The Information Technology for European Advancement (ITEA) programme, a benchmark one in European technological innovation and development, has given its highest award – the ITEA 2007 Gold Achievement Award – to the AMEC project, in which Fagor Household Electrical Goods, Ikerlan-IK4 and ESI-Tecnalia are taking part. This recognition awards the relevant contribution of the project to technological progress, in this case applied to the home of the future.
The aim of the AMEC project is to design services, products and contents capable of helping in the everyday life of the household where all its elements are interconnected and can make, for example, the colour of a lamp change with the temperature of the sitting room or can close windows when it is raining with a simple command from the mobile phone. This global project is subdivided into a set of specific subprojects each led by a specific body. Ikerlan-IK4, responsible for one of these, has also been awarded the ITEA gold medal for its work.
The research by Ikerlan-IK4 and Fagor Household Electrical Goods has focused on developing technologies that will enable the installation of interactive intelligent systems in homes and which are capable of co-ordinating the activity of all the household devices, activated by the user through the voice, movements, gestures or images.
This situation means an important advance in technology applied to the home. The owner of a house or apartment will be able to, for example, control from outside the home the functioning of the washing machine, the oven, the DVD lector or the alarm clock, and to ensure that the house is not going to catch fire or be robbed while he or she is away from home.
Taking part in the AMEC project Holland is represented through Philips Design, Turkey is represented by Mobilera and Spain with Fagor Household Electrical Goods, ESI-Tecnalia, Ibermática, Ikerlan-IK4, Institut Cerdá and Telefónica R+D. One of the most notable aspects of this project is that final products and services are the result of the needs and wishes of the end users.
In order to achieve this, AMEC has undertaken initial studies of the behaviour of persons in their homes in order to try to identify their customs, daily activities and experiences, with the goal of designing specific solutions and applications.