Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH)
RTD
Greece (GR)
The Information Technologies Institute (ITI) – founded in 1998 under the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) of the Greek Ministry of Development – is a non-profit organization, based in Thessaloniki, Greece. Two years later, the ITI was a founding member of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), also under the GSRT.
CERTH/ITI has participated in more than 175 research projects funded by the European Commission, and more than 100 research projects funded by Greek national research programmes and several consulting subcontracts with the private sector. ITI currently has more than 270 employees, including scientific personnel, administrative and technical staff.
The exploitation strategy of the institute will be mainly based on developing a high level of expertise and understanding the requirements of the first responders. As a research center, CERTH/ITI targets high-quality scientific publications both in scientific conferences and journals, the transfer of technology and development of innovative products. Moreover, CERTH/ITI will evaluate the results of the project and the state of the market to identify possible paths of exploitation through already established or new spin-off companies.
Project opportunities:
- Improving expertise on gesture recognition and augmented reality, staying up to date with the state of the art, and acquiring experience to use in future projects in diverse fields.
- Making contact with possible future partners, establishing lines of communication, and engaging in a research-development-production-end use ecosystem.
- Remaining established as an expert in the fields of gesture recognition and augmented reality.
- Understanding first responder requirements and identifying opportunities for further research and innovation in disaster response.
Existing constraints:
- Gestures used for controlling devices must be distinct, and other common gestures the first responder may perform must not be easily mistaken for control gestures.
- Integrating UxV visual input into the controller’s AR must compensate for the difference in perspective and point of view.
- UxV must be shown in the controller’s AR vision when out of line of sight, to facilitate navigation.
- UxV must be reasonably resistant to collisions and/or have an independent avoidance function.
- First responders must be trained in controlling the UxV in a way that improves their performance and doesn’t compromise it.
- UxV deployment must be easy and fast, applicable to emergencies.
- Technology must be usable in varying and possibly extreme conditions, often encountered during disaster response.
- Powered devices must have enough power autonomy to complete their tasks in off-the-grid scenarios.
- Commercially available and lightweight hardware for the UxVs must be preferred, thus limiting possible customization options.