A customised eAvatar, a virtual guide dog and drones for long-distance visual control: winning ideas of "think innovation"

Indra's head offices hosted the awards ceremony, officiated by the Secretary General for Science, Technology and Innovation, Román Arjona together with Indra's COO Javier de Andrés, yesterday June 12. Other participants in the event included Josep Piqué, head of the panel of judges, and Emma Fernández, General Manager of Talent, Innovation and Strategy at Indra.

eAvatar, the idea that won the first prize, is a service that allows the creation of 3D customised humanoids through image processing. This can be used in purchasing clothes in eCommerce, in interactive cinema and video games, or in healthcare to simulate processes and procedures.

The second prize went to the virtual guide dog for the blind. This proposal consists of an application for mobile devices, which warns blind people of physical obstacles and calculates optimal routes by combining the use of the mobile's video camera with visual pattern recognition technology and GPS.

The third prize went to the drones, an idea that proposes the development of unmanned vehicles to reduce risks and dangers for operators by "giving them vision" in a place that under normal circumstances is not accessible.

The prize for these winning ideas is the design of a business plan. Indra will contribute its human and intellectual capacity, together with its work methodology to study the way to promote these projects and turn them into a reality, in addition to studying, with the creators, the possibility of a partnership agreement.

The awards ceremony was attended by 10 of the 12 creators of the shortlisted proposals and by several members of the panel of judges that chose the three winning ideas: Josep Piqué, head of the panel of judges; Adelaida de la Calle, Chairwoman of the CRUE; Elías Atienza, CEO of CTA (Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía); Javier Santiso, Director of Telefónica Europe's CEO office; and Carlos de la Cruz, Evaluation Director of the CDTI, who attended in representation of Elisa Robles, the organisation's Director General. Other members of the panel of judges were Percival Manglano, Economic advisor to the Regional Government of Madrid; Mónica Margarit, General Manager of The Prince of Girona Foundation; and Baudilio Tomé, member of the European Courts of Accounts.

R&D serving citizens

During the awards ceremony, the Secretary General for Science, Technology and Innovation expressed his satisfaction with Indra's initiative since it demonstrates how the Spanish R&D system can serve citizens. "The winning innovative solutions will help tackle social challenges and, when a business plan is drawn up, the full R&D cycle will have been completed, from the conception of the idea to its commercialisation in the market, something that we at the Government want to encourage".

Javier de Andrés, COO of the multinational technology company, explained that Indra promoted “Think Innovation” as an act of coherence because innovation is in the company's DNA. "The success of the initiative is that it consists of a dialogue between an innovative company and creative potential, of innovation, found in society, a dialogue that calls on those people who look to the future and imagine new solutions to today's problems". Mr de Andrés went on to say that "right now technology and innovation are not an option; they are a requirement".

The head of the panel of judges, Josep Pique, underscored that during difficult times, like the present, initiatives such as that of Indra that "seek and encourages entrepreneurial and creative people who innovate through harnessing technology" are important. Piqué announced the winning ideas and thanked the members of the panel of judges for carrying out the difficult task of assessing the proposals "because all of them deserved a prize”.

Open innovation competition

Among the characteristics of “Think Innovation”, special mention must be made of its public and open character. Through a mechanism by which the ideas were posted on Indra's website, they were shared with all those wishing to see them and users were able to support them and make comments. This was all possible thanks to Indra's i-Participa platform for digital processes for open innovation and participation.

With more than 1,500 ideas received, 250,000 views of the ideas and 10,000 registered users of 18 different nationalities, as well as more than 12,000 supports and thousands of comments on the proposals, the figures demonstrate the interest stirred by "Think Innovation". Moreover, the activity grew exponentially during the competition and the initiative was also a great success on social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Innovation as a key value

With €550 million invested in the last three years, Indra is the number two company in Europe in R&D in the Computer Services sector, according to a report published by the European Commission. Indra's quest for innovation in 2011 led to an investment of €189 million and near to 300 R&D projects. This represents 7.2% of sales revenue in comparison to the average amount of a little over 1% in Spain and to the average figure in developed countries (USA, Japan, etc.), which stands somewhere in the region of 3%.