Thierry Chevalier
- 33 years old
- Founder of Technosens
 Why did you set out on a start-up adventure although you were not an INRIA researcher and did not have your own technology?
Thierry Chevalier: My background is a little atypical, even if after graduating from high school I followed a fairly well-worn path: preparatory class, studying engineering at CPE Lyon and a DEA degree at INSA Lyon in 1998. Then events took a more original turn. In parallel with my DEA degree course I attended Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Lyon. Then I worked for Schneider Electric for five years in international sales before joining a smaller company as Export Manager. For me, this experience was a step towards founding my own company. I was looking for a potentially innovative and dynamic sector where I could add a human dimension. Helping isolated people, especially ones heading towards a loss of autonomy therefore came to me quite naturally as Alzheimer's Disease came to affect my grand father.
Given that there are already services for persons who are losing their autonomy, in what way does the technology that you have to offer match current needs?
Thierry Chevalier: My aim was to improve everyday communication and what few solutions there were on the market were completely unsuited to various handicaps. The most obvious case is that of the telephone. Landline handsets have changed little compared with cell phones: they still offer menus that are hardly intuitive (making it hard to access the contact list for example), no photographs or SMS text messaging. The e-lio© handset has just a few buttons which are big and colorful. By linking it to a TV display, its use is simplified and makes it possible to cover various handicaps. For a blind person, for example, the "display" used will favor sound. For someone suffering from Alzheimer's, we will move towards a logical and easily understood approach by making the button that the person should press blink. For someone with a mobility handicap, the camera and its motion detector will inform the caller that the person is at home and ready to answer.
How will e-lio© technology be of interest to economic players?
Thierry Chevalier: Before starting out on this adventure, I consulted with retirement homes and a number of associations active the field of handicaps (APF, AFM, etc.). To understand the needs of persons losing their autonomy and especially to answer their needs, Technosens form a Scientific and Ethics Committee around its technical team, comprised of healthcare and social environment professionals. The combination of various consultations and this expertise led to perfecting services with a view to simplifying their use. Depending on situations, we can envisage monitoring the taking of medication or meals, an automatic alert if the motion detector detects a fall, etc. Even if all of this can be envisaged technologically, these services will be provided by other providers. For Technosens, the aim is to create the material support needed to implement those services needed to respond to the every more significant ageing problems faced by our society. |
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Technosens in brief
 Supplier
of easy ways to communicate
Technosens answers Thierry Chevalier's wish to "link human science with engineering science". After conducting field research, the start-up's founder committed himself to developing a solution for facilitating exchanges, around and with, persons who are losing their autonomy. Born of his collaboration with the PACTE (CNRS) sociology lab, and later with INRIA, 2006 saw the birth of a device using tracking technology. The system called e-lio© (both an "electronic link" and an anagram of the French work "oeil" for eye) is a new, simplified multimedia communication device. Thanks to its ergotuitif© mode, it remains loyally easy to use, whatever the constraints, even when temporary, that are specific to each person. The start-up officially came into being on June 5, 2007. The license was signed with INRIA in September 2007, i.e. ten months after the start of the partnership. Winner of the National Competition for the Creation of Innovative Technologies Companies, in the Creation-Development Category, in June 2007, the company especially received support from the Entreprendre network, the Rhône-Alpes Region, Grenoble Alpes Incubation (GRAIN) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Lyon.
About the Technology
 The e-lio© system comprises three elements controlled by an "intelligent processor": a high performance video sensor (that exchanges data with the tracker), a handset that serves as both telephone and remote control as well as a conventional television set. The sensor (that Thierry Chevalier and his team have patented) is able to see in daylight as well as at night or at least under very reduced lighting condition. All of INRIA's expertise was needed to minimize framing problems so as to "follow" a person around the room. In return, the TV serves to communicate along with the telephone-remote control handset. Connected to both the Scart connector and ADSL (plus the power outlet, of course), the intelligent processor controls these three components. The system can be configured in various ways so as to watch out for falls, listen to music or send SMS short messages, taking into account each person's capacities. Furthermore, it can be remotely controlled via the Internet, by the one or more persons who watch over the dependent person. Using a login and a password, it is possible to remotely control the actions and reactions of the e-lio© equipment and monitor its correct operation.
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