Summary:
- Roessingh Research and Development, Impact Lab for Personalised Health Technology in the Netherlands and Fruit Tree Labs, a Portuguese start-up focused on open-source dialogue technology sign a partnership agreement.
- The agreement formalizes years of existing friendly relations between the two parties.
- Collaboration paves the way for a deeper integration of two important software platforms: SenSeeAct, the general-purpose eHealth platform by RRD and DialogueBranch, the dialogue-scripting platform by FTL.
The third quarter of 2023 starts with the happy news of an official collaboration between Roessingh Research and Development and Fruit Tree Labs.
Roessingh Research and Development (RRD) is an Impact Lab for Personalised Health Technology, based in the east of the Netherlands, with strong connections to the University of Twente and the Roessingh Centre for Rehabilitation. RRD provides scientific research on innovative healthcare technology with an end-user focus. For RRD, co-creation with end-users and stakeholders is key to ensure that the innovation meets user needs and fits the healthcare context.
Fruit Tree Labs (FTL) is a start-up, founded early in 2023 in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, focused on dialogue-driven interaction. The core product of FTL is a free and open-source dialogue platform that gives complete freedom and creative control to author-scripted conversations between users and virtual agents in serious web- or mobile application contexts.
CEO and Co-Founder of Fruit Tree Labs, Harm op den Akker has started his career working for RRD, obtaining his PhD degree through the University of Twente, and moving into a Senior Researcher position, strengthening the HCI-focused research at RRD between 2013 and 2021. Since then, relations have always remained warm, and collaborations continued through the co-development of open-source software. With the official collaboration agreement that is now in place, these friendly relations are now formalized in a long-lasting partnership.
For both parties, the collaboration agreement comes at an exciting time, as both RRD and FTL are embarking on new adventures in the open-source software community. RRD is in the process of releasing its general-purpose eHealth platform “SenSeeAct” to the public, allowing digital health developers to benefit from and build on top of a highly professional and stable core software platform. At the same time, Fruit Tree Labs has recently released the DialogueBranch platform to the public (fully open-source and with an MIT-License) and is looking for new partners, collaboration, and funding opportunities.
With the new agreement in place, both parties commit to integrating these two open software platforms, strengthening the offering from both sides and opening new opportunities for potential users of either platform. Are you looking for a stable, highly customizable Digital Health platform, with integrated virtual agent capabilities? The combination of SenSeeAct and DialogueBranch might just be the thing for you!
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