Workshop on Smart Frames/ Augmented Solutions

THE GO SMART FRAMES PROJECT

Go Smart Frames (GSF) is an Interreg V project aimed at strengthening innovative industrial cooperation in terms of augmented vision, between the two cross-border regions, with the Bourgogne Franche-Comté region on the French side and the cantons of Vaud and Neuchâtel on the Swiss side.

GSF intends to set up an incubation and demonstration framework based on small specialized workshops to support and bring out projects and innovations in the field of Augmented Reality and more generally glasses / masks with augmented functionalities, as well as ” other wearables that can be connected to them. GSF will explore these innovative capabilities by focusing on augmented vision devices, connected or not, and their most promising markets, in a broad sense of the concepts of augmentation and vision.

The field of Augmented Reality has indeed recently become more complex, with in particular the remarkable development of virtualization-immersion technologies, as well as mixed systems, in combination or connection with external capacities (acoustic systems, various sensors, relay of communication, smartphones, kinetic or haptic accessories, Internet access, etc.), forming true “augmenting ecosystems“.

Given the capacities of the Franco-Swiss Jura Arc in microtechnology, it is important to engage in diversified developments and experiments, both sources of learning and serious possibilities of creating market options, related to the areas where investments are currently the most important: industry, sport, health, safety, culture. The scope of work thus defined roughly corresponds to that of “wearables”, but including their connected ecosystems for signal detection and data processing.

To give innovations a chance to materialize, it is necessary to identify, stimulate and support quickly and above all concretely specific projects of augmented vision, by focusing on the diversity of fields and contexts of application, but also the value of the dynamics already engaged. Some projects will be more “push“, with an advanced prototype seeking to attract a market, while others will be more “pull“, suggesting the development of concrete solutions to meet an identified market need. In all cases, tailor-made support capacities will be necessary, intended to operate continuously (involving the work of GSF staff and its project partners) and through the various specialized workshops set up within the project. This approach will be supported by periodic monitoring of advances in the field and its major trends, that may facilitate their access or not to the market (examples: “increasing plug-ins” to install on normal glasses, or “data management” developments of augmented ecosystems).

Dates of realization

From December 1, 2017 (effective start: June 6, 2018) to November 30, 2019, extended to February 29, 2020.

Partnerships

The project leaders are for France, ELMJ (ex-ALUTEC) and for Switzerland, Coherent Streams Sàrl. For Switzerland, other partners are also involved, for the canton of Vaud, Le Musée de la main and the company Darix, and for the canton of Neuchâtel, CSEM, Centrevue, and the He-Arc.