The Augmented Reality (AR) after some fairly lukewarm beginnings is being seen as a technology with a promising future. Much of this change of image comes from the Pokémon Go phenomenon that about two years ago showed the augmented reality to the general public in a natural way through the characters of the famous video game. This bombshell has served for many programmers that have realized the many possibilities offered by this technology lunging to develop simple applications like in this game, that allow you to use the picture taken with the camera phone and / or GPS position to incorporate 2D and 3D scenes and models to the physical world through mobile screen.
This has meant that we can now find numerous animations using augmented reality in commercial catalogs, advertising panels, tourist applications or educational games for children, among other applications.
Large companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft or Facebook do not want to miss the boat and are taking positions to make the most of the great possibilities provided by the use of augmented reality. At the end of 2017 all of them have been showing platforms and software tools for incorporate augmented reality to their devices.
Google: ARCore is the Google platform that allows you to create augmented reality experiences. In the Google I / O held in May, new applications have been presented, especially for collaborative environments. ARCore is currently available for devices with the latest versions of Android.
Apple: ARKit, included in devices with the iOS11 operating system, allows developers to easily create augmented reality adventures that integrate virtual objects in the real world by combining data from cameras and motion sensor information.
Microsoft: Windows Mixed Reality development kit is a mixed reality platform that allows you to create virtual and mixed reality presenting virtual holograms together with real elements. It is fundamentally developed for the Microsoft Hololens smart glasses.
Facebook has launched AR Studio to create augmented reality effects on the captured images and that people can place 3D objects in their environment and interact with them in real time. The last thing presented is the AR Target Tracking that lets you start the experiences of AR pointing to an image, creating persistent experiences.
Beyond games and entertainment, a very interesting future for AR from the point of view of CARTIF as a research center is the development of applications for professionals in their work environment. Access to information anywhere and on-the-go assistance can make a big difference in speed and efficiency when performing certain tasks. All these tools are intended to reach users through the devices they already have: Smartphones, Tablets or PC. The incorporation of this technology to the work environment (industry, health, logistics…) often comes up against the requirement that workers have their hands free to carry out their work, which they cannot do with the aforementioned devices. In this sense, the Smart Glasses are presented as the most suitable device for this type of environment although after the disappointment of Google glasses launched in 2013, the supply of physical devices of this type on which to develop the applications is scarce.
Despite this, according to a study by Forrester Research, it is estimated that 14.4 million American workers will wear smart glasses to develop their work in the year 2025. CARTIF bet that the incorporation of these devices to industrial processes occurs gradually and workers become accustomed to use these devices as a working tool. Through the use of smart glasses, employees can access detailed instructions and content about the task in question without interrupting their work.
In the industrial environment there are many processes that can provide information in the form of augmented reality quickly and non-invasively. CARTIF, within the HABITAT-RA project, is working to bring this technology to SMEs, using augmented reality for three different aspects:
Monitoring: visualization of information about the state of a machine or process.
Industrial Maintenance: Obtain information and alerts about the periodic tasks of preventive maintenance in machines.
Occupational Risks Prevention: Obtain information and alerts about risk areas and safety perimeters in industrial environments.
In MARCA project, integrated in the water treatment and distribution sector, CARTIF has worked on the development of tools that allow the access of a maintenance operator to advanced support resources based on AR, and advanced intermodal communication using smart glasses.
Finally, in the PUMAN project, an Augmented Reality interface is developed for manual assembly positions in the industry through the guidance and presentation of information on assembly steps in an immersive way. It also informs about the safety risks of the operator.
Although it is still in an incipient phase, the incorporation of augmented reality in the performance of many tasks in the industrial environment can make a big difference in speed and efficiency. There are many factors to improve: the technology is still not mature enough, the high cost of producing augmented reality content or technical limitations of the devices to provide fully immersive experiences. In any case, this technology is in continuous growth. The large companies are betting on it little by little and users are becoming used to having content in the form of AR. The future is to have a device that combines a high optical capacity with communication technologies and the characteristics of a wearable, and whose price allows a massive distribution.
The macrobiotic diet, dissociated, pineapple, onion soup, detox … are infinite diets that have become fashionable since the issues of food and nutrition began to interest me. And it’s not to start in a destructive way but none of them has convinced me from the point of view of a Dietitian-Nutritionist who has always believed in moderation and a balanced diet.
However, there is currently a movement in motion (notice that I say movement and not diet) that is changing my mind: the movement “Realfooding“. Of course, with some nuance.
According to Carlos Ríos, creator of the initiative, “Realfooding” is a lifestyle based on eating real food and avoiding ultra-processed ones. It aims to improve the health of the population through food.
And what is “Realfooding”? By real food is known all those minimally processed foods or whose industrial or artisanal processing has not worsened the quality of the composition or negatively interfered with their naturally occurring healthy properties. Specifically they are vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, tubers and roots, vegetables, fish and seafood, eggs, meat, whole grains, virgin oils, quality dairy products, coffee, cocoa and infusions, herbs and spices. Also considered as real food is the “good processed” which are those with an industrial or artisanal processing beneficial or innocuous for the quality of the food with respect to its healthful properties. The “good processed” are the second-range foods (real foods in canned and semi-preserved), third range (real frozen / deep-frozen foods), fourth range (real foods packed in modified atmospheres), fifth range (real cooked food dishes and vacuum packed).
The movement “Realfooding” is also based on avoiding ultra-processed foods, which include: soft drinks, energy drinks, packaged juices, sugary milk, pastries, white bread, processed meats, commercial and pre-cooked pizzas, cookies, refined grains and bars , chips and snacks, sweets and ice cream, diet products and commercial sauces.
The pillars on which the movement “Realfooding” is based are:
The excess of overweight and obesity in the population
To be healthy: Eat real food
Real food does not focus on calories or nutrients, but on food
Real food is cooked
More market and less supermarket
Real food does not have conflicts of interest
Ultra-processed products are bad for your health
The “Realfooding” initiative encourages people to participate in #challengeamonthwithrealfood, which consists of being a month eating only real food and no ultra-processed food. In this way, the initiative aims to challenge the population to test how they feel by maintaining a healthy eating style. “Realfooding” makes available to the “Realfooders” a series of tools that help them meet the challenge, such as support teams in social networks where they can ask questions, tell their experiences, difficulties and achievements; publication of recipes with real food, etc. You can find all the information on its web.
“Realfooding” could mean the beginning of the change of eating habits that population needs to reduce the high rates of overweight and obesity that currently exist; for that reason it should not be left only in a temporary fad diet but in a practice that lasts over time; a fashion that has come to stay.
Obviously, this initiative does not mean that all lesson learned so far in terms of education campaigns in food and nutrition is useless, but is another tool. Therefore, if you intend to do the “Realfooding” challenge, remember the following keywords:
Variety: In addition to choosing foods within the group of real food, these must be varied, that is, we can not always and only eat meat or rice or natural yogurt, however much it is real food.
Balance: Our body needs nutrients in greater quantity than others and those nutrients are found in different amounts in food. This is the reason why some foods should be consumed more frequently than others. This reminds us of the famous balance diet pyramid of which we spoke in the previous post “malnutrition by excess”.
Culinary technology: It is important to process the chosen foods correctly; for example, the potato is a vegetable considered real food, but better roasted or cooked than fried.
Moderation: beware of the quantities! the fact that the eggs are real food, does not mean that it is beneficial to eat 3 eggs a day.
With respect to the food industry and the regulatory bodies in terms of food, nutrition and health, we must highlight the effort and investment made dailyin the improvement of food safety, in the diversity of packaging, presentations and formats to maintain quality of these foods, more adapted to current society, in the creation of culinary alternatives for people with food intolerances and allergies, etc. However, there is still a long way to go in terms of improving the nutritional profile of food, the regulation of labeling, etc.
From CARTIF we congratulate the creators of “Realfooding” for the initiative and we support real food as the basis of a healthy, varied, balanced and moderate diet but always in the hands of the food industry and the regulatory bodies, who every day work and invest to give food products of higher quality and safety to all population groups.
Retrofitting actions at Torrelago (Spain) district are coming to an end and a new time for reflection, analysis and assessment is about to start. CITyFiED is at the heart of Laguna de Duero (Valladolid, Spain) and has established the foundations towards a more sustainable development of the city and healthier urban environments.
CITyFiED has embraced the Torrelago residents in a democratic process to take part and decide on the renovation actions. At the same time, the CITyFiED representatives have ensured that the retrofitting investments all made economic sense to the residents so they can benefit from them. In a truly cooperative approach, CITyFiED representatives and residents have carried out an extensive demonstration action at Torrelago district from June 2014. All of the main economic and technological aspects in terms of building retrofitting, district heating system upgrade, integration of renewable energy sources and monitoring have been addressed by means of a systemic approach in order to achieve not only significant energy savings and very low CO2 emissions but also remarkable improvements in the residents’ comfort conditions.
Torrelago district renovation means the retrofitting of 143,025 m2 of living space and achieving 1,488 dwelling retrofitting actions for meeting the CITyFiED targets, i.e. reducing the energy demand up to 40% and avoiding at least 3,500 tons of CO2 emissions per year. The 31 buildings have been retrofitted with an external thermal insulation composite system, and the application of the finishing coat with primer and paint coating is only pending in 5 buildings. Dismantling scaffolding will be finished by May 2018.
In parallel to the building renovation action, the old energy system composed of two independent gas-based district heating networks has been upgraded. One of the previous gas boiler rooms has been replaced by a new biomass boiler room of 3.5 MW and the two networks have been merged to build a new multi-source (biomass and gas) district heating system that covers the 80% of the thermal demand with renewable energy sources. In addition, new variable flow pumps, heat exchange substations, individual smart meters and thermostats have been installed, together with a micro-cogeneration system to generate 33 kW of power and 73.4 kW of useful thermal energy.
After the large renovation action, one full year monitoring campaign is approaching and the CITyFiED monitoring platform is ready to collect information from the new energy systems and deliver environmental, technical, economic and social key performance indicators by March 2019.
Energy efficiency is taking its place as a major energy resource in Laguna de Duero city to achieve sustainability and growth targets. Indeed CITyFiED investment in Laguna de Duero, more than 16.5 M€, has provided many different benefits to citizens and other local stakeholders. Whether by directly reducing energy consumption and associated costs, which can enable investment in other goods and services, or facilitating the achievement of other objectives, e.g. making indoor environments healthier or boosting industrial productivity
Citizens, as main users of the city environment, have clear benefits in their daily: raising the economic activity in the city, which has led to a reduction of unemployment with 50 new jobs created in the CITyFiED context, enhancement of their environment and quality of life, and also to be on board for the transition to the concept of smart city of the future, with more comfort at city level and more technology at the service of the citizen. Even utilities and other energy providers benefit in a variety of ways from CITyFiED energy efficiency measures. Direct benefits include lower costs for energy generation, transmission and distribution, improved system reliability, dampened price volatility in wholesale markets and the possibility of delaying or deferring costly system upgrades.
CITyFiED actions in Laguna de Duero has reached more than 4,000 inhabitants that directly benefit from the project actions and their different testimonies on the district retrofitting actions play a key role in the deliberations of CITyFiED representatives. Reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions is not only about adapting new technologies, but ensuring that these technologies are also being accepted by the public. Being able to talk about concrete examples that have proven to be efficient allow us push forward energy retrofitting projects and solutions beyond CITyFiED.
The importance of the train from an economic point of view is beyond dispute. It emerged as one of the most extraordinary innovations in the Industrial Revolution, because although it is true that the first steam locomotives had already been created before, it was during this period when the potential of this new means of transport could be seen.
Over the years, it has become one of the preferred means of transport for citizens, because of its safety and speed, only surpassed by the airplane. Furthermore, in contrast to the use of private vehicles, rail service contributes to fuel economy per passenger and is therefore more sustainable than other means of transport.
According to data from ADIF (Administrator of Railway Infrastructures), in Spain a train passenger consumes 5 times less litres of petrol equivalent per kilometre than traveling by car, and 20 times less than traveling by airplane. Or, for example, transporting one tonne of goods by rail consumes 4 times less litres of petrol equivalent than by road, and 1,380 times less than by air.
But, what about the construction of the railway infrastructure necessary for the movement of trains? Is it sustainable?
This was the premise of the LIFE HUELLAS project, led by CARTIF, together with the companies Vias y Construcciones and IK-Ingeniería and the University of Granada. Its objective was to improve the construction process of railway tracks in terms of their environmental impact, with special emphasis on those aspects that affect climate change.
It should be borne in mind that the railway infrastructure is made up of civil works such as bridges, viaducts, tunnels and service roads, and of the superstructure, made up of rails, sleepers, fastening material, and electrification, signalling and track safety installations. The production, construction and maintenance of all this infrastructure has a high environmental impact.
The LIFE HUELLAS consortium considered that life cycle assessment techniques, combined with intelligent data analysis, could help reduce the carbon and water footprint of railway infrastructure works by 10% and 5% respectively.
After four and a half years of intensive work, the project has managed to reduce an average of 12.9% of the carbon footprint and 14.1% of the water footprint per kilometre built in the works that have been used as pilots, i.e. better results than expected. Quite a success.
The project began with an exhaustive collection of basic information to analyse the environmental impact of the construction of railway networks, based on previously identified variables. Later, participating companies focused their efforts on studying the transformation of environmental impact into carbon and water footprints, through the development of a consolidated assessment methodology.
From this compilation, a smart tool will establish different planning alternatives applying computational intelligence techniques and showing specific values of footprint and previously selected environmental indicators. That is to say, the objective is to help in the decision-making process during the planning phase of the works.
Furthermore, the research team has developed a free online tool that provides a detailed environmental diagnosis of the processes involved in the construction of this type of infrastructure. This tool, available on the project website www.life-huellas.eu, allows the development of railway projects with not only economic, but also environmental and social criteria.
For the development of both tools, the consortium has exhaustively studied more than 460 project units and a collection of relevant sustainability variables and indicators, grouped in:
Environmental indicators: carbon and water footprint, acidification potential, photochemical oxidation and eutrophication.
Social indicators: improving working conditions, health and safety, human rights, governance, community infrastructure and job creation.
Economic indicators: project costs.
Tests were carried out during the demonstration phase of the project in two real works; on the one hand, the Ponte Ambía (Orense)-Taboadela (Orense) section of the Madrid-Galicia high speed line for the track infrastructure, that is for the earthworks (embankments, trenches, tunnels, etc.) and for the factory works (bridges, drainage, viaducts and level crossings); and on the other hand, the Antequera (Málaga)-Loja (Granada) section, for the track superstructure over which the trains run, whose main elements are ballast, sleepers, rail, electrification and signalling.
With the aim of contributing to these processes in terms of sustainability, the consortium has compiled in a guide of Good Practices the main conclusions of the experience acquired during the development of the project, as well as the different sustainable alternatives proposed.
Although LIFE HUELLAS project has already been completed, railway works on which it has been validated have effectively reduced the carbon and water footprint of their construction phase, contributing to the environmental improvement.
In addition, free access to the calculator will remain available at www.life-huellas.eu for anyone to use. You can also find us at networking and dissemination events, transferring gained knowledge, since the objective now is to promote replicability by communicating obtained results to other companies and sectors. For example, many of the railway infrastructure construction operations are common to those that build other infrastructures, such as roads, so they can also benefit from the results of the project.
Industry is one of the sectors with a highest energy demand, being the fossil fuels the main energy source used in the most of the industrial processes. The utilization of this type of fuels in the manufacture process of the industries generates a waste heat that is not usually used, hence these processes are considered as inefficient. Nevertheless, this waste heat can be recovered (and in many cases reincorporated into the same process) by using new strategies and equipment. Therefore, the optimization of the industrial processes and the implementation of renewable energies in them can contribute to reduce the harmful impacts of the energy systems to the environment, while reducing energy consumption.
In addition, it has to mention that the energy recovery contributes to the reduction of production costs of the industries and consequently these gain in competitiveness. However, energy recovering is not easy since it requires of high performance technology and best practices of operation. Furthermore, many factories have complex and autonomous processes that are unlinked to each other or integrated into their environment. On the other hand, each product and manufacture process are specific to each industry so that it is difficult to find a global solution that encompasses energy reduction, renewables integration and energy recovery through a more efficient use of resources, cleaner manufacturing technologies or the recovery of resources.
Traditionally, factors that were taken into account in manufacturing processes were economic, management, production, etc. However, this situation has changed in recent years. Energy efficiency and sustainable management are fundamental aspects that many companies have incorporated in their processes. Aware of that reality, CARTIF is accompanying the companies to incorporate in them the “Factories of Future” concept. An example of work done is the REEMAIN project.
CARTIF moves toward zero carbon manufacturing and Energy Efficiency2.0 through the intelligent employment of renewable energy technologies and resource saving strategies that consider energy purchase, generation, conversion, distribution, utilization, control, storage, re-use in a holistic and integrated way.
From the REEMAIN project experience, we have prepared a brief brochure, in which we have highlighted 13 efficiency measures implemented and tested in three factories, one from agrofood sector, another from textile and one more from iron foundry. These measures were classified into renewable energy integration, energy recovery, recycling and ecological materials use and production, process and product optimization.
Each measure is presented in a short and visual way and is composed of title, summary, savings achieved and key factors for a success implementation. Last input is a recommendation from our side to encourage the industries to replicate the measures already applied in the manufacture process of the democases in order to achieve similar results that in REEMAIN project.
Finally, under the section “Extrapolation to other factories” the replication potential of the measures has been quantified taking into account the next four main factors:
Process of implementation: This item is associated to the investment required for the implementation of the efficient measures, corresponding a high score with a low investment requirement.
Process criticality: This item has in consideration the increase in the complexity of the manufacture process as well as a reduction of the reliability due to the installation of new equipment in the industries. An efficiency measure with high score indicates few or null operation changes, e.g., being easily by-passing in case of breakdown or during the maintenance works.
Expected savings: This item is related to the savings quantification based on different factors
Investment return: This item considers the cost savings and feasibility of the installation in economic terms.
Brochure ends with a visual summary of the total savings achieved in the three factories that were part of the project.
Brochure is online and available for download free here.
It has been estimated that 25%of global population will inhabit countries affected with a continuous shortage of fresh water by 2050. Consequently, facing the objective described in the SDGS is a real challenge and must be tackled by every member of society.
Water demand is relentless rising with a continuously growing global population and as a direct consequence waste and chemicals derived from water conditioning for human consumption are also an increasing threat. More than 80 % of waste water is currently being discharged to natural water flows without any treatment as an average value considering low and high-income countries. This uncontrolled drainage has a huge adverse impact on human health, economic productivity, fresh water natural resources and ecosystems, according to ‘The United Nations World Water Development Report’ from 2017.
Sustainable water management is an essential tool for achieving the water objective in SDGs and every affected agent must be fully compromised for getting free-contaminant water accessible for every human being. Waste water treatment and reuse is key to integral water cycle management and it has amazing benefits for society.
A viable and alternative option for low volume waste water treatment, for example for small and medium size municipalities, is the use of constructed wetlands, imitating natural systems in which water depuration comes from chemical, physical and biological processes occurring thanks to the interaction in soil-water ecosystems.
Constructed wetlands are designed and built so that plant growing in shallow ponds and channels allow a natural ecosystem establishment able to filter and transform contaminants in the water flowing across the wetland.
These alternative depuration systems are considered human made because they are designed and built according to different parameters. Natural depuration mechanisms are imitated but in this case the wetland is sealed in a waterproof manner in the interface soil-wetland so that no waste water is drained towards the natural soil before depuration occurs. Plants and soil substrate are selected according to the location and climate conditions. An important consideration for choosing the vegetable cover is that these plants should be able to tolerate and assimilate a high concentration of contaminants.
Wetland depuration system consists on water flowing across it during a fixed period of time. In the meantime, biochemical microorganisms’ activity acting together with plant oxygen supply and interaction and natural filtering by the substrate itself where everything is embedded allow water depuration with contaminant removal from the waste water.
Plant species grown in these green filters are usually emergent macrophytes, such as reed (Phragmites australis), rush (Scirpus lacustris), bulruchs (Typha spp), lilies, and also some floating plants, for instance duckweed plant (Lemna spp) or water hyacinth and in some cases submerged plants. While choosing species, climate adaptation and local conditions of the wetland location should be taken into account.
The importance of spreading the knowledge and fostering the installation of these wetlands lies in its low cost and energy saving when comparing to traditional depuration techniques. These advantages make of this solution a feasible alternative for small municipalities where waste water treatment is not being applied due to the lack of infrastructure investment. Furthermore, these systems have unquestionable environmental advantages such as the contributions to ecosystems preservation providing optimal conditions for wild species survival including the possibility of restoring habitats and species that were lost due to human activities.
CARTIF is currently participating in the project Poctep Aquamundam. This project has the aim of restoring and optimizing a constructed wetlands in Flores de Ávila (Castilla y León, Spain) among other goals. Water from the sewage treatment plant from this small municipality could be reused (for irrigation as an example) and waste water could be back to the riverTrabancos without disturbing the natural ecosystem. Checking the effectiveness of this alternative depuration system will be done following the population of a small fish, the vermillion, a native species from this river and nowadays under a huge stress due to extreme conditions of the river flow during the last years.
