Tag ‘research’
Today, we launch some changes to the structure of the part of the Commission that leads on the Digital Agenda for Europe. I know changes in the Commission’s internal plumbing might be of limited interest outside the Brussels bubble. But for me it represents and echoes something much more significant. Read the full entry
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Almost 100 million Europeans play video games every day. It’s becoming one of the most popular sources of entertainment worldwide. But what if we started using computer games for therapy?
The European Commission has funded a great research project that explores the potential benefits of 3-D games in the healthcare sector. Researchers that have developed the Playmancer videogame found that playing games can help alleviate the negative effects of mental disorders and support patients to better cope with regular therapy. It can help patients to control certain aspects of their personality, like impulsivity or anxiety. For instance, if the player has to cross a river in the game, the water level follows the patient’s heart rate so he has to stay calm. The videogame teaches patients to understand their different states of mind and how they can control different reactions to sadness, anxiety or frustration. This helps patients who suffer from bulimia or anorexia and other emotional illnesses like chronic depression to ease their symptoms and improve the organisation of daily tasks so that they can achieve the goals they are looking for.
If you want to see how the game works and how therapists and their patients are benefiting, have a look at this great video here. Congratulations to the researchers who are exploring gaming for other sectors than entertainment and solving specific health problems by using virtual technology!
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Hello everybody,
I hope you haven’t all been stuck in airports for too long during Xmas break! It’s been a truly (chaotic) white Christmas for most of us! I hope you’ve all made it safely back to work. As you know 2011 brings along a loaded agenda to keep on delivering the Digital Agenda for Europe. Just to give you a foretaste. Only a few days ago I read that eCommerce is expected to grow by 19% worldwide this year. In Europe alone the eCommerce market is worth between 100 and 150 billion € per year so that’s an opportunity we can’t miss out on. One of the things I’ll be looking forward to very much this year is working with our partners to update EU-wide eCommerce rules for online markets –a key priority under the Digital Agenda. Online retailing is hugely successful in the Member States but there are still too many barriers for easy cross-border purchases. As many as 60% of attempted cross-border internet shopping orders fail due to technical or legal reasons, like the refusal of non-domestic credit cards. As long as we have a market with borders, there can be no true digital single market. I hope we can change that together so that all 500 million EU citizens and businesses can take advantage from that huge economic window of opportunity. That’s why I want to see at least 50% of the population buying online by 2015 and 20% of EU citizens buying cross-border goods and services on the internet by 2015.
At the same time we also need to look at what we have delivered already! To start 2011 on a happy note, I’m pleased to announce you that European researchers have succeeded in developing simple remote controls for the elderly, disabled and visually impaired to make their lives easier at home! Most of us have just spent the holidays with people we love and hold dear, making us feel like we are part of something important. My job as a politician is to create that feeling on a larger scale. We need to build an inclusive society so that none of us have to feel like we are missing out on something. Research can be an important building block in that sense. Whether it helps to accurately detect breast cancer or disaster workers to save lives, the EU is concerned about reaching out to citizens and making their lives easier. I congratulate all these bright researchers who have done exactly that with the support of the EU.
Have a great year all.
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The Commission is in the process of launching a new public-private partnership (PPP) on the Future Internet, which I have just spoken about in Valencia.
It’s very exciting for two reasons.
1. We need to do much more of this sort of united research to deal with the really huge challenges facing Europe – so we bridge the gap between our great ideas and the marketplace, and 2. The output of this partnership could change our lives radically.
This is the next internet revolution – creating the platforms that will let us use information and sensor networks in much more sophisticated ways. To improve traffic, change how we farm, save on energy bills, name it. Imagine, for example, a public services version of the App Store. Wouldn’t that be a great outcome?
Giving my speech on the Future Internet
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