ACCEPT April Update

The end of April marks the end of the 16th month of ACCEPT project activity, and as this draws to a close the project stands in a strong position which is set to continue through 2016. We have been extremely busy in the first quarter of 2016, and as a result now have comprehensive strategies in place for project exploitation, dissemination and piloting, have begun development of project prototypes, and have decided on cutting edge hardware on which to develop the ACCEPT system.

So what have we been working on?
Among other activities, the project consortium have been heavily involved in the development of multi-national strategies for the exploitation and dissemination of project activities; aiming to ensure that ACCEPT creates maximum impact within as wide a sphere of influence as possible. Considering the 36 month duration of the project, it has been essential to have these strategies refined and implemented as soon as possible, ensuring that objectives and milestones are clearly defined upfront and partner efforts are coordinated towards realising collective aims. Partner work-plans have been developed in conjunction with each partner, accounting for their specialist skills and areas of expertise. These have now been issued to partners, outlining their dissemination responsibilities over the second and third years of project activity, and the consortium looks forward to sharing what we’ve learnt so far throughout project involvement and what we are getting up to. Knowledge regarding such strategy development will prove extremely valuable to the project moving forwards.

With the end of April, the first of the long awaited project piloting phases looms ever closer, and attentions have therefore turned to focus on the development of the first iterations of the project prototypes. Our recent Plenary meeting in Madrid offered the perfect opportunity for Technical and User partners to come together to collaborate on the development of these; forming three workshop groups to discuss the functionality of the ACCEPT suite, and establishing which functionalities should be tested in the first round of piloting and how this functionality will be delivered by the Technical partners in the first iteration of the software. Work has also begun on project focus groups with industry professionals, designed to generate valuable feedback which will also feed into these useable prototypes. This marks a particularly exciting stage of project involvement for the consortium, as we begin to see the first tangible signs of our hard work coming to fruition. We wait with anticipation to see what our talented Technical partners produce!

Equally exciting is the much anticipated decision regarding which platform of smart-glasses we will be using to develop the final ACCEPT product, and after much deliberation we have decided to use the Moverio BT-200 offering from Epson. Boasting an integrated Android Operating System, touch-pad navigation, and two independent qHD resolution screens (one for each eye), User and Technical partners alike await the arrival of this technology with great excitement!

So what do the next 3-6 months have in store for the project consortium?
As mentioned, project attentions now turn to the first found of pilot programmes across Europe, which are anticipated to commence in Spring 2016 in order to review the initial project prototypes. We are also now in the initial stages of rolling out our dissemination strategy, of which our blog is one small component; developing and running the project twitter feed and social media accounts, and partaking in several international conferences. We already have two key events programmed into the project timetable, the first of which is an international workshop organised by ACCEPT. Hosted in Malaga, and taking place in the Spring, this should set us in good stead for our rapidly approaching Review with the European Commission, which will take place in Brussels.