Archives: Pilots

Pilots

Pilots

5G Interactive City

5G Interactive City allows visitors to discover the interior of monuments, shops, and entities, to view related content and to shop online using a 5G-enabled mixed reality headset. 

Partners: Grup MEDIAPRO, Visyon, Orange, Ericsson, and 5G Barcelona  

Collaborators: La Pedrera, Casa Batlló, Hotel Monument, Hotel Majestic, Hotel Royal, Mango, Rabat, Santa Eulàlia, Agència Catalana de Turisme, Turisme de Barcelona, Gremi d’Hotels de Barcelona and Associació del Passeig de Gràcia  

Sector: Media and Entertainment, Smart Cities and Tourism  

Use case: 5G technology for an immersive experience with mixed reality.  

Description of technology:  

The pilot project consists of a tour through emblematic spaces in Barcelona’s Passeig de Gràcia, in which the user can live an immersive experience with mixed reality. This is possible thanks to the Magic Leap glasses, based on spatial computing, which allow the user to interact with 3D digital content projected in the real world. The headset viewer is translucent and overlays digital and interactive content in the user’s visual field, making possible a unique experience of interaction with monuments, entities and shops in the cities.  

The experience is possible thanks to the superband associated with 5G, which enables downloading volumetric videos (with a large amount of information) at very high speed, and the low latency of the technology, which allows the user to interact with a virtual world in real-time.  

The pilot is possible thanks to the Orange network with Ericsson’s 5G technology, with commercial radio equipment and 5G core on NSA technology (non-stand alone) in the 3.5Hz band that meets the 3GPPP standard. This innovative use case is part of Ericsson’s collaboration with Orange that began in late 2018 as part of the 5G pilots in Barcelona.  

Main solution or advance offered by the technology:  

The pilot project allows the generation of tourist experiences adapted to the new digital reality and the new technological devices, which will exponentially increase the possibilities of offering virtual and immersive content for tourists and citizens.  

Status: Finished 

Pilots

5G First Responders

‘5G First Responders’ aims to improve attention in medical emergencies during the first moments, a key time to save lives and prevent serious injuries. During the pilot test, a policeman attended a medical emergency in the street by connecting in real-time with a doctor located in Parc Taulí hospital in Sabadell.  

Partners: Mobile World Capital, Consorci Sanitari del Parc Taulí, Cisco, Orange, and Ericsson  

Collaborators: Sabadell City Council and the Government of Catalonia  

Sector: Health and Healthcare, Emergencies

Use case: 5G technology for emergencies.

Description of technology:  

The pilot test consists of a situation where a child simulates suffering an epileptic seizure on the street. The first person to attend him is a local policeman who initiates the care procedure upon connecting with paediatric emergencies at Parc Taulí hospital through a devide equipped with a camera that can be used to share images in real time. He is therefore able to receive instructions from the doctor, who gives instructions on how to provide primary care and stabilise the patient.  

The connection between the policeman and the pediatrician is made with the RealWear HMT device (which fits on the head and allows for sharing of high-quality video. It is, moreover, voice-operated, which leaves the policeman or policewoman’s hands free to help the patient), together with the “Expert On-Demand” communication application from Cisco (a software client based on WebexTeams – Android SDK 1.0).  

The “Expert On Demand” service running on the HMT device initiates a video call, during which the video transmission allows the remote physician to see through the agent’s eyes and provide immediate assistance. The device also allows for the sharing of graphical information, including data represented on maps and annotations about the images the officer is sending.  

The pilot relies on the Orange network with Ericsson’s 5G technology, with commercial 5G radio and core equipment on NSA (non-stand alone) technology in the 3.5Hz band that complies with the 3GPPP standard. This innovative use case is part of Ericsson’s collaboration with Orange that began in late 2018 as part of the 5G pilots in Barcelona.  

Main solution or advance offered by the technology:  

The use of this solution with 5G technology allows the transmission of high-quality images and processed data in a few milliseconds. It combines the collaboration software, hardware, and 5G network to optimize the first care, and has a great impact on health, emergencies, and security since it allows a fast and effective response in the care of people in critical condition.  

Status: Finished

Pilots

5G Connected Ambulance

A 5G-connected ambulance is a vehicle equipped with advanced multi-technology and communication services that uses a 5G network and dedicated communication to receive specialized remote support in real-time via high-definition video while caring for a patient inside an ambulance, for example. In the near future, it will be able to connect the health and medical emergency unit with other vehicles (V2V) or infrastructures (V2i) in order to get through traffic more quickly and reach the hospital more quickly.

The ambulance has a camera located inside the cabin where health and medical emergency professionals care for the patient, and it can be activated by emergency medical technicians, physicians, and/or nurses when needed. A double image is sent in real-time via a tablet: the patient’s appearance within the ambulance, along with the monitor showing the patient’s vitals and electrocardiogram. At the same time, there is a conversation between the ambulance team and the physician, who provides instructions to assist in the patient’s care.

The ambulance also has two exterior cameras: one in front and the other in the back, which can record outside images in situations where it is important, such as in a terrorist attack or traffic accident.

Partners: Government of Catalonia, SEM, Vodafone, i2CAT, IECISA, and 5G Barcelona

Sector: Health and Medical Emergencies

Use case: Specialised remote support for health and medical emergency professionals when dealing with complicated medical emergencies or when a certain level of specialization is needed (such as a birth, a patient with a complex critical illness, a suspected heart attack or stroke) with high-definition video in real-time during patient care inside the ambulance.

Description of technology:

The 5G technology in the connected ambulance allows:

  • Data transmission speed to increase to up to more than 5 Gbps.
  • Slicing or deployment and efficient operation of virtual dedicated mobile networks, which provide a slice or network dedicated to medical emergencies and care in order to guarantee service and communication capacity regardless of the number of users in the same communication cell. The allocation of resources among the different services provided can be controlled flexibly through radio slicing.
  • Minimum delays in communications compared to 4G networks (end-to-end 5G networks reach latencies of up to 5 ms) for both communication services and data-sending.
  • The ambulance to become a node or base station in the network. The fact that an ambulance has 5G connectivity will allow it to extend its network to an access network.
  • Mass connectivity for IoT devices (it will allow for communication with multiple sensors, actuators and smart devices in the region, in the vicinity of the ambulance and inside the ambulance itself).

Main solution or advance offered by the technology:

Dedicated communication in real-time with high-definition video to receive specialized remote support during patient care inside the ambulance.

Status: Finished

Pilots

5G Connected Car

The 5G Connected Car pilot project, developed by SEAT, Telefónica, Ficosa, ETRA, Qualcomm and 5G Barcelona, with the collaboration of i2CAT, CTTC and UPC, combines the benefits of 5G technology such as low latency and edge computing in 2 fields: road safety and information and entertainment. The connected 5G car allows the driver to be alerted of hazards outside his field of perception in 3 use cases:

  • Pedestrian detection: the connected car receives an alert of an intelligent traffic light when a pedestrian is at a pedestrian crossing.
  • Bicycle detection: through a beacon system established in the area, the connected car detects a bicycle equipped with a connectivity unit.
  • Obstacle detection: through car-to-car communication, a car blocking the road notifies the 5G Connected Car of its situation and warns the driver about the obstacle of the road.

This pilot is the first step towards a totally cooperative and autonomous driving. In addition, the pilot project will also address  information and entertainment by allowing real-time transmission of 4K content in the car.

Partners: SEAT, Telefónica, FICOSA, ETRA, Qualcomm, i2CAT, CTTC, UPC and 5G Barcelona

Sector: Automotive industry

Technology description: 

The characteristics of 5G technology such as low latency and edge computing (technology that simplifies the traffic of IoT devices and allows the analysis of local data in real time) are what will allow communication between the car, the infrastructure and the rest of vehicles in circulation.

Main solution / advance offered by the technology:

A 5G mobile network improves communication between the car, the road infrastructure and other vehicles by sending alerts to the connected car in case of danger, obstacles or changing conditions.

Status: Finished

Pilots

Emergency management with drones

The management of fire extinction and the subsequent control of the extinct perimeter requires the availability of global information about the affected area as well as knowing the position of the different personnel that intervenes. In this type of tasks, it is very useful to use a drone that provides the area vision, together with the processing of the information for the geo-localization of the fire and the firefighters in the field.

The availability of final images in real-time, both by the troops deployed in the field and by the rest of the security forces, is essential for efficient emergency management and to protect the lives of firefighters.

Fire management begins with the activation of a flight plan for the drone, defining the area of action, and parameterizing the information to be received. The sensors installed onboard the drone (high-resolution cameras and thermal imaging cameras) can detect temperature and record video in high resolution. This information is sent to the base station, which is responsible for processing it to add the geo-referencing of the images, the temperature scale, and the position of the available troops in the field.

The final video processed is sent to the broadband network based on 5G technology, specifically designed for emergency management, for distribution and viewing in real-time by security bodies. The availability of images in real-time allows effective management of deployed personnel as well as reducing the possibility of damage.

The system is especially useful both in the fire extinction phase and in the subsequent control and monitoring of the extinct perimeter, allowing an optimized management of the troops and guaranteeing their safety.

Partners: Cellnex, Sitep, MasMovil, 5G Barcelona

Sector: Security and emergencies

Use case:

  • Use of drones with temperature sensors and high-resolution camera for the management of fire extinction and the control of the extinct perimeter.
  • Geolocation of the fire and of the troops that intervene in the field.
  • Distribution of images in real-time through a dedicated broadband network.

Description of the technology:

The pilot relies on the use of four basic technologies:

  1. First, the network dedicated to emergency management and security, based on 5G technology and using the licensed frequency of 700 MHz. This type of network has a bandwidth capable of distributing video in real-time. Additionally, when using frequencies licensed in the UHF band, it has a high propagation capacity and low losses due to obstacles.
  2. Secondly, the helicopter type drones with an autonomy greater than 5 hours and equipped with high-resolution cameras and thermographic sensors.
  3. Third, the processing of information at the edge of the network (edge computing) that allows the processing of data to add very useful information in the management of fire extinction (geo-referencing of images and addition of scales of adjustable temperature) prior to sending through the communications network for real-time distribution to end-users.
  4. Finally, ultra narrowband technology (SigFox) is used to send information on the position and movement of the troops deployed at the scene of the fire.

Main solution or advance offered by the technology:

Sending geo-referenced images, with temperature scale and position of the personnel deployed in the field, through a broadband communications network for real-time viewing.

Status: Finished

Pilots

Remote Surgeon

The project Remote Surgeon combines the characteristics of telestration applied to the surgical tele-assistance through the adaptation of an operating room with 5G technology for a specialist surgeon to guide without being physically present and in real time to the surgeon who is operating in the operating room. Telecare is possible thanks to the reduction of the latency that the 5G allows since it makes the operation transmit in real time and without delays.

To achieve this goal, the Optimus operating room at the Hospital Clínic has been adapted, an integrated robotic and digital operating theater that incorporates technologies such as big data or intelligent lighting, so that it is possible to include the AIS Channel technological solution that registers, in a format audiovisual, everything that happens in the operating room and from all possible angles, and sends this information to the outside in real time for the attending surgeon to have available all the possible data of the patient’s condition.

Likewise, Vodafone has transformed the current operating room into a ‘wireless’ operating room, which will make it possible to optimize latency between the connected elements of the operating room and the smartphone or tablet device. The design of a streaming solution that allows live broadcasting in high quality and low latency is also planned, and a cloud environment will be created to store all the generated video safely. With this telemedicine technique, it will also be possible to carry out remote training, since the training surgeon and his team will be able to monitor the implementation of these procedures remotely.

In this way, the technique involves a real democratization of knowledge and advances in surgery. In addition, this technology will allow to extend this project globally, which represents a radical change in the way of transferring medical knowledge.

Partners: Vodafone, AIS Channel, Hospital Clínic and 5G Barcelona

Sector: Sanitary (Telemedicine)

Use case: Telecare in remote surgical operations in real time using 5G technology.

Status: Finished

Piloto

Telemanaged Robotic Platform with 5G

During the operational tasks of a factory or a warehouse, it is necessary to move a multitude of elements from one side of the enclosure to another. For this reason, autonomous robotic platforms are increasingly being implemented more frequently in the industrial sector. However, there are complex situations that the robotic platform itself is not capable of solving on its own and human intervention is required to remote-control these devices. For this reason, it is necessary to provide systems to these robotic elements that allow their control from a remote control center through immersive presence technologies that allow to control the robot by a human at a distance having all the information of the environment that surrounds it.

Partners: Acciona and Orange

Sector: Industrial

Use case: Robotization applied to industrial logistics.

Description of the technology:

A robotic autonomous platform MIR200 with a system of 2D and 360 cameras will be used to allow it to be remote controlled thanks to the 5G communications technology that allows the 2D and 360 video feed to be able to retransmit with low latency.

Main solution or advance offered by the technology:

Reduction in the latency of communications thanks to the use of 5G.

Status: Finished