Indra to present the European R&D SOFIA project pilots in Italy

Indra, the premier IT company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe, will present the SOFIA (Smart Objects For Intelligent Applications) R&D project pilots at a public exhibition on October 10-14, in Bologna, Italy.

SOFIA is a three-year ARTEMIS project (2009-2011) involving eighteen partners from four EU countries. The budget exceeds 36 million Euros.

The project is partially funded by ARTEMIS JU, TEKES – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation; MITYC, The Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce;  Agentschap NL, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation; and MIUR, the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research.

SOFIA will provide access through user-friendly mobile devices to a virtual environment with real-world information which will bring about new possibilities and advantages for users as well as new business opportunities. Users will benefit from smart and customised services in the different aspects of their daily life. SOFIA will also facilitate the domotization of cities, buildings and cars and will make geolocation, context information or movement detection through mobile devices possible.

In addition to this SOFIA offers open architecture and communication protocols in a new technological environment. Within the framework of the project, many global scale innovation services have been developed with open information for all sorts of applications, for instance: a warning system for metro passengers which will show an alert and an evacuation option in the event of an emergency, a system for information exchange in real time (information of general interest, personal notes, environmental data, advertisement, etc.) among users and entities. This way, the project will promote the social and cooperative side of smart cities.

The project will include a channel for the provision of digital services via several devices. It will extend the benefits of systems and associated services to existing products, in other words, it means the evolution of development based on information services.

The objective is to enable and maintain cross-industry interoperability to foster innovation and to create new user interaction and interface concepts. For this reason, a   platform based on semantic web, interoperability and smart sensor networks has been created. A key aspect of SOFIA is the interoperability feature among devices and embedded systems from different domains.

Indra's participation in multifunctional pilots

Besides its leadership in the dissemination, exploitation and coordination of the pilots, Indra is also deeply involved in the project with the objective of achieving the best possible results regarding smart cities, user interaction, architecture and development of applications. Indra contributes its expertise and experience in research, design and software development in the sector of integrated systems for smart environments, support, accessibility, semantic technologies and systems based on data transformation. In addition to this, the company is taking part in the integration and programming of applications as well as in the design and services of SOFIA's architecture.

Indra has participated in the pilots within the framework of SOFIA project which will be presented in Bologna. For instance, it was involved in the development of a warning system based on semantic web technology and wireless communications. This system will enable the submission of information to the mobile devices of users who are in an emergency situation such as fires, floods, wastes or explosive detection. In the event of an emergency evacuation, the solution will provide a map for the user showing the best way out and will allow communications among the different users to coordinate and synchronize the procedure.

Concerning tourism, leisure and services, SOFIA will enable immediate access to thorough information in real time about the services, times, news or special offers of interest to users.

Through SOFIA users will be able to connect to the best device available depending on location. For instance, a user will be able to continue listening to the music he/she was listening at home by means of the mobile's earphones and also inside the car, as the audio equipment of the vehicle will also be recognised as the best available device.

SOFIA allows monitoring of sensors deployed in buildings and the management of the alarms by sending messages to the maintenance operators who will use their mobile devices to guide them to the origin of the alert.
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.

For additional information about the project visit:
www.sofia-project.eu
www.facebook.com/sofiaproject.eu
www.sofia-community.org