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The monitoring of data in different areas and the subsequent intelligent control has become an important  field of research and development that can be applied in various domains: patients, the elderly, animals, crops and soils.

These possibilities have been the reason for the creation of the EKRUCAmI Project in 2013, which had been in continuous development until the end of last year, a period of fruitful international collaboration between the Polytechnic Institute of Porto (Portugal), Catholic University of Daegu (Republic of Korea) National University of Sunchon (Republic of Korea) and the BISITE Research Group (University of Salamanca, Spain).

The project has been funded by the European Commission (Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IRSES. Marie Curie Action "International Research Staff Exchange Scheme". Reference: 318878)

The EKRUCAmI project has had as its focus the research that is being carried out, on the use of Ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) and ambient intelligence (AmI) in healthcare through smart environments and monitoring of agriculture, fields of interest and expertise for the partners involved.

In the project, the matter studied is monitored through remote sensing and sensors that collect relevant information in the field being analyzed. All data collected is stored and feeds specific applications with information that can later be browsed by agents responsible for animal or crop care, and used in case of an emergency where rapid attention is required. In addition, the monitored environments can be subjected to specific analysis which identify past events, this information is efficiently and intelligently reused for the establishment of behavior patterns and the proper management of crops on farms.

In the field of agriculture, the data collected are very rich and varied, from the monitoring of plants and crops, to soil and climatic aspects, among others. This information enables farmers to detect problems early on and even prevent adverse situations, causing an improvement in the results of treatments and the prevention of diseases, leading to a substantial increase in crop production.

The great advantage of the EKRUCAmI project is the wide variety of its uses. The development of this system allows can be applied in both; the field of agriculture and at the human level (sick patients or the elderly that require care).

Some of the applications resulting from this research can be checked on our website:

Related to health: Home Care, Home Primary Care System, Smart medical and EKG Mobile

Related to the agricultural field: Smart irrigation

EKRUCAmI is part of the research areas that our group has been working on since many years and whose developments have been of great use in the industrial world. Also, it can be integrated with other lines of work such as e-health and the internet of things. We use this opportunity to give thanks to the collaboration of the other universities that have been working with us on this project and the effort that has been put into it by our colleagues from the group Juan M. Corchado, Juan Francisco de Paz, Fernando de la Prieta, Sara Rodríguez, Pablo Chamoso and Gabriel Villarrubia.