Stereoscape’s web-based interactive DigiGuide

City of Helsinki

Challenge: How to encourage non-Finnish speakers to integrate into society?
Stereoscape’s web-based interactive DigiGuide

Web-based interactive digital guide (DigiGuide) from Stereoscape Oy is a service for clients of Employment support and social rehabilitation of the City of Helsinki to access and understand essential societal services.  The browser-based guide is easily accessible online through URL links on mobile phones, tablets and PCs. The main view of the DigiGuide features a bird’s-eye view of a city. Different services are highlighted with touch/click interactive hotspots each representing a service or other important topics. By clicking the hotspots, the users find more information about the topic through visuals and other multimedia content that make the information easy to understand. The information structure is also multilayered – through the landing screen, users can freely dive deeper into topics of their choice.

Digital skills for unemployed non-Finnish speakers

City of Helsinki

Challenge: How to integrate long-term unemployed citizens into working life?
Digital skills for unemployed non-Finnish speakers

In order to bridge the gap between high unemployment and high labor shortage, digital skills and vocational training to empower non-Finnish speakers are needed. These skills refer to the ability to access, evaluate, and create digital services and tools to manage life and work. During the pilot, the Aiedus provides digital skills training to improve non-Finnish speakers digital skills related to work capabilities. In other words, the goal is to equip unemployed with improved digital skills, in order to make them more competitive and employable in the job markets. The first objective of the pilot is to improve the digital skills of unemployed to use digital services and tools in life. The second objective is to improve digital skills for working, and thirdly, to improve lifelong learning capabilities to continuously develop digital skills. The fourth objective is to improve the employability and finally, to improve the overall quality of life.

Inlisol remote wellbeing and safety monitoring

City of Helsinki

Challenge:  What kind of technologies increase the safety of the homecare clients?
Inlisol remote wellbeing and safety monitoring for homecare services

Palko Interactive Oy aims at improving and securing the living conditions of home care clients by enabling them to live independently and safely in their homes.  One way to achieve this goal is through the use of technology, such as alert systems. These alarms can detect if the person has left the house, stayed in bed for an extended period or if there are drastic changes in health vitals. Furthermore, automated alerts can help prevent additional injuries and symptoms, especially for individuals who are unable to call for help themselves. Preventative vital data can provide valuable information to home care nurses, allowing them to detect early-stage indications of potential health issues and incidents. This data enables them to react in advance and prevent further health complications. In Helsinki pilot home care unit pilots service that automates tasks, measurements, and work that is not necessary to be done by humans, but which can significantly reduce the pressure on overloaded and stressed home care personnel.  The solution provides a wide range of monitoring alerts, preventative notifications and indicators, and general wellbeing data through an AI and radio wave technology-based solution. All monitoring is done fully anonymously to respect the monitored person’s privacy.

Inclusiverse

City of Helsinki

Challenge: How the disabled can improve their skills by using virtual technologies?
InclusiVerse

InclusiVerse is a VR-based application from CTRL Reality for Meta Quest headsets that aims to enhance the social and digital skills of adults and young adults with developmental disabilities. The application provides a safe and motivating virtual environment that allows users to engage in social interactions, develop digital skills, and practise daily routines and new situations. The application includes both real time collaboration and pre-recorded situations, as well as engaging environments that have been specifically designed to facilitate communication and socialisation among disabled individuals. The application is based on in-house XR content development platform that is easy to use and allows for the creation of customisable environments to suit the specific needs of each target group. The ultimate goal is to prevent marginalisation and promote the inclusion of disabled individuals in society, with expected impacts including improved social and digital skills, increased confidence, and a greater sense of community and belonging. 

CoTown Kasmoni Community Exchange

Picture of Amsterdam

Challenge: How to involve residents in a community savings supporting social initiatives?

CoTown BV – CoTown Kasmoni Community Exchange: Empowering Amsterdam’s Shared Prosperity

The Community Credits and Savings pilot project aimed to develop a community platform and offline activities to facilitate resource sharing, funding opportunities, and collaboration tools between local corporates and governments for social impact projects, local businesses, non-profits, and residents. The pilot involved extensive feedback sessions and co-creation workshops to ensure the platform meets community needs. Key features include the creation of a digital platform and a series of offline activities and events to strengthen social bonds in Amsterdam Zuidoost. The pilot successfully engaged the target group, resulting in a comprehensive report about the project concept and the specifications of the community platform ready for further development and broader implementation. Future plans include additional research and workshops, community events and collaborative prototype development to ensure ongoing improvement and adoption.

Fonetic

Picture of Amsterdam

Challenge: Amsterdam: How to include the deaf and hearing impaired in broadcasting info on public transport?

Fonetic

Did you know that 1.5 million people in the Netherlands are deaf or hearing-impaired? With this in mind, CommuniCity invited tech providers to explore ways to improve accessibility in public transport communication. Fonetic is an app that runs in the cloud, using AI to translate spoken messages into chat messages. That way you can read instead of hearing urgent messages at stations and in transport, receiving them on your favorite chat app, in your own language! The app was developed in a design sprint in Amsterdam, on board a tram and at the offices of the GVB, the regional transport company. The testers were deaf and hearing-impaired volunteers who had indicated a desire to co-create an innovative solution to more accessible and inclusive public transportation service.

One2One.Run

Picture of Amsterdam

Challenge: How to encourage girls to take part in sports and exercise?

One2One.Run – One2One.Run or WIRL

The Girls Meet Up pilot app aims to empower girls in sports participation by providing a platform for creating and engaging in sports events, leveraging co-creation and community involvement. Using Girls Meet Up, girls can easily create events, complete with colorful designs generated by AI, and propose experiences based on different sports, facilitating discussions with coaches. Likewise, coaches can create their events and share them with girls, enhancing collaboration, participation, and trust within the community. This project contributes to the promotion of an active lifestyle amongst teen girls, diminishing the unproportioned difference between the number of boys that participate in sports (40%) compared to the girls (17%) in Amsterdam Nieuw-West.

The piloting process involved research, stakeholder engagement, and co-creation sessions with girls, sports clubs, coaches, and community leaders, facilitated by local ambassadors like coach Ellen and local community MinaMi. The pilot successfully developed a user-friendly app, fostering increased participation and enthusiasm amongst girls and strengthening community partnerships, with the next steps including scaling up the app and deepening community engagement.

T-APPS B.V. – Skendy: an assistant for your documents

Picture of Prague and Amsterdam

Challenge: How to adapt an existing technological solution for a specific group?

T-APPS B.V. – Skendy: an assistant for your documents

The CommuniCity project Skendy piloted an initiative designed to improve support mechanisms for expats and refugees through an advanced mobile app. This pilot entailed over 40 hours of co-creation sessions with expats, refugees, and various stakeholders such as IAMSTERDAM, students, and local communities in Amsterdam and Prague. The objective was to identify and address the unique challenges faced by these groups through practical, user-focused solutions.

During the piloting process, an event in Prague played a pivotal role in testing and refining these solutions based on participant feedback. The initiative’s core developments included the design and implementation of a new user interface and the integration of an AI-powered chatbot. This chatbot, intended as the central feature of the app, provides personalized assistance and access to a comprehensive knowledge base tailored for both Amsterdam and Prague.

Additionally, the pilot phase included the creation of a demo version of the app specifically for refugees. This demo, developed in collaboration with refugee representatives, aimed to ensure the platform effectively meets their specific needs, although it remains in the testing stages. The pilot yielded promising results: engaging target communities, developing a user-friendly digital interface, and implementing a functional AI assistant that enhances the app’s utility. It also led to the acquisition of new talent to facilitate faster growth and increased support capabilities.

The next steps following the pilot include leveraging the insights gained to refine the app further. These efforts highlight the project’s dedication to continuous enhancement and community involvement in developing services that directly cater to the needs of expats and other end-users.

Video avatar translation widget (XS2 Content)

Picture of Amsterdam

Challenge: AI-generated video making healthcare information more accessible
Video avatar translation widget

The Municipality of Amsterdam seeks solutions to help enhance citizens’ understanding of the Dutch National Immunisation Programme and improve overall health outcomes, particularly among those with low literacy skills and those from diverse backgrounds. XS2Content (XS2AUDIO BV) will address this need through the application Video avatar translation widget.

Target Groups:
•People who speak a different language
• Low-literacy individuals
• People with low family care
• Parents and young people with a Moroccan or Turkish background

Objectives:
• Reach hard-to-reach target groups through the use of video content in addition to text
• Reduce video-creation time by leveraging AI technology
• Convert existing text into spoken videos with real-life, lip synced avatars in multiple languages
• Make healthcare information more accessible by converting written content into video format
• Ensure easy accessibility by sharing videos on social media and web-widgetsany

Audio-to-audio translation for status holders

Picture of Amsterdam

Challenge: How to let non-Dutch speakers communicate in their own language?
Audio-to-audio translation for status holders, in real-time, powered by AI

Status holders are required to go through a participation and immigration process (PIP) at the municipality of Amsterdam. However, employees at the municipality (klantmanagers) and status holders often don’t speak the same language. Klantmanagers speak mostly Dutch, and status holders often Arabic or Tigrinya. Translators are not always available or viable. They are expensive, take time to organize, are not always available in the short term, and sometimes make errors. Meanwhile, most status holders speak languages that have an oral tradition; hence verbal communication is preferred. There are barriers to communication between klantmanagers and status holders.

Objective: Better communication would improve the experience throughout the process for both. To achieve this, Switch AI develops speech technology that does audio-to-audio translation, in real-time! A solution built using the power of state-of-the-art AI technology.

Solution: Switch will build a software service that leverages speech recognition, translation and personalized speech generation AI models. The service will aid klantmanagers and status holders to communicate in their own languages. This service can be integrated with various applications developed by Gemeente Amsterdam, such as the PIP app.