Information can be scary, and even more so when we find ourselves humbled by its immensity. In a press release issued earlier this week, the European Commission has once again demonstrated that it is not afraid of big data. Quite the opposite, Europe is more than ever ready to embrace it – a gesture, which is reflected in Europe’s strong bet on research projects like CEEDs, which uses big data to enhance human cognition and improve problem solving.

In a previous post, we already discussed CEEDs and the eXperience Induction Machine (XIM), the heart of the project, located in the SPECS lab at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. The press release singles out CEEDs as an example of successful and highly promising big data research initiative.

Although XIM has so far mainly been applied to visualising brain (BrainX3) and historical (Bergen-Belsen reconstruction) data and will certainly bring about a huge qualitative change in how scientists work with tremendous amounts of information, the integration of this technology into more down-to-earth application fields seems imminent.

The press release reports that early interest in the XIM technology is already coming from several museums in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the United States, where it could potentially help with gathering and reacting to feedback from visitors. This naturally applies to many other public spaces such as shops, libraries and concerts. The CEEDs team is also conducting negotiations with several public, charity and commercial organisations to further extend the scope of application of the platform.

The CEEDs project coordinator Jonathan Freeman, Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London pointed out that “anywhere where there’s a wealth of data that either requires a lot of time or an incredible effort, there is potential.” In science, whole disciplines, from satellite imagery inspection to oil prospecting and astronomy, could benefit immensely from this novel approach to processing information.

With projects like CEEDs, Europe is working its way towards a new data-driven economy, a long-time goal, which the European Commission is now actively promoting across national governments. The European approach towards big data is perhaps best expressed in the words of the vice-president of the European Commission Neelie Kroes: “Big data doesn’t have to be scary. Projects like this enable us to take control of data and deal with it so we can get to solving problems. Leaders need to embrace big data.”

You can also read this article to learn about some other exciting big data projects backed by the European Commission.

The European Commission recognizes Robotics as a key industry for the future of Europe

The European Commission has recently agreed to launch a Public Private Partnership in Robotics (PPP) between academia and industry for 2013. 

The initiative aims to  help Europe-based companies take a larger share of the global robotics market which is valued at  an annual 15.5 billion euros!

Vice President of the European Commission’s Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, stated that “A strong robotics industry is key to Europe’s future competitiveness. Growing our robotics industry means new jobs and a strong European manufacturing sector. ” In fact, the commission maintains that three million jobs are created or maintained worldwide as a result of using one million industrial robots.

Specific goals of the PPP aim to promote the growth of domestic and professional service robot markets and to reach out to new users and markets. The PPP will also contribute to policy development while addressing ethical, legal and societal issues concerning the use of robots.

As an important step in the process,  A recent survey, carried out in each of the 27 member states, examines public attitudes towards robots including public perceptions, acceptance levels and worries and reservations among EU citizens over 15 years of age.

Results of the survey show that the majority of EU citizens have a positive view of robots with percentages as high as 88% in countries such as Denmark and Sweden. According to the study, Europeans’ positive attitudes on robots are based on the notion that they are helpful  because they can assist humans in tasks that may be too difficult or too dangerous for us to do.  However, the study also pointed out that Europeans believe robots require careful management and the fear that they might steal people’s jobs is still present.  

When it comes to where Europeans think robots should be used, sectors such as: space exploration , manufacturing , military and security and search and rescue tasks were most prevalent. On the flip-side,  people were more hesitant to favour the use of robots for the care of children, the elderly or the disabled however, results also demonstrated that few Europeans have had personal experience with robots and that, the common conception of a robot tends to be that of a machine used in the workplace rather than a human-like machine that helps in the home.

If you’re interested in new kinds of European Robotics projects, check out Robot Companions for Citizens which aims to develop robots to help tackle some of Europe’s critical societal challenges. The innovative Robotics  project is striving for a 1 billion euro grant from the European Commission and the competition has now come down to the wire! Click HERE for more information.

You can also follow the Robot Companions for Citizens Facebook page.

The ACTIVE project (Active Constraints Technologies for III-defined or Volatile Environments) is a 4 year European project which started in April of 2011. The ACTIVE project stemmed from a previous European project called ROBOCAST which resulted in the development of new types of robots to assist neurosurgeons.
These robots were recently tested on dummies in keyhole neurosurgery and they were able to both increase a surgeon’s mobility while reducing their tremor 10 fold. Although trials are not yet at the clinical level, this was the first time that robots were tested for such sophisticated surgery.
European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, is excited and optimistic about this development “If any activity requires precision, it’s neurosurgery, so I am delighted this EU-funded research is helping surgeons and patients to be safer. If we can cut waiting lists and deliver better results for patients as Europe’s population ages, I think EU-funded technology projects like this will pay us back many times over.”

Robot Companions for Citizens is another European funded initiative that aims to maintain the future welfare of Europeans through the use of sophisticated robots. Find out more HERE