Pilots
First Round Pilots
Amsterdam
Challenge: Wildcard – Propose any technological solution for any marginalised community
Empowering low literate citizens of Amsterdam with the help of A.I.
Amsterdam has 33.3% more low-literate citizens than average for the Netherlands. Tolkie has developed a tool that helps low-literate users to overcome obstacles in a complex text. Organizations embed our tool into their website and by doing so they enhance the accessibility of their online platform. Our current solution is developed together with low-literate people. In an iterative process of acquiring user needs, designing and developing a solution, testing with the target audience, adjusting the design, etc. we developed the tool we have now. Our tool currently operates on a per-word basis, meaning that the target audience gets reading aid when they encounter difficult words. However, complexity of a text lies not only in difficult words, but also in complex sentence structures, the use of jargon and proverbial language, the structure of longer texts, etc. During this challenge we are going to extend our reading aid and we want to achieve that with the use of AI and other modern technologies.
Challenge: How to offer opportunities for youngsters having had contact with the law?
WeSolve, driving change with inclusion
The platform built by WeSolve ApS represents a powerful opportunity for the city to showcase its activities and engage with young people, particularly those born in disadvantaged conditions. By using technology to create an active and accessible platform, the city can make youth engagement smoother and more effective. Target groups: Through the WeSolve platform, young people can participate in a wide range of activities that foster social cohesion, build trust, and create meaningful connections with others. These activities are aimed at developing skills, supporting communities, and building a brighter future for everyone involved with a particular attention to disadvantaged youth. Objectives: WeSolve can be used as a powerful tool by municipalities to enhance the level of disadvantaged youth engagement in order to create a safer, more connected, and more engaged community. By empowering young people through community-based initiatives and promoting social cohesion, WeSolve platform results as the means through which municipalities can reduce the likelihood of criminal activity and create a brighter future for young people born in disadvantaged conditions.
Challenge: Wildcard – Propose any technological solution for any marginalised community
Co-creating & piloting assistive robot FLOo for parents with disabilities
Together with the open call and co-investment of youthcare organization Levvel, Garage2020 will pilot the co-designed assistive robot FLOo in Amsterdam for parents with intellectual disabilities in vulnerable positions in society. The project aims to improve the self-esteem of parents, enhance family life, promote self-reliance in parenting, and break the cycle of problems by utilizing the services of the FLOo robot, which provides easily accessible and always available care and support without judgement.
The project is focused on marginalized families in Amsterdam, where one or both parents have intellectual disabilities. These families are in vulnerable positions, have poor access to good healthcare and parenting support, and often live at or below the poverty line. In the pilot we will focus on three families in Amsterdam (already in care with Levvel) with in-depth piloting of additional support of FLOo and use co-creation methods to customise FLOo to the needs of every specific family. There are about 23000 – 46000 parents that face challenges in child rearing because of these disabilities in the Netherlands. Between 2000-3000 children are born within vulnerable families every year. Many of them live in cities like Amsterdam (exact numbers are not publicly accessible).
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Porto
Challenge: How to decrease the loneliness of the elderly?
Tele Visit – The family goes home
In the City of Porto there are a large number of elderly people who live alone in social neighbourhoods. They often face health and well-being challenges, namely the under provision of critical goods and services, such as health care, food, medicines, due to the lack of mobility and autonomy. Furthermore, many of them are economically vulnerable and digitally illiterate. The present project from the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto (FEUP) aims to support the elderly in the Municipal public housing Area of Urban Rehabilitation (ARU) of Corujeira, in the parish of Campanha and their families, namely those with less resources, allowing the communication between them in safety and thus contributing as a prophylactic effect at three levels: 1) avoid a possible catastrophic event, especially among the most vulnerable people; 2) improve the mental health of the elderly; 3) support the interface with their family members.
Mental health needs to be valued, due to the context of loneliness, anxiety and depression that add to the difficulties in understanding the situation. The lack of mental health is associated with morbidity, reduced cognitive reserve and disability in older people. The negative impact of physical illness and depression increases disability and is associated with increased mortality. According to the WHO, Telemedicine is based on the use of information and communication technologies, allowing increased access to health care. The use of telemedicine can be seen in several areas, being applied in the USA by more than 60% of health organization and it is present in the area of mental health in 49 states. After obtaining an opinion from the Ethics Committee, the concept of telemedicine will be applied to facilitate tele visits by families to their elderly relatives, adopting technologies similar to those used for health care. FEUP – Engenharia Voluntária will provide technological support in terms of installation and training, with operationalization being carried out essentially through the voluntary intervention of the FEUP community. 10 seniors living alone in the Area of Urban Rehabilitation (ARU) of Corujeira will be involved. For each home, a survey of needs will be carried out, with the technology selected according to the needs identified.
Challenge: How to decrease the loneliness of the elderly?
PortoPilot – Digital technologies to decrease loneliness
Technology plays a crucial role in society. Not being part of the “connected society” promotes inequality and social exclusion. Portugal is rapidly ageing: in 2021 more than 2,4 million people, 23,4% of the Portuguese population was 65 years old or older. Unfortunately, senior citizens are among the most info-excluded groups, in 2020 only 39% of the population between the ages of 65-74 used the internet. Many reasons can explain such a fact, including low literacy levels, ageism, no contact with technology during their professional careers, lack of interest, motivation, or perceived usefulness. Ensuring that seniors can benefit from technology includes involving them in its creation, informing them about its use and guaranteeing that they feel safe and at ease while using it. At Fraunhofer AICOS we have been developing technology for seniors and with seniors for several years, employing a human-centred approach that includes final users throughout the several development phases of a product. Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS is experienced in understanding user contexts, co-designing inclusive and meaningful technologies and investigating its final impact in real environments. We propose to use our expertise to reduce loneliness among seniors by understanding how and which technologies can help elderly citizens feel more integrated in society and ease any feelings of isolation. Based on the literature and our prior experience, we know there is no one-size-fits-all solution to tackle loneliness in older age. Therefore, we propose to discover the most suitable technologies together with the beneficiaries of the technology. To do so, we will conduct focus groups with seniors from day care centres so that together we can identify unmet needs and challenges that can be tackled with the use of digital technologies.
Challenge: How to decrease the loneliness of the elderly?
WeSolve, Inclusion of the Elderly
The golden years of life should be embraced as an opportunity to fully engage with one’s community and city. This can be accomplished through a variety of enriching experiences, such as connecting with individuals from different age groups, sharing personal stories and knowledge, learning new skills, and gaining fresh perspectives on the world. Through the platform built by WeSolve ApS, elderly people can participate in a wide range of activities by creating a sense of belonging and providing dedicated activities and resources for senior citizens, the platform aims to alleviate feelings of isolation and promote social connectivity within the community and a brighter future for everyone involved with a particular attention to elderly individuals needs. WeSolve can be used as a powerful tool by municipalities to enhance the level of elderly engagement in order to create a more connected, and more engaged community. By empowering elderly people through community-based initiatives and promoting social cohesion, WeSolve platform results as the means through which municipalities can reduce the likelihood of social isolation and create a brighter future for elderly individuals. We Solve provides tools for elderly people to come together, connect with one another, and participate in activities that are meaningful and impactful.
Through the participation of various activities, it is possible to enhance the inclusion by removing barriers such as language and socio-economic status. By removing such barriers, WeSolve is able to enhance inclusion and create a sense of belonging for all participants. This sense of community is essential for the well-being of elderly people, as it provides them with the support and encouragement they need.
Challenge: How to increase the autonomy of the elderly?
Empowering Elderly by Hoivita
The safety and comfort of the elderly has been the driving force of the Hoivita since incorporation. Hoivita currently caters to customers in the South Karelia, Pirkanmaa and Uusimaa regions of Finland with ongoing pilots with Spanish hospitals. With our automatic, easy-to-install solutions combined with the Hoivita One View platform, we have saved the lives of many elderly clients by tracking their movements at their homes and providing objective data to the caregivers to take corrective measures early. In Challenge 2, “How to increase the autonomy of the elderly?” Hoivita targets clientele who don’t have pets, live alone or with their spouse, live in a studio, two-bedroom or three-bedroom apartment.
Expected Outcomes:
• Increased awareness on the wellbeing of the elderly without intruding their daily routines
• Provides a more holistic view of the elderly to the caregiver ensuring their wellbeing is monitored round the clock
• Provides objective data for caregivers to take corrective measures when necessary
• Help caregivers to determine if the right amount of care is being provided (or if transfer to an assisted living facility or hospital is required)