Partner DXT

by | May 17, 2019

Name of your organisation: DIGINEXT

Type of organisation (EU standard): Large ICT company

Country: France (FR)

Brief profile (Faster adjusted 10 lines):

Partner DXT,

Created in 1996 with the ambition to invent, develop and offer innovative products blending both real and virtual worlds for critical operation Planning, Training, and Assistance, DIGINEXT is internationally recognized for its capacity to innovate, its excellence, as well as for both the quality and performance of its very high-tech products in the Industry, Security, and Defence sectors. With a workforce of ~250 people, mostly PhDs, engineers or sector experts, DIGINEXT is a small sized, highly innovative and profitable company featuring a turnover of ~26M€ in 2017, of which 30% is made abroad. DIGINEXT is an entity of the CS Group. Among several other distinctions, the company received one of the 12 “Innovation Stars of Europe” awarded by the French Ministry of Research in December 2014. The Guardian listed DIGINEXT’s CHESS project in the top 10 global R&D initiatives that are changing the world of culture in 2014. The European Commission has also selected DIGINEXT’s projects in the top 50 and top 10 FP7 projects presented at its Innovation Convention 2011 and 2014. DIGINEXT benefits from a combination of high-level technical expertise in the fields of Advanced Command and Control Systems, novel user interfaces and geographic information systems, embedded electronics, and mechanical hardware.. DIGINEXT’s Simulation & Mixed Reality Division emerged in 2010 from CS’ Group Virtual Reality (VR) Department. By creating a VR department as soon as 1994, CS was one of the industrial pioneers in the field of interactive 3D visualization, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and simulation.   After 15 years of incubation within CS, this department has gained the critical size and maturity to continue its development with full autonomy in the frame of DIGINEXT.   This division regroups today 65 PhDs and engineers specialized in interactive systems. It is among the world’s top ranking RTD industrial centres with internationally acknowledged experts, and results presented in the most prestigious journals and conferences (including SIGGRAPH, Eurographics, IEEE VR, and others).   It provides world-class expertise and industrial references in the following fields: Situational awareness & common operational picture including 2D/3D cartography and geographic information systemsLive, virtual and constructive simulationTraining and e-learning3D computer graphics, virtual, augmented and mixed realities   Located in Aix, Paris, and Toulouse, DIGINEXT provides its systems to prestigious organizations such as NATO, Civil Security, Police forces and ministries of Defence in France, Sweden, Netherland, UK…, DGA, Thales, EADS, Nexter, DCNS, Airbus, IBM, Alcatel Space Industries, SAGEM, PSA, Renault, SNCF, RATP, ESA, CNES, EDF, CEA, Technicatome, Alstom, IBM…   Intense R&D activities support its Business development. Since its creation, DIGINEXT has been involved or is still involved as a co-ordinator or as a partner in several EC funded projects (e.g. RANGER, MAGELLAN, VASCO, eVACUATE, INDIGO, CRIMSON, CHESS, V-City, ESS, BESST, WAVE, INSCAPE, V-Planet, V-Man, VISTA, VISICADE, VISIONS, IERAPSI, DIVERSITY, STARMATE, IRMA, CAVALCADE, ZONeSEC, INACHUS, MAASIVE, ALLADIN, InPREP, STEWISE, INGENIOUS, SafePASS, etc.), which have contributed to the creation of most of the products the company is currently commercially exploiting.  

Type of stakeholder for the project (also more than one)

B.1 – Large enterprises : X

Type of expected exploitation (describe your early expectation)

The innovations proposed in the Augmented Reality module represent a significant progress in terms of support to mobile operational units evolving in the field. They have significant impact potential and commercial value. They will enable DXT to progress against the state-of-the-art and strengthen its competitiveness by offering a cutting-edge mobile AR system for the support and remote assistance of First Responders operating in critical conditions. The commercial exploitation of these results will be performed in the Crimson product line (http://crimson.diginext.fr) by DIGINEXT throughout its own network of resellers, its partnerships with major global industrials such as Thales, ATOS, Airbus, Leonardo, etc., and the community of Crimson clients that acts as multipliers.

BUS (business exploitation):

Identified value proposition:

The FASTER Augmented Reality module aims at providing increased situational awareness to First Responders in the field, while at the same time keeping their hands available for other tasks.

Competition:

We have identified some competitors that have developed some overlapping functionalities:

  • EON reality (augmented reality for First Responders training)
  • Edgybees (augmented reality information applied on video streams taken from drones)

C-Thru (augmented reality headset that help First Responders see though smoke)

Early proposed market strategy:

Augmented Reality applications are now booming in various economic sectors such as gaming, retail or MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations). In all these sectors, AR applications can be used in controlled environments where lighting conditions are good and the environment is known.  However, applications for first responders operating in critical conditions are still in the development phase. Many technical bottlenecks need to be tackled before commercial applications can reach the market, in particular the capacity for AR applications to work in uncontrolled environments.Diginext will build on its expertise in the building of Augmented Reality applications to successfully reach a relevant proof of concept demonstrating the potential benefits of AR for First Responders in the field.

Being one of the partner of this project what is your feeling in terms of:

Project strength point:

  • An

Project opportunities:  

Existing constraints:

  • End-users have to be technology ready and with a strong motivation so as to exploit as a whole the knowledge sharing platform functionalities.
  • Collaboration and knowledge-sharing services and tools problems with their implementation within the time and cost constraints.
  • According to System Integration, the end-users do not accept the system because it is not usable or it doesn’t satisfy their needs. 
  • A management constraint is about the diverging objectives between technical and pilots teams.