The TWIRL European project transposes into reality the personalized edutainment concept, stimulating the creation of micro-communities around the shows and educational programs broadcasted on TV
The internet access is ubiquitous in the modern world, increasingly more people being quasi-permanent interconnected through mobile devices. The diversity of information that the consumer receives both from the virtual world (on-line) as well as from the real world (off-line) is huge. A main challenge is the way we can correlate the information from the two environments, in a consistent manner, and delivering them on time and in the right format.
The research and development project "Romanian Twinning virtual World (on-line) Information with Real World (off-line) data sources" (RO-TWIRL) aims to amplify the human experiences in their actions for searching information, researching, interacting with other users and on using resources in everyday life by creating an IT platform. This enables interconnecting and merging data from real applications (such as, for example, traffic monitoring, weather forecast, s.o.) and from online data sources (open databases, social communities and forums, blogs, wiki, RSS s.o).
RO-TWIRL is implemented by a consortium of IT companies formed of SIVECO Romania and AltFactor, during the period October 2012 - October 2014.
RO-TWIRL transforms the experience of user data acquiring by providing: supplementary information (resulting from augmentation with contextual information) personalized information extracted from personal sources (such as blogs or social networking profiles) and social information (extracted from virtual communities).
The platform developed by the Romanian consortium complies with the current trend of "second-screen" type platforms.
The main components of the platform are: smart TV tandem application - tablet (second-screen) - enables displaying on the tablet the relevant information from the current show broadcasted on TV , in a summarized format, and a web application for configuration, management and statistics – that allow users, the content developers to configure the information that will be displayed on the second screen. There is also the portal type web application - that displays detailed information and statistics about shows, programs and communities around them.
The platform has already been presented at European level within the framework of the sixth edition of the Co-summit organized by EUREKA ITEA and ARTEMIS cluster, held on 4-5 December 2013 in Stockholm, Sweden.
SIVECO develops the Management and Monitoring application dedicated to the educational content producers. This allows the monitoring and display of statistics related to the number of views, likes and user profiles.
ALTFACTOR develops the second-screen type application that allows synchronized displaying of educational content both on smart TVs’ as well as on mobile devices.
"The project promotes the concept of personalized edutainment (customized educational entertainment) by including multimedia educational content from various sources for the customization and augmentation of entertainment information within the home environment. It also supports the facilitation of user participation and involvement by creating micro-communities around shows and educational programs broadcasted on TV", says Monica Florea, Director of Research & Development Department, SIVECO Romania.
RO-TWIRL is meant for all age groups, the developed platform addressing equally children and elderly persons. It will integrate with the platform developed at European level in order to benefit of the existing research and implementations on information augmentation.
TWIRL partners:
AltFactor, Cassidian SAS, Mondeca SA, Pertimm, Ipernity. ORG SA, Lille 1 University, Mobiliera, Institut Telecom SudParis, SmartSoft, Tilda, Tmob.
About SIVECO Romania
SIVECO Romania is the leading Romanian software house and one of the most successful regional leaders in eLearning, eHealth, eAgriculture, eCustoms, eGovernment and eBusiness from Central and Eastern Europe. The company develops and exports software products and high value added consultancy projects to countries within the European Community, The Middle East, North Africa and the CIS area.
Founded in 1992, SIVECO Romania has now 1,000 employees worldwide. Addressing large companies and public agencies, SIVECO Romania is specialized in developing large and complex IT projects.
SIVECO Romania solutions contribute to reducing the digital gap and improve the activity of many public institutions, such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry for the Information Society, Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Protection and Elderly, Ministry of Finances.
During its 22 years of activity, SIVECO Romania has built a solid reputation, receiving more than 200 national and international recognitions and prizes.
More information about the company and its products is available at www.siveco.ro, www.facebook.com/siveco and www.linkedin.com/company/siveco-romania.
