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Record Control Number: 55030

Quality Validation Date: 2001-05-08

Update Date: 2001-11-05

Project Acronym: TOURBOT

Title: Interactive Museum Tele-presence Through Robotic Avatars

Subject Index : Information, Media; Information Processing, Information Systems; Social Aspects

Objective: The current project aims at the development of an interactive tour-guide robot (TOURBOT) able to provide individual access to museums' exhibits and cultural heritage over the Internet. TOURBOT operates as the user's avatar in the museum by accepting commands over the web that directs it to move in its workspace and visit specific exhibits. The imaged scene is communicated over the Internet to the user. As a result the user enjoys personalized telepresence in the museum, being able to choose the exhibits to visit, as well as the preferred viewing conditions. At the same time TOURBOT will be able to guide on-site museum visitors. TOURBOT has several advantages for both the museum visitor and the museum itself.

More specifically, the objectives of the project are the following:
(1) develop a robotic avatar with advanced navigation capabilities that will be able to move (semi)autonomously in the museum's premises,
(2) develop appropriate web interfaces to the robotic avatar that will realize distant-user's telepresence, i.e. facilitate scene observation through the avatar's eyes,
(3) facilitate personalized and realistic observation of the museum exhibits, and
(4) enable on-site, interactive museum tour-guides.

Work description:
The execution of the TOURBOT project will proceed in nine concrete steps:
(1) Management; technical and administrative project management that will ensure the smooth cooperation of project partners towards the achievement of the goals of the project.
(2) Dissemination and Implementation; compilation of early dissemination and exploitation plans and end-of project provision of actual achievements in dissemination and realistic exploitation possibilities.
(3) Application specification; definition of application requirements from a technological and user's point of view.
(4) Site information; investigation of technological issues regarding the internal robot representation of its workspace and construction of the maps and information repositories of the two museums.
(5) Hardware configuration; development of the mobile robotic platform, the base workstation for off-board processing and the communication modules for their interconnection.
(6) Avatar navigation; development of the navigational capabilities required by the robotic avatar.
(7) Interfaces; development of web and on-board interfaces that will enable distant and on-site users to be guided by the robot in the museum premises.
(8) Integration; hardware and software integration of the developed modules that will result in a fully operational system (TOURBOT); extensive laboratory experimentation.
(9) Assessment and Evaluation; Validation of the TOURBOT system in real-world conditions (i.e. museum premises) and assessment of its performance.

Milestones:
The expected result of this project is the development of an interactive tour-guide robot (TOURBOT), able to provide individual access to the exhibits of a museum over the internet.
The project milestones are:
M1 (month 6): Release of Dissemination and Use Plan; Application specification completed.
M2 (month 15): Hardware and software modules developed, multimedia site information acquired.
M3 (month 20): System integration completed.
M4 (month 24): System validated and assessed, end of project.

Start Date: 2000-01-01

End Date: 2001-12-31

Duration: 24 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 1.72 million euro

Project Funding: 1.09 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Interactive publishing, digital content and cultural heritage - Access to scientific and cultural heritage

Project Reference: IST-1999-12643

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

Project URL: http://www.ics.forth.gr/tourbot

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Record Control Number: 55065

Quality Validation Date: 2001-09-01

Update Date: 2001-11-15

Project Acronym: ETB

Title: The European Schools Treasury Browser

Subject Index : Information, Media; Information Processing, Information Systems; Social Aspects

Other Indexes: JRC - IPSC

Objective: To build a Web educational resource Metadata Networking infrastructure for schools in Europe, to link together existing national
repositories, encourage new publication, and provide a reliable level of quality and structure. To add value to these systems by an interoperable layer to help teachers and students locate resources Europe-wide through a Schoolnet Information Space with rules to facilitate location of relevant resources. The user wants access to all data repositories, whatever indexing method is used. The user should only obtain all the most relevant resources for his own information needs. This rich information space can become a vast source of educational material classified according to subject and resource type for use by teachers in preparing e-lessons, and by students for reference and research, or guidelines and best practice. To reduce heterogeneity by harmonisation and measures for multilinguality.

Work description:
Architecture Elements: The key to success will be the ease of use of tools for publishing resources in the information space and for locating relevant information in that space. It is paramount that the development take into account existing national systems and technical infrastructures available within the schools. It is therefore assumed that material is published at the schools or through national or regional repositories. It is the metadata describing the resources, and the multilingual subject classification and thesaurus that underlie the proposed European Treasury Browser system. At the technical level the planned components are as follows.
1) A Web enabled multilingual educational subject classification and thesaurus to aid accessing and providing content.
2) An intelligent data-entry system for the end-user including a metadata authoring tool with gateways to existing metadata systems, and a quality assurance procedure
3) A dynamic metadata network to allow the flow of information across the nternet.
4) A metadata registry with an intuitive search interface (client).
5) A full set of measures of harmonisation and normalisation addressing different layers:
1) A harmonisation policy based on the surveys and discussed in the Ministries of Education fora.
2) A set of tools to HELP UPGRADE systems, so that they start to be searchable under the same fields, students and teachers start to use the same classifications, etc. Agreed sets of metadata according to application, common vocabularies, thesari.
3) To guarantee the exchange of data (projects, products, best practice) based on quality selection criteria and through a distributed system, whereby it is possible for each country and project, to contribute to a general design, still retaining the general search function.
4) To develop a number of general horizontal tools (thesaurus, etc.). Goals of supporting multi-linguality and reducing heterogeneity.

Milestones:
Metadata toolkit:
M 6: Phase 1 of the metadata platform.
M 14: Metadata encoder and parser tools,
M 24: Integration metadata tools with transport layers,5LM 30: Updated version of system.

Metadata Networking Infrastructure:
M 6: Phase 1 of the platform. Based on existing resources.
M 18: The full tree will be operational.
Month 24: The result of a full-scale evaluation.
M 30: Updated version of system. Metadata Registry, Search Client: + 1 y Phase 1 software Operational, M 18 Phase 2 software.

Start Date: 2000-02-01

End Date: 2002-03-31

Duration: 26 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 2.71 million euro

Project Funding: 1.80 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Interactive publishing, digital content and cultural heritage - Content management and personalisation

Project Reference: IST-1999-11781

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

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Record Control Number: 55069

Quality Validation Date: 2001-05-08

Update Date: 2001-11-05

Project Acronym: BUSINESS ARCHITECT

Title: Business Architect

Subject Index : Economic Aspects; Information Processing, Information Systems; Innovation, Technology Transfer; Telecommunications

Objective: We anticipate a change from the industrial economy to an entrepreneurial economy along with the information society. New business development will become a primer source for value creation through spontaneous reconfiguration of self-organised networks of independent business units co-operating on a temporary basis to exploit opportunities. Our experience shows that the essential success factor of such virtual enterprises is the existence of at least one partner who takes the lead in formulating and communicating the opportunity, looking for partners, and facilitating strategy building and operational planning. We refer to this role as Business Architect, who is the motor of the network's dynamics. So far little systematic knowledge, methods and hardly any tools are available to turn Business Architect in a veritable profession. This lack of methods and tools constitutes the core problem addressed by this proposal.

Objectives:
To develop a high quality service for new business development, the Business Architect service. Following both, our own experience and literature, the lack of Business Architect services is a limiting factor to business growth, and in turn wealth and job creation. This service is key to further exploitation of dynamic network organisations throughout European industry. We propose to exploit Europe's tradition of highly innovative and dynamic SMEs in regions and industrial districts as the source of sustainable global competitive advantage. Historical examples show that the Business Architect project is the first to systematically address this business practice. Access to Business Architect will be the source of sustainable competitive advantage for and dynamic business network. We expect these services to become a growing market for the exploitation of the planned results and tools.

Work description:
Three complementary and intertwined lines will be followed to achieve the project objectives:
Technical and methodological line, to achieve the project's objectives with development activities for an integrated method and a supporting Internet based information tool.
Individual and organisational line, to achieve the project's objective of user friendly solutions with evaluation and assessment activities both on the individual level and as feasibility studies of organisational roles for industrial application.
Social and economic line, to achieve the project's objectives to turn the Business Architect into generally accepted code of practice, and with It to reduce anxiety and uncertainty about business innovation among the involved individuals and organisations. This will contribute to an Innovation culture in Europe.
The major innovation of the project is the aggregation of fragmented research on dynamic change to empower management of new business Development. Three relevant research streams are brought together for this project. First, research on innovation management has developed insights about the lifecycle of technologies, products and their markets. Second, innovation management has been adopted (prominently by two partners of this consortium) for the development of methods and tools to manage temporary virtual organisations. Third, the core technology of reasoning about the new business development process. System development theories have been widely applied in engineering or social studies.
Applications in management science have proven to deliver personalised access to fragmented content and distributed knowledge for decision makers. However, their application so far is confined to scientific laboratories (e.g. learning organisations Senge MIT) which is explainable by the abstract and difficult modelling.

Start Date: 2000-01-01

End Date: 2002-06-30

Duration: 30 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 3.92 million euro

Project Funding: 2.20 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Flexible, mobile and remote working methods and tools - Dynamic networked organisations

Project Reference: IST-1999-10878

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

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Record Control Number: 56771

Quality Validation Date: 2001-06-22

Update Date: 2001-11-05

Project Acronym: CINTRANET

Title: Using Intranet Technologies To Support Continuous Improvement In SME's

Subject Index : Economic Aspects; Information Processing, Information Systems; Innovation, Technology Transfer; Telecommunications

Objective: CIntranet will support company-wide continuous improvement (CI) in small and medium size companies. The project aims to provide a practical software system with embedded methodology to support company-wide application, coordination, monitoring and measurement improvement activities in SMEs. By using this software system the project aims to improve the major business performance indicators (cost, product and delivery reliability, speed) in the participating companies by at least 10 per cent in the first six months from the implementation of the CIntranet results. Another aim is to encourage a continuous improvement culture in smaller companies by providing the assistance they need for a self-help approach to continuous improvement. An indirect benefit will also be the support for the improvement of the competencies of the SME personnel.

Objectives:
.To examine the needs (and obstacles) concerning the improvement of the performance of the European SME companies through the company-wide application of CI activities.
.To develop a practical methodology to support company-wide CI (vertical and horizontal) in SMEs. The key of the methodology is its contribution to the gradual improvement of bottom-up communication (reporting of the contribution of CI to company performance) and horizontal communication (dissemination of CI experiences and results), in addition to top-down communication on company strategy and improvement goals. The methodology will be embedded into an intranet-based software system that assists the company-wide alignment, co-ordination and dissemination of CI experiences and results in SMEs.
.To use the CIntranet software system to increase and show the contribution of CI to the significant improvement (> 10%) of major business performance indicators in the participating SMEs (cost, product quality, delivery reliability and/or speed, depending or their specific needs) within six months of the implementation of the CIntranet results.
.To exploit and disseminate, using this evidence, the CIntranet software system.

The CIntranet results will be disseminated through:
User Interest Groups in Greece and The Netherlands.
Workshops (two in each country) with the participation of local SMEs.
The World Wide Web facility.
Exhibitions.
Associations.
Papers.

Work description:
The project will make use of methodologies for Continuous Improvement and state-of-the-art ICT tools to develop a practical software system with embedded methodology to support the company-wide application of CI activities in SMEs.

Selected results from two other European projects, namely EuroCINet and CUTE will be assessed in terms of their potential contribution to the CIntranet project. The ESPRIT project CUTE (EP-25123) has produced a top-down approach to the implementation of CI, supported by a software system. The CUTE methodology has been shown to be very useful during the initial attempts of companies to learn about CI and become a mature CI company and will therefore be incorporated in the CIntranet tool, possibly in an adapted form. CUTE does not support the bottom-up nor the horizontal communication required to disseminate CI experiences and results. CIntranet is aimed at filling this gap. Furthermore, CUTE and also the EuroCINet (European Continuous Improvement Network; EU-1222) have produced surveys on the current situation of CI in industrial companies and on their needs in terms of CI support. Having already unambiguously shown the need for vertical and horizontal alignment, co-ordination and dissemination, the results of these surveys will be very useful for the successful design of the CIntranet system.

In parallel, the users and user groups will be asked for their requirements in terms of CI and ICT support for company-wide CI. A European survey (with assistance from the EuroCINet) will be used to check whether these requirements are more generally valid for European SMEs. The full specification for the CIntranet requirements will be generated by the SME proposers, and the RTD performers will transform this in a methodology, which is then validated by the users and the user groups. The methodology will be embedded within the software system and the first prototype produced. This software system will then be fully validated by the users (earlier versions will have been briefly tested and validated). The results of the project will be widely disseminated using intermediary bodies, workshops and the Internet, and commercialised in the form of an off-the-shelf application.

Start Date: 2001-01-01

End Date: 2002-06-30

Duration: 18 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 662624.00 euro

Project Funding: 328000.00 euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Flexible, mobile and remote working methods and tools - Dynamic networked organisations

Project Reference: IST-1999-55011

Contract Type: CRS (Cooperative research contracts)

Project URL: http://www.i2s.gr/cintranet/cintranet.html

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Record Control Number: 56849

Quality Validation Date: 2001-06-22

Update Date: 2001-11-05

Project Acronym: GUIDEFREE

Title: Guide by Telematics to Enable Tourist Freedom at Sites

Subject Index : Economic Aspects; Information Processing, Information Systems; Transport

Objective: GUIDEFREE seeks to bring customised site information to the independent tourist traveller, every time and at every location, focusing on visits of tourist sites. The user will access the information prior to or during a trip, at any geographical location, to receive immediate description of a site during a visit or decide on a total tourist visit-mobility schedule, i.e., how and when to visit a site and each station/exhibit, or not to visit at all. By supporting intelligent searching and integration of information from different sources, the project maximises individual freedom, increases the effectiveness of all types of tourist visits, promote rationalisation of tourist travel, and allows the reduction of negative effects from structured guidance or lack of information on tourist freedom.

Objectives:
The objectives of GUIDEFREE are to:
- integrate tourism, access, geographical, multimedia and other data for use by tourists prior to and during visits at sites,
- adjust and transform the integrated data to suitable format for flexible use by tourists,
- assist tourists in using the integrated data,
- develop customised data mining methods to aid searching by tourists at sites, and
- test and assess the new interactive methods on site, based on mobile and fixed access.

Work description:
The project will develop and test off-line or on-line:
- Integrated databases for use prior to and during site visits by tourists, to improve the effectiveness of tourist information and management systems as indicated by the richness of the project archive and other tourist measures of performance.
- Improved customised data mining methods to aid searching by tourists at sites.
- Integration of tourist information and management strategies, which, aided by personalised support methods that allow service interaction, could lead to more-extended, operational integration of tourist services.
- Interoperable components to be adapted to an evolving federation of interconnected services. Such components will be integral parts of services of specific scope in content and quality, and will lead to increased potential for commercialisation.
The project will assess its product at four sites, two in Greece, one in Italy, and one in Austria.

Milestones:
The project will develop data integration disciplines, data transformation schemes, methods for guiding users in the use of the integrated data, customised data mining methods, and mobile-access and fixed-access methods for integrating the new personalised, interactive services for advanced tourist information and management. Further, the project will develop the open architecture that includes the above methods and tools, design a prototype, and conduct testing and evaluation of the prototype with off-line and on-line field data. Preliminary results, including preliminary versions of the testing method and the prototype under development, will be available at the end of the first year of the project.

Start Date: 2000-10-01

End Date: 2002-03-31

Duration: 18 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 2.05 million euro

Project Funding: 1.10 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Transport and tourism - Systems and services for tourism

Project Reference: IST-1999-21055

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

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Record Control Number: 57839

Quality Validation Date: 2001-09-13

Update Date: 2001-11-05

Project Acronym: MUVII

Title: Multi User Virtual Interactive Interface

Subject Index : Information Processing, Information Systems; Innovation, Technology Transfer; Social Aspects

Objective: The project objectives is to develop on one hand new Man-Machine-Interface Devices featuring haptic feedback, the Haptic-3D-Interface, and in the other hand two prototypes of innovative integrated products using these devices: the Immersive-Theatre and the Interactive-Kiosk.

The MUVII project addresses the provision of intuitive ways to capture, deliver and interact with systems. It includes the development and integration of advanced sensor, actuator and display technologies. The focus will be on the haptic device technologies common to several applications and the development aims at mid-term to reach a mass-market. The project will demonstrate this new interaction paradigm on two advance demonstrators dedicated to professional use in cultural, entertainment and training application fields.

Objectives:
The objectives of the MUVII project are:
- To develop a new kind of haptic-3d-Interface
- To design a shape compatible with a commercial product for both the consumer and the professional market
- To link the H3DI with an efficient digital sound-system
- To adapt Virtual Reality contents to the new H3DI
- To develop a immersive theatre demonstrator of the H3DI
- To develop a kiosk demonstrator of the H3 DI
- To validate the demonstrators in real situation
- To create a new start-up company for the exploitation and the dissemination of the new interfaces

Work description:
The project objective is to develop on one hand new Man-Machine-Interface Devices featuring haptic feedback, the Haptic-3D-Interface, and in the other hand two prototypes of innovative integrated products using these devices: the Immersive-Theatre and the Interactive-Kiosk.

At mid-term, the general public Man-Machine-Interface devices will integrate haptic feedbacks for a very large panel of applications, especially e-trade on the WEB allowing to touch and feel the texture of the products sold. The innovative haptic devices developed in this project for professional applications in entertainment and museum would be able to evolve in the medium term to general public market. For such a Personal Interface, the Haptic-3D-Interface concept is a very good candidate as it can accept communication time delays (due for instance to Internet communication), and can be mass-produced at a very low cost.

In the project two demonstrators will be developed in order to demonstrate two very different applications and cover a market as broad as possible.
This first step is necessary for three main reasons:
- these demonstrators are by themselves the prototypes of future products with a known and fast growing professional market
- these applications are able to accept the cost of devices produced in a first time, in small series,
- these applications are in contact with the public and sufficiently reactive to produce quickly a validation feedback to specify future adapted mass-products.

The two demonstrators are:
1- The immersive Theatre demonstrator. Here the goal of the project is to enhance the immersion of each spectator in the virtual world using haptic feedback.
2- The Haptic Interactive Kiosk. This prototype will enable the demonstration of complex scientific or cultural experiments.

Milestones:
M0+6: Specifications;
M0+12: Ergonomic study, multi-user interactions management software library Specifications;
M0+14: test device for separate modalities, user study;
M0+15: Marketing assessment;
M0+22: Motion capture subsystem;
M0+24: Fully functional prototypes, pre-integrated 3-D sound sub-system;
M0+28: Immersive Theatre Demonstrator, interactive Kiosk Demonstrator;
M0+30: Demonstration workshop in immersive theatre, evaluation report, industrialization assessment

Start Date: 2001-09-01

End Date: 2004-02-29

Duration: 30 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 3.70 million euro

Project Funding: 2.20 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: CPA2: User friendliness, Human factors, multilingual, -modal dialogue

Project Reference: IST-2000-28463

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

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Record Control Number: 57875

Quality Validation Date: 2001-06-12

Update Date: 2001-11-05

Project Acronym: WISE

Title: Web-enabled Information Services for Engineering

Subject Index : Economic Aspects; Information, Media; Information Processing, Information Systems

Objective: The WISE objective is to enable individuals and organisations in the engineering domain to access and use available information resources more efficiently, and to foster cooperation and communication among distributed teams. This will be achieved through more accessible knowledge assets, which are found and presented quicker, in a context relevant form that allows the worker to focus on quality, productivity and their own competence realisation and evolution.

WISE aims at supporting engineers in their daily work with a consistent set of methods and tools as a basis of a "smart" organisation. WISE will develop a novel open platform of interoperable web-solutions for flexible working in and between the pilot organisation and its business partners. Big importance will also be put on corresponding adaptation of product development processes and corporate culture.

Objectives:
WISE will provide a platform for knowledge sharing and management in product development and manufacturing. This platform will not only provide IT tools and methods for handling knowledge assets but will also specify processes and organisational changes to make the smart organisation feasible. WISE will model and analyse workable processes for typical multi-partner networks engaged in product creation. This will help remedy the current situation and make suggestions for adapting the prevailing corporate culture towards a knowledge culture.
WISE will build prototypes for improving the learning curve of networked organisations to become "smart". The orientation of the technical work is towards the development of efficient and integrated modules for modelling, acquiring, maintaining, retrieving, distributing, and re-using knowledge throughout the complete product development process and all involved partners.

Work description:
WISE follows a user-centred iterative approach that enables participative design of networked information services. The project is centred around two prototyping cycles, which provide user feedback and help to validate the architectural and conceptual framework as the building blocks of a smart organisation.
The first prototype will be evaluated by the users at the end of the project's first year. Tests with this prototype as well as a formal mid term review of the first phase achievements will provide a solid basis to formulate a stable set of principles and tools necessary for managing knowledge in the networked environment of a smart organisation. The second and final prototype development will take into account these results.

The WISE work plan consists of ten work packages:
- WP01: Surveys and State of the Art
- WP02: User Needs and Functional Requirements for Knowledge-Environment
- WP03: Design of Knowledge Process for Engineering
- WP04: Concepts for K-Services and Functional Specification of K-Environment
- WP05: Detail Specification of K-System Components and Final Architecture
- WP06: Implementation of K-System Prototype
- WP07: Industrial Testing and Evaluation
- WP08: Industrial Introduction Support
- WP09: Exploitation and Dissemination
- WP10: Project Management and Coordination

Milestones:
M1 Requirements statement
M2 Knowledge process specification
M3 First (rapid) prototype
M4 Mid term review (including exploitation plan)
M5 Conceptual and functional architecture finalised
M6 Detailed system and interface specifications
M7 Final prototype implemented
M8 Final prototype tested
M9 Final review (including results for exploitation and dissemination)

Start Date: 2001-10-01

End Date: 2004-03-31

Duration: 30 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 3.82 million euro

Project Funding: 2.15 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Work spanning KA2 - Knowledge Management for eCommerce and eWork

Project Reference: IST-2000-29280

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

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Record Control Number: 58119

Quality Validation Date: 2002-02-06

Update Date: 2002-02-21

Project Acronym: CRISATEL

Title: Conservation Restoration Innovation Systems for image capture and digital Archiving to enhance Training, Education and lifelong Learning

Subject Index : Information, Media; Information Processing, Information Systems; Social Aspects

Objective: The project will develop equipment for the direct fast capture of paintings, with a new ultra-high definition multi-spectral scanner (ultraviolet to infrared) with a homogeneous lighting system. Software will be developed that uses a new colour chart and illumination correction to calibrated multi-spectral images. Research will be conducted into spectrometric analysis of varnish layers to allow the effect of an aged varnish to be substracted from an image of a painting. Large format, colour-accurate prints will assist in the restoration of paintings and be of use in exhibitions as surrogates for fragile works of art. Studies will be made of the long-term durability of storage media and of archiving techniques. A bi-lingual electronic handbook will be published on the web. Paintings will be captured, archived for long-term preservation, electronically restored, printed for exhibition and used for demonstration purposes.

Objectives:
The objectives are to develop a technology and information environment to preserve paintings by ultra-high quality multispectral digitisation, to preserve as well the created digital resources in long terms, and to enable the use of the images as surrogates and to assist conservation of the originals.

This includes: digitisation technology, colour calibration, software to determine the original paint colour beneath aged varnish from multispectral imagery, colour-accurate printing and long-term durability of storage media. An inventory system for these resources will be developed for timely replacement of over-aged data carriers, monitoring and planning of distribution, recovery strategies from losses and as index for conservators. An integrated, interactive, dynamic electronic handbook will convey the complex knowledge to use these imaging techniques for conservation planning and ensure the utility of the marketable results of the projects results.

Work description:
After capturing the user requirements, the work will continue in a concertated set of studies, equipment and software development, which will result in a complete set of functionality to provide professionals in the field of fine art with an integrated system for painting preservation and painting surface analysis, with the necessary performance for large scale work. Integration is done by software for the long-term management of electronic resources and by rendering the knowledge for the use of CRISATEL software and equipment and the interpretation of its results in an electronic handbook. In detail, a scanner based on a CCD array and 12-filter multispectral analysis in the range from the ultraviolet to the very near infrared will be developed. A suitable, homogeneous high flux lighting system will be used to reduce the image capture time. Software will perform illumination and colour correction. Spectrophotometric techniques will be used to study varnish thickness and opacity. The results will be used to develop a process that can electronically remove a varnish layer from a multispectral digital image to reveal the original colours of the paint layer. Software will be written to produce high-quality digital images printed on large textile and paper supports as substitute for study and exhibition of fragile objects. Durable archiving policy, methodology and media recording techniques, media structure, writing quality control, recorded data integrity control over the long term will be studied, and end in the development of an inventory software for the management of these electronic and their carriers and their timely renewal and as index to the images. To make the complexity of the related knowledge easily accessible by the expert, an innovative web-site manager on top of a knowledge base system will be developed, in order to create a bi-lingual electronic handbook to train curators, restorers and scientists to interpret the content of technical digital images.

Milestones:
M1- Analysis and development: HD multi-spectral scanner and its lighting, spectroscopic ellipsometry scanner, colour-charts for calibration.
M2- Software implementation: scanner calibration, colour correction and prediction, accurate printing, and digital resources management.
M3- Application and validation: long-term archiving system, multi-lingual electronic handbook, large-size image printing, control of software prediction by digitisation before and after painting restoration.

Start Date: 2001-09-01

End Date: 2004-08-31

Duration: 36 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 2.67 million euro

Project Funding: 1.40 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Interactive publishing, digital content and cultural heritage - Digital preservation of cultural heritage

Project Reference: IST-1999-20163

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

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Record Control Number: 58131

Quality Validation Date: 2001-10-05

Update Date: 2001-11-05

Project Acronym: MEDITRAV

Title: Open Medical Information Platform For Continuous Healthcare Services To European Travellers

Subject Index : Information Processing, Information Systems; Medicine, Health; Social Aspects

Objective: The increased mobility of European citizens within Europe in conjunction with differences in health systems, language and culture in general, create a clear need for continuous and transparent healthcare provision to European travellers outside their country of residence, especially those with a chronic disease. The main objective of this project is to develop an integrated medical information platform, on a European level, that will ensure continuous cost-effective healthcare services to European travellers with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiac failure, and asthma. The project will address not only the technical aspects of this need but also the organisational and managerial aspects of such service by involving all players interacting to provide healthcare services on a European level. Using the concept of the Traveller Information Record (TIR) in association with Virtual Private Networks and an adapted microprocessor card, the proposed infrastructure will ensure seamless patient information availability and sharing throughout Europe, and will enable patients to take an active role in their personal healthcare. Thus, the proposed system will significantly improve healthcare provision to travellers with chronic diseases, reduce the administrative workload of insurance organisations when dealing with foreign healthcare institutions, and provide healthcare professionals with updated medical data and systems for treating patients coming from other countries. The project is primarily focussed on the "clinical" aspects of healthcare provision to travellers and, as such, it will interface current initiatives, like the electronic E111, mainly addressing the "administrative" aspects.

Objectives:
The aim of this project is to address the clear need for cost-effective and continuous provision of healthcare services to European citizens suffering from a chronic disease, outside their country of residence. In order to achieve this objective, an integrated medical information platform, on a European level, with the involvement of all healthcare provision players will be developed. The platform features a health smart card and allows easy and secure access to the patient's medical record and health insurance data.

The project objectives are to:
identify the needs for healthcare provision and intervention cost billing to European citizens with chronic disease outside their country of residence;
describe the workflow between the involved players and services to be provided;
develop an integrated, multilingual platform, by using health smart cards, for healthcare services provision and billing to European travellers;
assess the applicability and technical feasibility via field trials;
demonstrate the benefits of the new system based on measurable indicators;
demonstrate the feasibility by means of a business proposal and exploitation plan.

Work description:
Each traveller will be provided with a smart card, issued by his or her social security or insurance company. Before leaving his/her country of residence, the Traveller Information Record (TIR) is transferred via a virtual private network, to the local server located at the destination site. Should any health problem related to his/her chronic disease (or emergency) occur to the traveller in the destination country, contracted healthcare institutions or health professionals will provide the required care.

The healthcare services procedure is performed in two steps:
1. Authentication through the microprocessor card establishes communication between the card reader point and the local database and provides access to the traveller's information record.
2 After medical consultation or treatment, the system's information is updated on-line. In emergency cases, the required medical information can be retrieved directly from the smart card without any network support or connection.

The proposed system consists of: A central web server located in the citizen's country of residence, containing a database of a flexible and reliable Traveller Information Record.

The TIR will include:
a) demographic data and a photograph
b) medical history with laboratory and imaging examination results
c) drug profile and
d) administrative data covering insurance and cost of medical services. A local server located in the visiting country, which temporarily stores the TIR and establishes communication between the contracted parties.

A traveller personal smart card, will serve two distinct purposes:
a) providing a minimum required set of records, by containing emergency medical data, as well as demographic and administrative data, and
b) ensuring authentication and secure access to the system, as well as unique identification of the smart card holder. The user requirements will be identified and analysed in the early project phases and a detailed system specifications will be prepared.

Milestones:
The main project milestones are the proposed system requirement analysis and new service business modelling as well as the integrated system development and implementation. Validation and demonstration activities are expected to prove the benefits from the proposed system and lead the exploitation activities from the side of healthcare-related organisations as well as technical partners.

The expected results from the project can be divided in two main categories:
(a) the new MEDITRAV system comprising of an integrated information technology platform, and
(b) the new MEDITRAV service offered to travellers by insurance companies and healthcare providers.

Duration: 30 months

Project Cost: 3.40 million euro

Project Funding: 1.79 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Health - Personal health systems

Project Reference: IST-1999-11490

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

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Record Control Number: 58350

Quality Validation Date: 2001-10-24

Update Date: 2001-11-05

Project Acronym: EICSTES

Title: European Indicators, Cyberspace And The Science-Technology-Economy System

Subject Index : Information Processing, Information Systems; Mathematics, Statistics

Objective: To provide statistics and derive indicators about the impact on the new economy of the presence of the European Science-Technology-Economy system in the cyberspace using new methods involving agent technologies, taking into account social impact and making special emphasis in Internet visualisation and dissemination of the indicators.

Objectives:
The primary objective is to offer statistics and to derive indicators about the European Science-Technology-Economy System in Internet. This objective will be achieved with the development of new technologies (agents) to recover data from the net in an automatic way and the application of new models and concepts to uncover relationships between the actors of the New Economy, using advanced tools as graph theory, complexity and chaos theories and social network analysis.
In order to test some of the models proposed, a series of case studies involving different and complementary aspects specially relevant to the European scenario will be analysed.
As an ultimate aim, we stress the measurement and evaluation of the impact of the information technologies in the Society as a whole and on the citizens and their quality of living. The indicators will be disseminated in an open user-friendly graphical environment using new web visualisation techniques.

Work description

The project is organised in several consecutive tasks as follows:
- Physical Internet Data Collection: A review of the cybergeography and cyberdemographics of the OECD countries to provide a background about physical Internet main figures;
- Web Data Collection: Selecting EU R&D public sector as source of data, an automatic web information collection system using agent technology will be developed to provide the statistics for the analysis;
- New tools: In order to monitor Web users behaviour two site analysis tools will be developed to follow information usage of generic web users and On-line Bibliographic Database available though web gateways;
- Case studies: Devoted to the study of the Web effects on institutions and geographical space, considering several cases to better understanding patterns such as University-Industry-Government Relations;
- Balkanisation and Globalisation;
and the Transborder Regions- Intermediaries in the Digital Economy.
The new role of intermediary requires a deep analysis- Indicators processing and the analysis of the New Economy.

In order to derive indicators from that databases, it is intended to apply powerful methodological tools for quantitative processing such as graph theory, complexity and chaos theories and social network analysis. The aim is to understand and generate models about the dynamics of the New Economy. Uncovering relationships among R&D sector, industry, economic sectors, culture and society. The core of the EICSTES proposal intends to test the web indicators for describing and analysing the emerging information society, socio-economic phenomena and the so-called "New Economy"- Visualization & Dissemination. The indicators of the New Economy will be disseminated in an universal user-friendly (graphic) environment based in new techniques of Web visualisation.

Milestones:
- World/EU cyberdemographics and geography;
- Statistics of EU R&D system in Internet;
- Innovation implications by sectors and regions;
- Statistics and indicators of the New Economy;
- University - Industry - Government relations and the NE;
- Role of Internet intermediaries;
- Balkanisation and Global IS;
- Transborder co-operation patterns;
- Automatic evaluation of information consumption patterns by end-users;
- Theory and models of NE;
-Graphic dynamic Web system of visualisation of NE indicators.

Start Date: 2000-12-01

End Date: 2003-11-30

Duration: 36 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 2.17 million euro

Project Funding: 1.48 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Cross programme actions - CPA4: New indicators and statistical methods

Project Reference: IST-1999-20350

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

Project URL: http://www.eicstes.org

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Record Control Number: 58396

Quality Validation Date: 2001-11-14

Update Date: 2001-11-21

Project Acronym: ODIN

Title: Geographic Distributed Information Tools and Services for the Mobile Information Society

Subject Index : Information Processing, Information Systems; Innovation, Technology Transfer

Objective: ODIN will provide citizens/tourists/SMEs in rural areas with easy mobile access to just-in-time, geo-spatial Web applications (intelligently integrating administrative, business, environment, transport, weather, culture and leisure information with mobile (e-commerce purchasing, booking and payment) to improve the quality of life and raise business in the regions targeted by the project.

Objectives:
The ODIN project aims to develop innovative paradigms for the design of open, distributed, and networked tools to boost the integration of an entire new class of just-in-time, interactive, value-added, map-based and personalised services for the mobile citizen (tourist, entrepreneur, commuter, farmer).

Work description:
The project will first undertake the definition of a global system architecture for a mobile delivery platform and services that will be compliant with the ISO/ODP (Open Distributed Processing) 10746 guidelines, and, specifically adhere and contribute to the work of the standardisation committees in the spatial data interoperability sector (such as the OpenGIS / ISO TC 211) and the context of Wireless Applications (such as the WAP Forum).
ODIN will then specify and implement an integrated Toolkit capable of accessing spatial and non-spatial information sources using XML/Java and viewing them just-in-time and dynamically over wireless hand-held devices.
Finally, the project will specify, implement and subsequently extensively validate just-in-time, intelligent services for the mobile citizen/business, so as to improve their quality of life and raise business activity in large rural areas.

Specification and implementation of the following networked and interoperable tools:
- the Information Connector tool to enable the acquisition of spatial and non spatial data from networked sources, converting it to XML format and integrating it into the ODIN toolkit;
- the Information Manager tool to create a single access point to spatial and non-spatial information;
- the advanced Information Visualisation tool, to provide the front-end, end-user delivery service for all data and managed information.
Specification, implementation and validation of advanced services to improve citizens' quality of life through the provision of applications specifically targeting the mobile user.

In particular, the integrated set of services will cover the following categories:
- public and community services;
- environmental services;
- tourist services;
- mobile e-commerce services;
- cultural heritage services.

Start Date: 2000-04-01

End Date: 2002-09-30

Duration: 30 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 6.27 million euro

Project Funding: 3.15 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Cross programme actions - CPA1: Integrated applications platforms and services

Project Reference: IST-1999-10498

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)

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Record Control Number: 58397

Quality Validation Date: 2001-11-14

Update Date: 2001-11-21

Project Acronym: ODIN

Title: Geographic Distributed Information Tools and Services for the Mobile Information Society

Subject Index : Information Processing, Information Systems; Innovation, Technology Transfer

Objective: The ODIN project aims at developing innovative paradigms for the design of open, distributed, and networked tools to boost the integration of an entire new class of just-in-time, interactive, value-added, map-based and personalised services for the mobile citizen (tourist, entrepreneur, commuter, farmer).
ODIN will provide citizen/tourist/SMEs in rural areas with easy mobile access to just-in-time, geo-spatial Web applications (intelligently integrating administrative, business, environment, transport, weather, culture & leisure information with e-commerce purchasing, booking and payment) to improve quality of life and raise business in the regions targeted by the project.
The industrial strength of ODIN lies in the collaborative work of a complementary set of medium-sized IST System Integrators, Mobile Telecommunication Operators and major IST Developers in digital information and Geographic Information Systems.
ODIN also includes committed Regional Service Providers [Public administrations, local authorities] with a deep interest in the rationalisation and cost-effectiveness of their operations through the use of the ODIN platforms and services.

Work description:
With the cellular market in Europe reaching its maturity, the growing competitive pressure is causing mobile telecom operators to increasingly target the mass market, yet also paying particular attention to the needs of their high-value business subscribers, by launching tailor-made services to suit the needs of everyone.
Innovative offerings, launching of new ranges of voice and data value-added (internet) services targeting the growing market of handheld digital wireless devices, are issued at rocket speed.
In parallel, the development of new map-based web-service paradigms based on high degree of integration information (resulting from different, networked information), interactivity, and personalisation (while delivered on conventional fixed network and devices) such as those issued by the IA 1011 TITAN project (4th Framework Programme), have been proven successful in large European rural areas.
Within the long-medium term future, we envisage a situation where a growing demand of just-in-time, map-based, integrated and tailored Web-based information services will be arisen by the increasingly mobile citizen (worker, tourist, entrepreneur, farmer).
As a matter of fact, this situation poses a number of new integration problems to be tackled. ODIN is to satisfy these emerging requirements.
The project will firstly undertake the definition of a global system architecture for the delivering platform and services compliant to the guidelines ISO/ODP (Open Distributed Processing) 10746, and, specifically contributing to the work of the ISO TC-211/OpenGIS Consortium set up to define standards on spatial data interoperability (some of the ODIN participants are active partners within this Consortium).
Then, the specification and implementation of an integrated ODIN Toolkit able to access spatial and non-spatial information sources by means of the XML/Java power and to visualise them just-in-time and dynamically over wireless hand-held devices.

Milestones:
ODIN is based on concrete work to be carried out in four European regions, and the expected main results include the:
1) Specification and implementation of the Information Connector, Information Manager and Information Visualisation networked and interoperable tools;
2) Specification, implementation and validation of advanced services to improve citizens quality of life through the provision of applications specifically devoted serve the mobile user.

Extensive Demonstration (6 months) of the services being provided, establishing project benefits (covering assessment of technical results, usability, and cost-effectiveness, and impact as well) and innovation's transferability to other places.

Start Date: 2000-04-01

End Date: 2002-09-30

Duration: 30 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 956848.00 euro

Project Funding: 350959.00 euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Cross programme actions - CPA1: Integrated applications platforms and services

Project Reference: IST-1999-70498

Contract Type: DEM (Demonstration contracts)

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Record Control Number: 58601

Quality Validation Date: 2001-11-20

Update Date: 2001-11-29

Project Acronym: CEBOS

Title: Cost Effective e-Business Operating Services for SMEs

Subject Index : Economic Aspects; Information, Media; Information Processing, Information Systems; Regional Development

Objective: CEBOS will establish and evaluate e-Market Places (Mediation Sites) that will progressively minimize the gap between SMEs and the International on-line Market. CEBOS will provide cost-effective e-business solutions customized according to regional requirements for those SMEs targeted in the proposed Best Practice pilots. Furthermore, CEBOS will offer to the SMEs involved the opportunity to go digital under a concentrated market perspective. The Consortium includes catalyst organisations with maturity in e-Business and the necessary organizational structure to co-operate with SME associations, to prove the added-value benefits and viability of CEBOS marketplaces.

Objectives:
The main objective of CEBOS is the establishment and evaluation of e-Market Places (Mediation Sites) that will progressively minimize the gap between SMEs and the International on line market.

Through the project, CEBOS partners aim at:
- Analysing European regional markets in order to identify business opportunities for on line SMEs and depict the business environment where CEBOS BPPs will operate;
- Analysing SME business models in order to identify their strategic business objectives and their requirements for cost efficient and effective e-Business activities;
- Delivering Best Practice Models for Electronic Market Places in regional and European level, through their demonstration with active participation of e-Business Catalysts, SME Associations and SMEs;
- Operating and validating the value added benefits of CEBOS mediator platform for cost efficient and supportive e-Business;
- Measuring the impact of such a customized model in regional SME markets and identifying transition and re-engineering requirements;
- Widely disseminating the CEBOS Business Cases in order to provide SMEs with a strategic competitive advantage in the digital economy.

CEBOS will provide a self sustained electronic Market Place remotely administrated by its SME users. A light CEBOS tool that will facilitate remote site & product management by individual users will be also validated during the project in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage and facilitate its market penetration.
The tool will be able to visualize the ASP model locally in order to provide SMEs with a comprehensive view of their catalogue and process model and enhance internal e-Business maturity.
The CEBOS sites will also provide the necessary mechanisms for online training of corporate and individual users in order to position themselves more efficiently.

Work description:
The rationale of the proposed work structure follows to a certain extent a hybrid methodology combining technology and business development activities. As a Best Practice project, the CEBOS consortium strongly believes that a large part of the work should address the alignment of the project technology evolutions with detailed user requirements where SME strategic business objectives are met in a cost efficient way.
However, e-Business projects, especially those that deal with electronic market places, should also address organizational transformation, co-operation and business planning issues in order for an SME effectively step and exploit the desired state.
To this end our methodology, involves the requirements elicitation and gathering both from user associations, end-users (SMEs), domain experts, and regional surveys on particular aspects of marketing, sales and replenishment processes and regional e-Business status (work package 1). To this end, a mock up demo of CEBOS operation will be presented to the user associations and specifically to a selected set of their members, during focused working seminars, in order to validate the technology choices and demonstrate the preliminary functionality of the overall e-Business platform.
Then, follows the specification and planning of the Best Practice pilot operation, where user requirements are transformed into viable business scenarios, along with the specification of open inter-organizational business processes, standard information flows and tele-working practices (work package 2).
Then follows the actual deployment phase where all user application scenarios are validated and refined (work package 3).
The initial steps for the deployment of the results, such as demonstrations and information dissemination, are already planned to take place during the project lifetime (work package 4).
However, the consortium is conscious that the exploitation of a Best Practice project must cope with a number of constraints such as finance, legislation, marketing, logistics and distribution, in order to be successfully exploited by the majority of SMEs in the respective regions (and European wide).
To this end best practice guides will be developed and disseminated to the wider SME community and European / regional decision makers. These guides will clearly present the CEBOS business case and indicate all required transformation and culture building activities on behalf of the SMEs, user associations and regional authorities.
Analytical description of the dissemination activities is provided in section C.8.

Milestones:
Milestone 1 [Month 4]: Concrete User Requirements for CEBOS sustainability and value added benefits;
Milestone 2 [Month 8]: Delivery of CEBOS market place according to user requirements and establishment of all pilot operation prerequisites / conditions;
Milestone 3 [Month 14]: Successful Completion of CEBOS implementation phase;
Milestone 4 [Month 18]: Delivery of CEBOS Business Plan & Best Practice Guides / Successful completion of the project.

Start Date: 2001-07-01

End Date: 2002-12-31

Duration: 18 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 1.98 million euro

Project Funding: 1.15 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Work spanning KA2 - Promoting Broad Adoption of eCommerce/eWork in Regions/Sectors

Project Reference: IST-2000-29585

Contract Type: ACM (Preparatory, accompanying and support measures)

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Record Control Number: 60831

Quality Validation Date: 2002-02-07

Update Date: 2002-02-21

Project Acronym: ARCHEOGUIDE

Title: Augmented Reality-based Cultural Heritage On-site Guide

Subject Index : Information, Media; Information Processing, Information Systems; Social Aspects

Start Date: 2000-01-01

End Date: 2002-06-30

Duration: 30 months

Project Status: Execution

Project Cost: 4.85 million euro

Project Funding: 2.60 million euro

Programme Type: 5th FWP (Fifth Framework Programme)

Programme Acronym : IST

Subprogramme Area: Interactive publishing, digital content and cultural heritage - Access to scientific and cultural heritage

Project Reference: IST-1999-11306

Contract Type: CSC (Cost-sharing contracts)