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| Bouygues announces initial results of collaboration with CEA In October 2008, French firm Bouygues teamed up with the MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory of the Grenoble agency of CEA, the French atomic energy commission, for a research project. The objective of the partnership was to develop new applications using new technologies consistent with user needs and expectations. To achieve this, both partners worked closely with other industrial firms and included designers and human and social-science researchers, also members of the Laboratory, in their developments. The special feature of MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory is that it brings together the different approaches and requirements of all the parties involved: CEA, Bouygues, French power utility EDF, Renault, the Isère Council, and Stendhal and Pierre-Mendès-France universities in Grenoble. The work performed by the Grenoble universities enables the laboratory to incorporate utilisation and lifestyle changes in the design of its products and services. Thanks to this partnership, Bouygues benefits from direct access to the MINATEC innovation campus, from the latest technological advances of the CEA laboratories, particularly those of CEA-Leti, and from the pragmatic innovation drive conducted by MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory. As part of the laboratory, through the e-lab – the R&D team of its parent company – the Bouygues group is working alongside its partners on three main topics: capturing movement, which above all involves studying human body language as it interacts with the environment, in order to define new services and functionalities, technology in buildings, where work addresses the development of buildings incorporating technological equipment and services in their design, mobility-buildings-energy convergence, where work focuses on adapting buildings to the use of electric vehicles, for instance. This partnership has already produced initial results. Under the project on capturing movement, through Bouygues Telecom, Bouygues has developed and marketed a geopositioning service, 'Ici Info', which can be downloaded free of charge using Android phones. This application uses an 'augmented reality' navigation system enabling users to easily determine their position. 'Ici Info' immediately detects surrounding services such as restaurants, cinemas, banks, and other practical information and displays them on the phone's screen. write your comments about the article :: © 2010 Construction News :: home page |