Experimental platform for the co-creation and experience of new contract leisure spaces through multi-user virtual reality systems
Summary
The leisure industry is one of the sectors that in recent years has advanced the most in proposing multi-channel experiences in order to achieve more customized entertainment experiences for its customers. Additionally, the recent pandemic has made it necessary to update and add new design principles in this specific environment. These new principles now require and will require - post-pandemic - an adaptation of physical leisure spaces that takes into account new attributes, such as the multi-functionality of the space or the enhancement of the perception of hygiene, safety and the well-being of the client. Therefore, in order to remain competitive, the leisure space must assimilate this type of intervention by way of new contract projects.
One of the main results of the ContractVR project will be the co-creation of a conceptual space (or Concept Room) that allows a response, from an interior design point of view, to emerging consumer needs and to the habits of families who use leisure spaces. This conceptual space will serve as a laboratory of ideas for the managers of these types of spaces in the near and distant future. Furthermore, it will serve as a specific instrument to structure an open process for the exploration, reflection and design of new interior design experience challenges and opportunities.
In a way that is novel for the contract-hospitality sector, the validation of the Concept Room developed by the project will be carried out in a real-time, multi-user, holo-communications environment. This technology, developed by the i2CAT Foundation, will make it possible to virtually validate and experience the conceptual space developed by ContractVR, within a context closer to the reality of the final space.
Results transferable to companies
The results of the project will be applied to the digitization, process improvement and increased competitiveness - within the value chain - of the design and equipping of contract spaces in the leisure industry, and will be aimed specifically at:
Manufacturers of equipment for contract spaces, promoting their capacity for innovation in the design and manufacture of products for contract spaces intended for leisure and empowering their role in every phase of the interior design process for the space.
Interior design studios or architects in charge of renovating the space, shifting from the unidirectional and periodic presentation of 3D representations towards a continuous and co-creative design experience.
Managers and promoters of leisure spaces, minimizing risks and reducing costs, thanks to a better understanding of the expected performance of the equipment to be used in the space.
Clients or end users of the space, by way of new mechanisms that allow for the remote evaluation of the quality of the experience, in addition to allowing for a more direct and precise way of introducing any necessary modifications.
Financing
Innovative Business Groups Program (AEI) of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism: AEI-010500-2021-180.
Industrial research into the development of new applications of artificial intelligence and neuroscience for the adaptive design of evidence-based habitat products
Industrial research into the development of new applications of artificial intelligence and neuroscience for the adaptive design of evidence-based habitat products
Summary
Currently, there is a growing demand to customize the use of habitat products. In particular, greater attention is being paid to the specific uses and contexts in which these products are going to be used by customers and users with the purpose of customizing their experience - in advance and to the maximum - while ensuring their functionality and comfort.
In this context, the research carried out by the EVIDENCE project will make novel use - for the sector - of artificial intelligence and neuroscience principles in order to establish precisely how perception, emotional response and user behavior relate to the design attributes of a habitat product and to the physical-environmental aspects of the real environment in which the product is installed or located.
In this way, EVIDENCE will promote the generation of new knowledge regarding the use of new intelligent systems that allow one to identify and objectively measure the daily or spontaneous interactions of users with the products, later converting this new data source into a specific set of design parameters for the manufacturer.
Results transferable to companies
The results of the project will be applied to the digitization and improvement of processes within the value chain of the manufacture, design, distribution and installation of products in the habitat sector, specifically:
Habitat product designers, manufacturers and distributors, facilitating a transition from a deterministic or static product design (traditional orientation) to an adaptive and dynamic product design, more customized, which, furthermore, allows for a continuous relationship between customers/end users and the product manufacturer, distributor and influencer well after the product has been sold.
Habitat product influencers (such as interior design studios or architects), facilitating access to more customized products and to new empirical data relating to the performance of a product and its influence on the composition of the space. This will allow said influencers to reinforce their layer of differential value in the projects they manage.
Project promoters or space managers, facilitating their decision-making in the final acquisition of habitat products providing the end user with a higher Quality of Experience and more in line with the general experience intended for the space.
Financing
Innovative Business Groups Program (AEI) of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism: AEI-010500-2021-158
La sostenibilidad de los negocios significa no sólo el suministro de productos y servicios que satisfagan al cliente y que consideren los aspectos medioambientales, sino también operar de una manera socialmente responsable (RSC).
RSContract: Eina de diagnòstic RSC per a la PIME en el canal contract
Resumen
La sostenibilidad de los negocios significa no sólo el suministro de productos y servicios que satisfagan al cliente y que consideren los aspectos medioambientales, sino también operar de una manera socialmente responsable (RSC).
Algunos operadores contract (hoteles) lideran iniciativas con atributos de responsabilidad social valorados por sus clientes. Estos hoteles valoran a su vez que sus proveedores apliquen políticas RSC, que les permiten una cierta "trazabilidad".
El proyecto RSCcontract tiene como finalidad impulsar el desarrollo de la RSC, entendida como herramienta estratégica, para mejorar la competitividad de las empresas fabricantes de productos de interiorismo por el canal contract-hospitality y para reforzar su compromiso creciente con la sociedad y las comunidades en las que estas entidades desarrollan sus actividades.
Resultados transferibles a las empresas
RSContract ayudará a las empresas a:
Disponer de herramientas específicas para diagnosticar su grado de desarrollo y despliegue de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa.
Favorecer su implicación consciente en el desarrollo sistemático de actividades socialmente responsables como una fuente sostenible de diferenciación y competitividad empresarial.
Promover la colaboración y la compatibilidad entre sus actividades y las actuaciones de RSC lideradas por empresas del sector hospitality, cada vez más exigentes en la trazabilidad de la cadena de suministro de productos contract.
Desarrollar atributos tangibles (calidad) o intangibles (reputación e imagen) que permitan mejorar la fidelidad de la clientela ya existente y / o el acceso a otra nueva.
Orientar las prioridades de acción en materia de responsabilidad social y conocer instrumentos específicos para desplegar su estrategia RSC.
Financiación
ACCIÓ - Agencia para la Competitividad de la empresa de la Generalitat de Cataluña. Iniciatives de reforç de la competitivitat. Num. Expedient: IRCR19-1-0035
Research of computer-based solutions to redesign spaces and interior design products in exhibition venues for the retail sector
Abstract
The high cost of physical assets, the need to omptimize the use of space, the incorporation of new technological infrastructures, the hybridization of the physical and digital worlds, the acquisition of new buying habits and changes in product promotion strategies are radically transforming the models of experience and relationship in retail spaces.
As a result of this situation, in recent years there has been evidence of an evolution in this sector towards the developement of showrooms or specialized commercial spaces where the cretion of a ritual and a common, close and shared experience is promoted around the act of knowing the news and products of a brand.
In this context, it is a priority to advance in a scientific and systematic approach that allows the objetive and empiric assessment of the impact that interior design has over changes in perception, emotion and behaviour of visitors who come to these product exhibition spaces.
That's why VITA project's main objetive is to investigate, in new and pioneering ways in the habitat sector, the use of capabilities such as computer vision technology and principles of neuroscience to develop new decision software projects aimed at supporting creative decisions of changes in the interior design of exhibition spaces for habitat products in the retail sector (showrooms).
Results transferable to companies
The results of the project will be applied to the digitalization and improvement of processes within the value chain of the design and equipment of exhibition spaces for habitat products in the retail sector. In particular:
Showrooms managers and promoters, through better management of operational and commercial processes, as well as defining new or supplementary services aimed at their product suppliers and interior designers.
Manufacturers and distributors of habitat products, by streamlining product redesign and testing new innovative atributes.
Interior design studios or architects in charge of introducing reforms in spaces, thanks to the availability of empirical knowldege about the efficiency of different interior design products, configurations and creativities.
Financing
Innovative Business Groups Program (AEI) of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism: AEI-010500-2021b-130
By oriol 
