About the DISTINCT Project

This project explores the practical application of Disruptive Technologies in public service provision. This includes use of Virtual Reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain in health and social care, environmental management and training.



What are Disruptive technologies?

Disruptive technology is an innovation that significantly alters the way that consumers, industries, or businesses operate. A disruptive technology sweeps away the systems or habits it replaces because it has attributes that are recognizably superior.

In DISTINCT we focus in the following technologies
  • Internet of Things (IoT): describes the network of small physical objects, that are packed with sensors, software, and other technologies to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet.
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI): describes software, machines, computers or devices that can mimic functions of the human mind such as learning, perceiving their environment, solving a problem or successfully achieving goals.
  • Virtual Reality (VR): use of special headsets/devices to generate realistic images, sounds and other sensations that simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual environment. The user is able to look and move around and interact with virtual objects.
  • Augmented Reality (AR): interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities.
  • Blockchain: Blockchain is a growing distributed list of data records, called blocks, linked using cryptography. It is resistant to modification and can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way.

Why are disruptive technologies important?

Successful application can save costs, increase viability, improve use of scarce human resources, span distances and improve decision making. However, the small number and concentration of disruptive technology research and innovation centers, allied with low levels of awareness, present serious blocks to realizing this improvement.

 

About this questionnaire

This questionnaire is intended to increase awareness among public authorities by discovering applications and estimating potential demand, of how particular disruptive technologies can be applied to particular public services in remote and sparsely populated areas.

 

Disclaimer

The responses received will be treated anonymous. The contact details are requested with the only purpose of contacting to share results and inviting to future project activities and won’t be made public.

Although we encourage you to respond to all the questions, you are free to decline to answer any particular question you do not wish to answer for any reason. The answers to the questionnaire will be used to help us better prepare our project workshops that will be conducted in the future, which you are invited to attend.

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