Closer together thanks to the evolution of our Smart Society

This video has been edited afterwards to show you what TNO people see when they look to the future with their mind's eye. Within a TNO test setup 'Being together at a distance' is a working concept. However, a handy consumer version with the image quality as sketched in the video is still futuristic.

In order to realise this, we are looking for partners who, with our help, want to make the technology ripe for the market, so that major societal challenges can be addressed. So join us or spread the word and help us bridge the distance for good!

Social XR connects digital worlds with reality

The corona pandemic is causing more and more people around the world to stay indoors. They face challenges such as working remotely, studying, socialising and buying services. So they are eagerly awaiting the first large-scale communication service that is able to link the real and the virtual in an easily accessible way.

TNO's extended reality software (XR) makes it possible to 'cut out' real-time 180 degree video images of people at a different location and 'paste' or project them over reality in 3D. In this way, 'being together at a distance' becomes possible since the feeling of the other person being in the same space is much stronger. This is a solution for many corona-related problems, but also to guarantee, for example, the availability of scarce services in sectors such as (smart) industry and healthcare. 

The technology is being further developed for specific market applications, but broad acceptance does not happen by itself. Moreover, the question arises as to how the government can ensure that these developments do not harm the privacy of citizens. These issues are closely related and require an integral approach in which TNO's knowledge and experience can help. We do this in a number of ways:

Dutch XR Innovation requires accelerated time to market

The overwhelming potential of XR applications for the business sector also offers unprecedented opportunities, for example for the media entertainment, healthcare and mobility sectors. Imagine that you can really experience the Eurovision Song Contest from your living room. Or a top specialist being able to perform knee surgery in another country. 

The pressure to develop and market new XR applications is enormous, and the competition is fierce. In order to be able to stake a timely claim in this very dynamic market, decisiveness and rapid time to market are vital. In its Medialab, TNO is working on a generic open source XR development platform for social and shared experiences, enabling many scenarios and significantly reducing time to market for start-ups and scale-up companies. This accelerates a whole range of new possibilities, grafted on XR technology.

TNO cooperates with organisations in all kinds of sectors in the development of new XR applications. Discover how this can help your organisation move forward.

Paving the way for tomorrow's digital infrastructure

In order to give this acceleration within our smart society a real chance, an upgrade of the digital infrastructure is essential. Our digital infrastructure in the Netherlands is one of the most advanced in the world. But these new technologies require a lot more of the existing digital infrastructure and will only become commonplace if they work accurately, cheaply and without too much equipment on a large scale, and are available everywhere.

That is why we are working hard to ensure close cooperation between consumer service providers, platform developers and digital infrastructure providers. This is the only way in which we in the Netherlands and Europe can make this acceleration without delay.

See how we can help pave the Dutch digital highways for tomorrow's services. 

manageable smart society requires an orchestrating role from the government

If the current corona crisis has made anything clear, it is that for a manageable Dutch smart society it is crucial to invest more in ICT technologies such as XR, AI, quantum technology and federated cloud services to enable working at a distance, caring at a distance, education at a distance and less travel to develop further.

It is precisely ICT that can take on this cross-sectoral, international and innovative role, making it possible for the government to listen to deviating sounds and voices in the digital society when they unite online. And it can help organise and signal to achieve a real social impact.

Find out how our governments can take an orchestrating role in the digitalisation of society, in order to better prepare our society for the challenging future.