons CO2 per person per year. This reduces by almost half that of the average Stockholmer. To be able to reach that goal, technology alone will not be enough. Change of behavior will play a major role.

The objective for this research is to build an information platform based on environmental data connected to the city, by giving its citizens the possibility to easily make sustainable decisions. This information platform gives the user the right information at the right time, and in the right place - something that until today has not been technically possible.

One challenge is to design an information environment that openly and interactively presents this type of information in a way that awakens the users engagement. The project integrates real time data with mobile online-feedback through Augmented Reality, as a method for increasing the awareness of “green behavior” as well as encouraging sustainable actions. The result will be a smart and sustainable community in which decisions can be made by individuals, businesses and community stakeholders in an effective manner, based on easily accessible, relevant real time data.

Partners & funding
Partners include City of Stockholm, Interactive Institute Swedish ICT, IBM, KTH, Fortum, Viktoria Swedish ICT, JM, ByggVesta, HSB, NCC, Envac, Stockholm Vatten, Ericsson, SABO and Stockholm University. The Smart City SRS project is funded partly through the VINNOVA program Challenge-driven innovation.

The Car that Drives ItselfSWEDISH ICT

In a not too distant future we will see cars that drive themselves on our roads. These will be smart vehicle systems that can detect and are guided by information on such things as roads, traffic, accessibility and weather. Swedish ICT is actively persuing multiple projects in this hot field.

Automated vehicles are an area of great interest to industry, public authorities and researchers worldwide. Google's activities with self-driving cars have created significant media interest. Swedish actors operate a series of projects in the field and Swedish ICT is involved in several of these, in cooperation with car manufacturers among others. Kent Eric Long is Business and Innovation Area Manager for Sustainable Mobility at Swedish ICT and also the Vice President of Victoria Institute Swedish ICT

“Our projects link in different ways to sustainable mobility. We want transports to be safer, more energy efficient and improve the use of the infrastructure,” explains Kent Eric Long.

The project MODAS in collaboration with Scania, is about the interface between the vehicle and the driver, i.e. the design of a safe and good driver environment in automated vehicles. In the project FRESTA together with Volvo Group and Volvo Cars the focus is on opening up the car's existing electronic systems in order to download apps. The EU project iGame is about creating jobs and growth, as well as saving energy and enhancing security.

“We want to challenge Google on autonomous vehicles, but we want to do it by taking one step at a time and automating more and more functions in the car. We see the car as part of a connected transportation system in which cars will also be able to talk to each other,” explains Kent Eric Long.

The area is broad and includes everything from sensors to the "Big Data" and driver interaction, as well as acceptance from the public. Here, Swedish ICT bridge between basic research and industrial application. Swedish ICT also contributes to the acclaimed Swedish project Drive Me that will result in 100 self-driving Volvo cars on public roads in Gothenburg by 2017. The ambition is for Sweden and Volvo to become a leader in sustainable mobility.

“Intelligent cars are part of the overall solution, but a broad approach is necessary to create a sustainable personal mobility in the future. We believe that this cross-functional collaboration can provide a boost to the development,” says Erik Coelingh, Technical Specialist at Volvo Car Group.

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The Next Generation of Sport ApplicationsSICS, INTERACTIVE INSTITUTE

WEMEMOVE is a new and exciting spin-off from SICS Swedish ICT and Interactive Institute Swedish ICT, heading for a global sports market expected to be worth 145 billion US dollars by 2015.

The sports industry is quite large in Sweden with an annual turnover of 80 billion SEK. However, despite our interest in sport and wellbeing, we export very few sport-oriented products and services.

WEMEMOVE works with motion analysis within sports and wellbeing and is launching its first product "mySKILAB” – a digital ski-coach. Behind the scenes is a dream team comprising the world’s most experienced sports researchers in biomechanics and physiology, the foremost experts in advanced mathematical modeling, together with Swedish elite skiers. “We have extremely good partners and we work with the most talented individuals in sports – skiers, trainers and researchers,” says Magnus Jonsson, CEO of WEMEMOVE.

WEMEMOVE was created in 2013 as a spin-off from the “Internet of Sports” project at SICS and Interactive Institute. The company has developed a motion classification engine that answers the questions “What are you doing?” and “How are you doing it?” The service uses the latest technology and findings in machine learning, big data analytics, user experience and interaction design.

In mySKILAB the classification engine is used to identify the different techniques used by skiers, and generate innovative metrics that describe their performance. The machine learning algorithms classify the techniques and make it possible to quantify the movements.mySKILAB uses just one sensor, either a smart-phone or an HR-chest belt, together with the application that registers and provides information on how the skiers move. The sensor data is processed in “the cloud” using advanced algorithms, and immediately sent back to the skier or trainer in the form of useful, comprehensible information thus optimizing training.

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