The Senior Chanel project led by Indra will create an interactive TV channel made by and for the elder

Indra, the premier IT company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe, is at the head of SeniorChannel. This international R&D+i project seeks to create an interactive online TV channel to offer the elder adequate content and the possibility to interact, share knowledge , experiences and have fun creating their own programmes.

This internationl R&D+i project is within the framework of the AAL programme (Ambient Assisted Living) of the European Union and is financed by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, as part of the Spanish National Plan for Scientific Research. From its Software Labs network, Indra coordinates the work of 11 consortium members from Spain, France, Italy, Great Britain and Sweden, namely M31 Spa, Audemat, Brainstorm, Innovatec, WinMedia and WhiteLoop and institutions such as the University of Padua, the Linköpings town council, CEDETEL (The Centre for Development of Telecommunications in Castile and Leon) or the Asociación Parque Galicia of Valencia’s regional government.

SeniorChannel will combine cutting-edge technologies and high added-value content. The project will first develop the technological infrastructure for the creation of the new online TV channel. Besides this, a server for interaction and for the user interface will be created so that the viewer can interact with the channel from home, answering in real time questions asked during the programmes, participating in debates or even attending the programme virtually via webcam.

Virtual 3D TV set

One of the key elements of SeniorChannel is a virtual 3D TV set and an accessible, low-cost, production centre to broadcast the contents produced at retirement homes, adult day care centres and town councils, or by any other entity interested in the initiative. The TV set will employ a bluescreen installed at the users' centre, which will display different 3D realistic scenarios whose elements can be adapted to different programmes. That is, the creator will be able to choose the elements of the decoration from pre-designed objects such as a tables, lecterns, plants, paintings, etc.

The audience will be able to interact and participate in programmes in real time thanks to the interaction server developed by Indra. Through it the information can be exchanged between the virtual TV set and the Set-top Box decoder, installed at the users' centre and at the user's home respectively.

Technology at the service of society

The SeniorChannel project started in 2010 and has an execution period of three years. The requirements are being defined at the elder’s home “Asociación Parque Galicia” in Alicante and the tests with the virtual set are running as it’s supposed to be installed after the summer.

The project is not only a technologically speaking major breakthrough but it is also a valuable  interaction and social participation tool. With SeniorChannel the elder will have access to a digital interactive TV content so that they can participate in social activities, share leisure time, experiences and a vision of the daily life, have fun creating and broadcasting contents through this new TV channel.

At the forefront of interactive services for TV

This avant-garde project in the online TV segment for the creation and broadcast of elder-oriented content reinforces Indra’s experience in the development of interactive services for TV.

The IT company has more than a decade of experience in consultancy projects and development of interactive services as well as in the launch and exploitation of digital terrestrial television networks (DDT). The company has also worked in the field of accessible digital tv for over five years and has become a benchmark in this sector in Spain thanks to numerous R&D projects developed or implemented for different clients.
An evidence of this is the advanced DDT platform developed for the city council of Segovia through which citizens can have access to the local public administration by using the ID card, or the “Emplea-T Accesible” project for RTVE, the first interactive application which provides access to the visually impaired to the DDT services.

Indra, in its search of cutting-edge technolgies is leading  the R&D+i Immersive TV project whose purpose is to research on digital immersive content creation technologies and on the whole value chain (production, transmission, reception and visualization) in order to optimise the feeling of integration by the user with TV beyond what current 3D techniques offer.

The objective of immersive TV is to let the spectator experiment real sensations first hand by feeling part of it and play the main role so that he/she can interact with the scenario in any spatial dimension. The project will combine production and 3D visualisation techniques adding depth to the images along with surround sound. In addition to this, several sensors will capture the user’s movements and will translate them into a virtual scenario projected on five spatial directions.

Indra
Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to investment in R&D with nearly € 500 M during the last three years. In 2010 revenues reached € 2,557 M of which a 40% came from the international market. The company employs more than 31,000 professionals and has clients in more than 110 countries.