The ACERCA-T project aims at developing an advanced platform for electronic public services in a local environment for digital terrestrial television (DTT)

The project will promote the commercialisation of an economic solution enabling the entities interested in electronic service provision for DTT in a local environment to put easily into operation new applications, avoiding the costly investments in equipment and training required nowadays, by means of resource sharing (systems and transmission capacity) and friendly tools and interfaces for system capacity sharing.

Objectives

The strategic objectives targeted by the ACERCA-T project are the following

Design and exploitation of an innovative solution for the deployment of interactive DTT services that:
- uniformly support the services of several public entities, coordinated by a super-entity in DTT local networks.
- make it possible using conventional tools for the deployment of web services for the creation and management of DTT interactive applications, facilitating the participation of staff without specific DTT expertise.
- enable public electronic services, used by citizens in a safe and easy way by means of intelligent cards.
- ensure the proper operation of applications in a real DTT network, using commercially available receivers.
Facilitate the development and use of Information Society services for all the citizens by means of television, offering security thanks to the electronic signature and authentication based on cryptographic cards.
Innovation in the development of DTT interactive applications and secure public electronic services based on digital identification and signature.

To give response to these objectives, a system was designed for the development, distribution and testing of pilot DTT interactive applications within the scope of electronic services for the local administration. In particular, the project involves the design, development and testing of a series of pilot services to demonstrate the feasibility of implementation and usability of the more advanced features of DTT electronic applications for the local administration. These services are oriented to the provision of municipal electronic services by means of Television, facilitating access to all citizens to the Information Society.

Project Structure

The picture shows the different elements deployed in the premises of each entity involved in the system: the ACERCA-T system manager, the content provider, the electronic service provider and the service user.

Project Results

The ACERCA-T project fulfilled successfully all the objectives, ending on June 2008. The tasks in the last phase of the project included the development, integration, validation and tests. A functional prototype according to the project reference architecture was prepared. The prototype consists of three main blocks interconnected as shown in the following figure:

The applications finally developed, deployed and tested in the project prototype have been:

Municipal general information application, of Informative type, including dynamic content management based on web templates.
Ticket checking and booking application for local events, of Interactive type.
List of Inhabitants Data Checking and Modification, of Transactional type with electronic user authentication based on digital certificates installe on cryptographic cards CERES from the "Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre".

The developed applications present an attractive visual format and offer an easy and intuitive navigation scheme by means of the DTT receiver remote control.

Each of these applications can be started from a main application or service portal, which is, besides an application launcher, an usage guide for those applications.

Co-funded by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce under the 2004-2007 National Plan for Scientific Research, Development and Technological Innovation.

Co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)