Cap Digital Paris Region

Cap Digital Paris Region is the Ile-de-France innovative cluster for digital content. It is positioned at the convergence of digital technologies and new strategic fields anchored at the heart of Ile-de-France region: Knowledge engineering, Digital heritage, Image, sound and interactivity, Video games, Digital education, Services and usage, Design, Robotics, CIT (Collaborative Intelligences and Technologies).

Our objective: to make Paris and its region the worldwide digital leader, from both an industrial and strategic point of view. R&D development, the growth in companies, the networking of its partners and their international promotion are the missions determined by Cap Digital to support the creativeness and competitiveness of this industrial sector, which on its own represents a global market of 300 billion euros.

Advantages / Key Figures

- 300 billion euros: This is the key figure of the global market for digital content. These industries represent more than 12 billion euros in France, and show an above average rate of growth.
- 335 company and 150 public laboratory partners: Cap Digital has 335 partners, of which 80% are small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and very small enterprises (VSEs) and the biggest French groups in the sector.
- 150 projects: Since its creation in 2006, Cap Digital has received a total of 332 projects, and has certified 144 of these.
- 361 million in investment for innovation: In total, the projects certified by the cluster represent over 361 million euros in investment, including public financing of around 148 million euros (subsidies and repayable advances).
- Ranked No. 1 in 2007 by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) for the number of projects, and No. 3 in terms of financing, the cluster has also reached 4th place in the amount of financing from the Fonds de Compétitivité des Entreprises (FCE).

Ile-de-France: a territory dedicated to digital technology

From CIT in general…
The Paris/Ile-de-France region comprises 18,000 companies specialized in information and communication technologies. This sector employs 423,000 people, which represents around 10% of private sector jobs.

… to the image sector in particular
Leading French region of the image sector, Paris-Ile-de-France concentrates 90% of all French technical cinema and audiovisual service providers. The “Digital Applications and Technologies” sector alone (image, video games, etc.) employs 160,000 people (2004) distributed over 10,700 companies.

Key figures for the CIT/image sector in Paris/Ile-de-France

- 160,000 jobs in the cluster’s fields, distributed over 10,700 companies (January 2006)
- 47% of French jobs in the sector (which is as many as Canada and Sweden put together)
- 423,000 jobs for the CIT sector in 2004 (+45% between 1994 and 2000), 18,000 companies (2006)

International Partnerships

Current

• European eConTech Eureka program
• REDICT: European partnership between clusters dedicated to digital technology
• Digital Sister Cities agreement with San Francisco

Appendix: Examples of Certified R&D Projects in 2006 and 2007

Name and Subject of Project

Coordinator(s)

Image, Sound and Interactivity

AdVIDEO

Responding to the limitations of current DRM systems through the implementation of a secure distribution system for multimedia content

Envivo

ArkaNomad

Improving the quality and the sound rendition of multimedia content (music, video, game, FM, ringtones)

Arkamys

FREEDOM

Devising algorithms that are rapid and as automatic as possible enabling visually satisfactory restoration of faults

Telecom Paris Tech

PORTEYE

Port-eye is a pocket device, with no equivalent in Europe, which enables any visually impaired person to read anywhere without a computer or any knowledge of Braille

Altanova

Raytracing for 3D Viewing

Developing an innovative 3D viewing technology to offer the 3D market a high-quality rendition solution in real time

Redway

Story Editor

Creating a very simple montage tool for 2D story boards relying on the montage tools while integrating the notions of scripts, dialogues, sequences, plans, list of characters and sets

Duran

Skills Engineering

AFFECTIVE AVATARS

Development of behavioral realism and expressiveness of avatars in order to improve interactions and communication in on-line and mobile services

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) / Laboratoire d’Informatique pour la Mécanique et les Sciences de l’Ingénieur

GENIUS

Modelling the cognitive activity of designers, particularly during the preliminary stages of categorization of images and generation of shapes.

Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Metiers (ENSAM)

HUBeNET

Creation of a dematerialization platform for the correspondence of documents with evidentiary value.

TrustMission / Posteasy

NAUTILUS

Improvement of customer knowledge to customize the services offered.

Quid Solutions

Video Games

Intelligent Animations

Reform of the monolithic system for production of animations for video games and enabling our animations to adapt to situations

Montecristo Games

Cities Unlimited

Establishment of a massive single-player platform organized around a city builder

Montecristo Games

PLAY ALL

Respond to the market need for games software through the development of a multi-standard production chain (PC, consoles, etc.)

Darkworks

Sim Date

Demonstration of the capacities of an artificial dialogue system

As an Angel

Services and Usage

CADI

Analysis of purchasing behavior, recommendation and rating engine, analysis of communities

KXEN

CHRONOPOLYS

Innovative solution for management of collaborative projects dedicated to local and regional authorities.

Avane

GIGACOM

Deployment of a very high-speed wireless network for the study of usage and fiber optic/economics evaluation

Bluwan

ITRANSPORTS

Maps of all transport systems on relevant scales for the major towns in France

Moviken

Digital Heritage

AVRIGHTS

Verification of the use of extracts or in entire files of audiovisual catalogue content, over 400 channels in Europe, and thus recovering payments for all broadcasting rights not declared and not paid.

Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA)

PIITHIE

Detection of plagiarism, a highly relevant topic in the current context, and monitoring of the impact of information, currently performed manually

Sinequa

RAFFUT

Platform for detection, protection and management of copyright and intellectual and industrial property rights

Advestigo

TERRA NUMERICA

Development of the necessary technologies to produce large-dimension and high-resolution 3D representations of urban territories the most automatically and accurately

Thalès

Digital Education

CYBERCLASSE

Development of an on-line class where the learners regain social and educational rules in a fun way in close proximity

Maxicours