WORKSHOP 2015
October 24th | Expo Milano 2015
Conference Centre Orogel – Sala 256B
EXPO 2015 - ABF & MIT
3rd Challenges Workshop
“Technology for blind: from prototype
to product”.
Keywords:
Social inclusion via augmented senses. Impact of academia
technological research on society. Technological transfer. From a
prototype to a product. Social impact.
Program
PROGRAM
PROGRAM
10:00 - 10:30 OPENING - Authorities, Maestro Andrea Bocelli and MIT.
10:30 - 10:40 How can technology enhance our ability to move safely?
Daniela Rus / CSAIL, MIT, MA, US.
10:40 - 10:50 Energy-efficient system design for wearable platforms.
Anantha P. Chandrakasan / EECS, MIT, MA, US.
10:50 - 11:00 Sensors, integrated circuits and applications: opportunities and challenges.
Karthik Vasanth / Texas Instruments, TX, US.
11:00 - 11:10 Accessibility, how many meanings: one, no one, one
hundred thousand?
Franco Lisi / Istituto Ciechi, Milan, I.
11:10 - 11:20 Digital fabrication technologies in support of the
visually impaired.
Edoardo Calia / Istituto Superiore Mario Boella, Turin, I.
11:20 - 11:30 Novel approaches for vision restoration.
James Weiland / USC, Los Angeles, CA, US.
11:30 - 11:40 Aira.IO - Visual interpreter for the blind.
Suman Kanuganti / Aira.IO, San Diego, CA, US.
11:40 - 11:50 OrCam - See for yourself.
Yoni Wexler / Orcam, Jerusalem, IL.
11:50 - 12:10 How the appeal of exterior design can increase the
acceptability by the blind community of new
technological products.
Giorgetto Giugiaro
12:10 - 12:20 Social inclusion via augmented senses: from academia
to society.
Laura Giarré / ABF, Università di Palermo, Palermo, I.
12:20 - 12:30 CLOSING - Andrea Bocelli, ABF Founder.
12:30 - 14:00 Demo and exposition of some prototypes will be
shown and tested. The results of the MIT Fifth Sense
Project will be part of this exposition.
14:00 Lunch.
The Demo will continue in the afternoon at Conference Centre Orogel – Sala 70C.
Promoting research for the benefit of
humankind
The program aims to bring
together the best minds to
find innovative solutions to
help people cope with and
overcome the limits imposed
by their disability or discomfort.
The Challenges program
operates within the area of
scientific and technological
research and social innovation,
accepting major challenges
in terms of both investments
CHALLENGE
challenges
PROGRAM
ABF Challenges program:
and results to be achieved in
the willingness to allow anyone
who experiences economic or
social difficulties to express
themselves.
In this program, the Foundation
launches challenges involving
high-risk investments and
global interest that could
contribute to improving the
living conditions of many
people.
3
3rd Challenges Workshop
October 24th | Expo Milano 2015
Feeding minds:
“Social inclusion via augmented senses: impact of
academia technological research on society.
From a prototype to a product”
The objective of the workshop is to present the result of
the “MIT Fifth Sense Project” with high class contributions
and confrontations and to introduce the step forward on the
Challenges Program.
The workshop will be mainly of a specific nature. Is there a
future for assistive technology Devices outside the Academic
Laboratories? What are the step to design a system that can be
easily accepted by the blind communities? From a prototype to
a product, is the academia ready for the technological transfer?
Are the investors ready to put an effort into technology for the
empowerment of people with specific needs?
The objective is to stimulate scientists, member of the industry
or entrepreneurial, on discuss applicative subjects that may be
useful for the disabled and in particular the visually impaired and
the blind. It is for this reason that the workshop will be useful and
interesting also for students, the blind or associations defending
their rights, researchers and journalists.
Furthermore, in the afternoon an exposition of some prototypes
4
C
will be shown and tested. The results of the MIT Fifth Sense
Project will be part of this exposition.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
· To study the design of devices to augment senses to low vision
and blind people from a prototype into a product, and discuss
the impact of academia technological research on society and on
technological transfer.
· To present the results of the MIT Fifth Sense Project, partially
funded by the ABF and developed at EECS department of MIT.
· To favour the integration of knowledge for the most efficient
results.
· To present the results of recent research in the assistive
technology and how much influence the products created have
had on the society.
· To investigate the needs still to be satisfied and the objectives
and proposals of research and technological transfer for future
action.
· To invite companies or organizations for a possible development
for the project.
· To favour constant exchange between American and Italian
Universities.
CHALLEN
challen
5
IFTHSENSE
fifthsense
MIT Fifth Sense Project
CSAIL, EECS, MIT
A wearable system to improve
situational awareness for
visually impaired people is
designed. The system includes
a camera, lidar sensors, an
embedded computer, a belt
with embedded vibration
motors that provide vibration
feedback when an obstacle
is detected in the direction
pointed to by the sensor, and
a tactile Braille interface. A
low power vision processor
has been also designed to
miniaturize the system and
improve energy efficiency.
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This system distinguishes
walkable free space from
obstacles and identifies a few
important types of objects
such as the location of a
chair, or the distance to a
stairway. These descriptions
of the surroundings are
communicated to the person
wearing the device and
translated into safe navigation
directions. With an energyefficient computer vision
processor we wish to make
this work available for everyday
life.
E
Safety Navigation for Visually Impaired Users
Prof. Daniela Rus,
Dr. Hsueh-Cheng Nick Wang, Robert Katzschmann, Brandon
Araki, Jordan Allspaw, Rahul Kumar Namdev, Dr. Santani Teng.
Low-power 3-D Vision Processor for a Navigation Device for
the Visually Impaired
Prof. Anantha P. Chandrakasan,
Dr. Dongsuk Jeon, Dr. Nathan Ickes, and Priyanka Raina.
Industrial Design of the wearable systems and Tests
Grace Teo, Nicole Jimenez, Paul Parravano.
ABF Scientific Coordinator
Prof. Laura Giarré (ABF, Università di Palermo).
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Daniela Rus
CSAIL, MIT, MA, US.
How can technology
enhance our ability to
move safely?
Abstract
The digitization of practically everything coupled with the mobile Internet,
miniaturization, and advanced robotics promises a future with human
augmentation using computation and machines. Technology will enable
people to extend their abilities. In this talk I will discuss challenges toward
using ideas from robotics to create assistive technologies for the visually
impaired. What if a small wearable item (for example a belt, a hat, or a
pendant) that includes sensors and the ability to compute and communicate
can be used to identify the surrounding environment? Using data from its
sensors, the system could detect the free space and identify the objects in
the surrounding world, pointing out, for example, where is the door, how far
to a stair way, or what is the furniture arrangement in the room. What if these
descriptions could be communicated to the person wearing the device and
translated into safe navigation directions? I will describe our recent results in
creating a system for safe navigation for the visually impaired that has some
of these features. With assistive technologies for the visually impaired, we
can begin to imagine a world where moving safely in the world is possible for
everybody.
Bio
Daniela Rus is the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Computer Science
and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT. Rus’s research interests
are in robotics, mobile computing, and big data. Rus is a Class of 2002
MacArthur Fellow, a fellow of ACM, AAAI and IEEE, and a member of the
National Academy of Engineering. She earned her PhD in Computer Science
from Cornell University.
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Anantha P. Chandrakasan
EECS, MIT, MA, US.
Energy-efficient
system design for
wearable platforms.
Abstract
The use of low-power sensors and electronics can greatly enhance the
environment awareness for the visually impaired. For example, using a
Time-of-Flight camera, which captures depth information, along with a
processor which implements computer vision techniques, can assist a user
in obstacle avoidance. A key challenge in implementing such a navigation
system is to implement the sensing, processing, energy conversion, and
communication in an energy-efficient fashion. To reduce energy requires
a system-level approach. The use of duty-cycling of the ToF sensor using
user and environment state, can dramatically reduce energy consumption
by reducing illumination power. The use of a hardwired processor for the
computation can reduce energy by two orders of magnitude compared to
software implementations. To maximize energy savings, the computation
should exploit data statistics and low-voltages using architectural parallelism.
The energy source and management are critical in managing user experience.
Integrating wireless power and energy harvesting allows the user to extend
system use time. The overall system-level trade-offs will be described in the
presentation.
Bio
Anantha P. Chandrakasan received the B.S, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of
California, Berkeley, in 1989, 1990, and 1994 respectively. Since September
1994, he has been with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, where he is currently the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley
Professor of Electrical Engineering. He was a co-recipient of several awards
including the 1993 IEEE Communications Society’s Best Tutorial Paper
Award, the IEEE Electron Devices Society’s 1997 Paul Rappaport Award for
9
the Best Paper in an EDS publication during 1997, the 1999 DAC Design
Contest Award, the 2004 DAC/ISSCC Student Design Contest Award, the
2007 ISSCC Beatrice Winner Award for Editorial Excellence and the ISSCC
Jack Kilby Award for Outstanding Student Paper (2007, 2008, 2009). He
received the 2009 Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) University
Researcher Award. He is the recipient of the 2013 IEEE Donald O. Pederson
Award in Solid-State Circuits. He is an elected member of the National
Academy of Engineering.His research interests include micro-power digital
and mixed-signal integrated circuit design, wireless microsensor system
design, portable multimedia devices, energy efficient radios and emerging
technologies. He is a co-author of Low Power Digital CMOS Design (Kluwer
Academic Publishers, 1995), Digital Integrated Circuits (Pearson PrenticeHall, 2003, 2nd edition), and Sub-threshold Design for Ultra-Low Power
Systems (Springer 2006). He is also a co-editor of Low Power CMOS
Design (IEEE Press, 1998), Design of High-Performance Microprocessor
Circuits (IEEE Press, 2000), and Leakage in Nanometer CMOS Technologies
(Springer, 2005). He has served as a technical program co-chair for the 1997
International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED),
VLSI Design ‘98, and the 1998 IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing
Systems. He was the Signal Processing Sub-committee Chair for ISSCC
1999-2001, the Program Vice-Chair for ISSCC 2002, the Program Chair for
ISSCC 2003, the Technology Directions Sub-committee Chair for ISSCC
2004-2009, and the Conference Chair for ISSCC 2010-2014. He is the
Conference Chair for ISSCC 2015. He was an Associate Editor for the IEEE
Journal of Solid-State Circuits from 1998 to 2001. He served on SSCS
AdCom from 2000 to 2007 and he was the meetings committee chair from
2004 to 2007. He was the Director of the MIT Microsystems Technology
Laboratories from 2006 to 2011. Since July 2011, he is the Head of the MIT
EECS Department.
10
Karthik Vasanth
Texas Instruments, TX, US.
Sensors, integrated
circuits and
applications:
opportunities and
challenges
Abstract
In a connected world there is a relentless drive to sense, measure, collect and
interpret a large number of parameters. These parameters could be environmental
or location based and used to enhance/assist every facet of our lives. Sensors
and electronics form the parameter acquisition part of this new ecosystem.
This talk will address the significant opportunities and the crucial role sensors
and electronics have to play in this ecosystem. Power, size and performance of
sensors need to be scaled to meet the needs of remote monitoring. The challenges
could be as varied as weeklong battery operation for a wearable bio-sensing
device or 10 year remote monitoring of an industrial facility. Wearable devices are
getting sophisticated enough in their sensing technology and processing power
to measure/interpret bio-signals and assist in collision avoidance for the visually
impaired. This fusion between sensors, integrated circuits and processing power
has the ability to impact so many aspects of our daily lives. The talk will also focus
on the power / size challenges faced by sensors and integrated circuits and work
being done to advance the state of the art in these areas.
Bio
Karthik Vasanth is the General Manager of the Medical, High-Reliability and
Sensing businesses at Texas Instruments. Karthik joined TI’s Silicon Technology
Development group in 1995. He has worked on many product innovations
in device modeling, high performance RF products and medical IC’s. Having
worked on the compact process and device simulation models, Karthik was
also involved in the development and validation of advanced SPICE models
including BSIM4. Elected as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at
Texas Instruments in 2005, he managed the high performance RF circuit design
team. Karthik received the Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics and
Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras
and his Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University. He has
published over 30 papers and authored/co-authored several patents.
11
Franco Lisi
Istituto Ciechi, Milan, I.
Accessibility, how
many meanings: one,
no one, one hundred
thousand?
Abstract
The speech offers some reflections on the different meanings that are
commonly attributed to the concept of accessibility, in addition to its many
forms. The report, beginning with the most significant theoretical and
normative references, highlights concrete elements taken also from the
experience of life of the speaker. Blind, representative of many commissions
for the autonomy of persons with visual impairment within the association,
Lisi carries on his professional activity at the Institute of the Blind of Milan.
He is responsible for the design, development and promotion of many
projects to promote social integration of blind people through the removal
of architectural and cultural barriers, both outdoor (squares, streets, parks,
sports centers, etc.) and indoor (public buildings, hospitals, schools,
companies, etc.). The technological element assumes, in this perspective,
a growing role, often revealing unimaginable situations and responses,
resulting in an amazing quality leap. Researchers and insiders keep the
hard task of being able to turn change into progress: to be able to grasp the
really significant aspects that would lead to concrete solutions useful for the
independent life of the blind people.
Bio
Franco Lisi has a Degree in Sociology; and in Political Science; a Diploma
as Coach for personal growth and management and a Diploma as Electronic
Programmer; He is Vice President of the Italian Chamber Union of the Blind
and Visually Impaired of Milan; Regional Director of the Italian Union of the
Blind and Visually Impaired of Lombardy, Representative of the Regional
Council dell’UICI within the FAND Regional; Referent for the Regional
Commission for autonomy; Member of the Management Committee of the
Regional Fund for Employment of the Disabled and Regional director of
IRIFOR. He is now working as Head of the Computer Centre of the Institute
of the Blind of Milan, Italy.
12
Edoardo Calia
Istituto Superiore Mario Boella, Turin, I.
Digital fabrication
technologies in
support of the visually
impaired.
Abstract
The presentation could include 3-4 examples of “makers” projects dedicated
to help blind or visually impaired people. The makers community is booming
all over the world, putting together people who rediscover the passion
to make things using both their hands and modern technologies such as
Computer Aided Design and digital fabrication machines. Some of the
projects are designed to help visualize either abstract concepts (like math
formulas) or physical objects like monuments, art masterpieces, complex
objects. This can be a valuable support to provide information to blind or
visually impaired users. In this speech I will briefly present the most effective
and successful international projects carried out by university, schools and
industries.
Bio
Edoardo Calia graduated from Politecnico di Torino (MSEE: 1987, PhD: 1992),
and he spent most of his professional career working on innovation based
and Communication Technologies. After several years – some of which in
USA – spent working on research projects on Internetworking and distributed
computing, he contributed in 2001 to the startup of Istituto Superiore
Mario Boella (ISMB), a research center set up by Politecnico di Torino and
Compagnia di San Paolo, where he is currently Deputy Director for Strategic
Programs. ISMB carries out applied research projects in several application
domains where Information Technologies play a key enabler role (urban
mobility, e-health, energy etc).
13
James Weiland
USC, Los Angeles, CA, US.
Novel approaches for
vision restoration.
Abstract
James Weiland received his B.S.
from the University of Michigan in
1988. After 4 years in industry with
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Engines,
he returned to Michigan for
graduate school, earning degrees
in Biomedical Engineering (M.S.
1993, Ph.D. 1997) and Electrical
Engineering (M.S. 1995). He joined
the Wilmer Ophthalmological
Institute at Johns Hopkins University
in 1997 as a postdoctoral fellow and,
in 1999, was appointed an assistant
professor of ophthalmology at
Johns Hopkins. Dr. Weiland was
appointed assistant professor at
the Doheny Eye Institute-University
of Southern California in 2001.
Currently, Dr. Weiland is a Professor
of Ophthalmology and Biomedical
Engineering, University of Southern
California. He is Deputy Director
of the Biomimetic Microelectronic
Systems Engineering Research
Center. Dr. Weiland’s research
14
interests include retinal prostheses,
neural prostheses, electrode
technology, visual evoked
responses, implantable electrical
systems, and wearable visual aids
for the blind. He is a Fellow of
the American Institute of Medical
and Biological Engineering and a
Senior Member of the IEEE. He is a
member of EMBS, Sigma Xi, and the
Association for Research in Vision
and Ophthalmology.
Bio
Novel science and technology
are revolutionizing the field of
ophthalmology and making
possible restoration of vision in
previously incurable diseases.
This presentation will review
three approaches that are at
different stages of development:
bioelectronic retinal prostheses,
stem-cell therapy for age-related
macular degeneration (AMD), and
wearable computer vision systems.
Bioelectronic retinal prostheses
have progressed from laboratory
and early clinical experiments,
to medical devices approved for
sale by the FDA and European
Union. The clinical trials have
shown that individuals who have
at best light perception vision, can
use spatial information from the
retinal prosthesis to detect motion,
locate objects, and read letters.
Improvements in navigation and
mobility have been noted. To treat
AMD, which is characterized by
a loss of retinal pigment epithelial
(RPE) cells, a novel stem cell
treatment uses RPE cells derived
from stem cells which are then
seeded onto a synthetic membrane.
The implanted scaffold of RPE cells
will function to support and replenish
photoreceptors of the retina, which
may help restore and prevent vision
loss in patients with AMD. Safety and
efficacy of the implant was confirmed
based on the animal studies. As
well, results indicated that the
stem cell therapy successfully
decreased the progression of retinal
degeneration in rats. This therapy
will be used to treat patients in the
upcoming phase 1 human clinical
trial. A third approach to treating
blindness involves a prototype
computer vision system, aiding in
navigation and object localization.
A complete processing algorithm
has been constructed that allows a
user to instruct the wearable camera
and computer system to find a
particular object. Once the object
is located, the wearable computer
system provides verbal and/or
tactile cues to guide the user to the
object of interest. Tests show that
blind volunteers are able to follow
these cues to complete navigation
tasks and reach-and-grasp tasks.
Brain imaging of the central visual
pathways will be a key technique for
evaluating the long-term effects of
these therapies, since modifications
in the visual input will result in.
15
Suman Kanuganti
Aira.IO, San Diego, CA, US.
Aira.IO - Visual
interpreter for the
blind.
Abstract
Aira.IO, based in San Diego, is an
emerging firm focused on developing
technology and services that allow
blind and low-vision individuals
greater independence in performing
a myriad of daily activities – ranging
from navigating city streets and using
a menu to order meals at restaurants,
to recognizing faces in a crowd. In
doing so, Aira provides personalized
assistance from a network of
certified Agents, plus family and
friends. Aira agents use a real-time
interactive cloud-based dashboard
purpose-built to process live data
streams from cameras, GPS, and
other sensor systems from wearable
platforms such as Google Glass and
Vuzix. Aira’s platform uses an “Uber”
style intelligent routing algorithm
for connecting a vast crowdsource
of agents to users for immediate
assistance based on user preferences
and agent schedules.
Bio
Suman Kanuganti is Co-Founder &
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CEO of Aira.IO, an emerging high-tech
company based in San Diego, CA that
is focused on developing technology
and services that bring greater
mobility and independence into the
lives of the blind and visually impaired.
With a passion and penchant for
startups, and for finding creative
solutions to traditional problems that
impact the lives of everyday people,
Kanuganti has also leveraged his
expertise and leadership at such
firms as Intuit, Qualcomm, and
Caterpillar. Kanuganti’s career as an
innovator in the world of technology
and business spans more than a
decade, during which time he has
been awarded 5 patents (as inventor
or co-inventor) in interactive computer
devices. He received his MBA in
Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial
Studies from the UC San Diego Rady
School of Management; his Master’s
in Computer Engineering from the
University of Missouri-Columbia,
and Bachelor’s in Electrical and
Electronics Engineering from Kakatiya
University, India.
Yonatan Wexler
Orcam, Jerusalem, IL.
OrCam - See for
yourself.
Abstract
One of the hardest thing about
being visually impaired is the limited
access to information. In our age,
information is the key to success
in any field. Being able to read
anything, anywhere, allows children
to excel in their studies and changes
their career plans and opportunities.
OrCam is a revolutionary device that
whispers in your ear the information
you can no longer see. It instantly
reads anything you tell it to read,
on any surface and sign, faster
than a human would. It tells you
which friend is approaching, what
product you are holding, and more.
By making information instantly
available, it is the first device that
focuses on navigating the intellect
and not just the physical world.
Bio
Dr. Yonatan Wexler is an award
winning researcher in the field
of Computer Vision who has
conducted research at the University
of Maryland, Oxford University,
the Weizmann Institute of Science,
and Microsoft. His focus is on
efficient use of visual information
that enables exciting new abilities.
Yonatan currently leads the R&D
team at OrCam, a company that
has developed a unique device for
blind and visually impaired people.
OrCam harnesses the power of
Artificial Vision to compensate for
lost visual abilities thus enabling
visually impaired people to
overcome the barriers that impede
their independence.
17
Giorgetto Giugiaro
How the appeal of exterior
design can increase
the acceptability by the
blind community of new
technological products.
Abstract
Currently at the testing stage, the “MIT Fifth Sense Project” has all it takes to stimulate
a passionate interest not only among the experts and technologists conducting
research work in favour of the blind community, but also among those working in the
traditional sector of industrial design. I believe that non specialist designers should
focus not so much on improving the appearance of the device, but rather on making
it more functional, pleasurable and easy to use “Nice looking” should translate into
“nice to the touch” and easy to wear and to understand. Engineering and technology
should help reduce standard production costs (in terms of materials selection,
components ease of assembly, etc.). The independence and freedom of movement
in ambulation offered by the device encourage further studies to enable driverless
vehicles to be put into production. At present, tests on such vehicles are being
conducted by Google, Audi, Toyota and other manufacturers. In this connection,
I believe that valuable lessons may be learned from the experience acquired by
Italdesign in 1992 with their electric traction prototype Biga, which proposed easy
access via the tailgate and a car sharing with credit card formula. In our case, the
vehicle should be equipped with route planning software running on a computer.
Bio
Born in the city of Garessio, in the province of Cuneo, on 7 August 1938 to a family
of artists and musicians, in 1952 Giugiaro moved to Turin where he took figurative
arts, drafting and technical design courses. In 1955, through the intervention of
Dante Giacosa, technical manager of Fiat, he began working at Giacosa’s Special
Vehicles Styling Office. After a very profitable apprenticeship, in December 1959, he
was asked by Nuccio Bertone to take the position of manager of the historic styling
centre. For six years, he designed prestigious cars for Fiat, Alfa Romeo and various
foreign brands, then joined Carrozzeria Ghia as Director of the Styling Centre and
the Prototype Department. In 1968, with a friend, technologist Aldo Mantovani, he
founded in Moncalieri Italdesign, an independent organisation supplying services
18
to the automotive world. Their mission was innovative and focused on providing a
wide range of services to car makers, including creativity, engineering development,
prototype construction and testing services. This is when Giugiaro began to
produce dozens of car designs earmarked for production and to experiment with
unprecedented formal and conceptual developments through motor show prototypes
which anticipated the evolution of the car and vehicles in general. His concept cars
inspired solutions that would prove eminently successful over the years: compact
cars with a tall body, aerodynamic shapes for improved fuel economy, city cars, and
hybrid vehicles including sports-inspired models. In 45 years of activity under the
Italdesign brand name, Giugiaro designed 200 models that were put into production
resulting in a total of 60 million cars on the roads. Besides successful Japanese,
Korean and, more recently, Chinese models, he was responsible for the design of the
Volkswagen models of the 1970s, including Golf, Passat, and Scirocco; he designed
the Audi ’80 and the Seat Ibiza, Toledo and Malaga. In 1975 he started collaborating
with the Fiat Group, creating celebrated best selling cars such as Lancia Delta,
Prisma and Thema, the Fiat Panda, Uno, Croma and new Croma, Grande Punto, Fiat
Sedici, and a new family of Alfa Romeo models (156, 159, 159 SportWagon, Brera
coupé ). In 1990, his son Fabrizio, who had already worked on the development of the
Machimoto and Aztec futuristic concept cars, joined the company on a permanent
basis. In 1991 Fabrizio Giugiaro was appointed head of the research vehicle
department, and shortly afterwards took the position of Director of the Styling and
Prototype Area, which he kept until 2013. Since 1974 Giugiaro had supplemented his
design work for cars and other vehicles (trams, trains, subway trains, motorcycles,
commercial vehicles, tractors) with an 2 industrial design division, operating under the
brand name of Giugiaro Design. The firm collaborated with prestigious international
companies (such as Nikon, Sony, Seiko, Apple, Siemens, Ferrero, L’Oreal, Luxottica,
Merloni Indesit, Okamura, Shiseido, Swatch, Telecom, Telepiù/Canal Plus, Fiat
Ferroviaria, Alstom, Ansaldo Breda, Trenitalia, Piaggio, Bridgestone, Sanpellegrino,
etc.), designing semidurable and consumer goods for a wide variety of industrial
and commercial sectors, and produced park and street furnishing design projects
for public entities. In 2010 Italdesign Giugiaro became part of the Volkswagen Group
and started working across the board, with all the different VW brands. In September
2015 Giorgetto and Fabrizio Giugiaro relinquished all their positions in Italdesign. The
design methodology adopted by Giugiaro puts the emphasis on functional factors
combined with comfort, reduced weight and lower production costs by making use
of the most advanced technologies, also in terms of efficient energy use. Aesthetic
results should not override the overall design intelligence of a project. This approach
is reflected in his trailblazing solutions for runabouts – first and foremost the Fiat
Panda – and the Biga project: an electric vehicle with easy access for wheelchairs via
the tailgate, made available by the public administrations for car sharing programs
in pedestrian areas closed to private vehicle traffic. The same ergonomic design
approach is reflected in the consumer goods styled by Giugiaro, whether photo
cameras, watches, tools or medical devices, they all invariably strive to provide the
best answer possible in terms of safety and ease of use. Having been at the centre of
public attention for many years, Giugiaro is often invited to express his “vision of the
world” on the international stage, and not just in terms of cars and design.
19
Laura Giarré
ABF, Università di Palermo, Palermo, I.
Social inclusion via
augmented senses:
from academia to
society.
Abstract
How much the empowerment of people with specific needs can benefit from
innovative technological solutions? Is there a future for assistive technology
devices outside the Academic Laboratories? Social innovation means
developing new ideas, services and models to better address social issues. It
invites input from public and private actors, including civil society, to improve
social services. Social investment is about investing in people., answering to
the Challenge of strengthening people’s current and future capacities, and
improving their opportunities to participate in society and the labor market.
What are the step to design a system that can be easily accepted by the
blind communities? A case study is presented.
Bio
Laura Giarré received the Laurea degree in Electronic Engineering from the
Università di Firenze, Italy and the Ph.D. degree in System Engineering from
the Università di Bologna, Italy, in 1986 and 1992, respectively. She has
held visiting positions at the University of California at Santa Barbara and
at MIT, Boston (1999, 2006, 2015). Since 1993 she was Assistant Professor
at Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy and since 1998 she has been Associate
Professor at the Università di Palermo, Italy and qualified as full professor in
2014. She served as Associate Editor of Systems and Control Letters, (19992012) and IEEE Transaction on Automatic Control (2012-2015).
Her research interests include networked systems, smart grid, identification
and assistive technology. She is cofounder and CEO of In.sight srl. She is
member of the advisory board of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and scientific
coordinator for the Challenges program.
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DEMO description and instruction.
Safe navigation for visually impaired users.
Purpose
We design a wearable system to improve situational awareness
for visually impaired people. The system includes a camera, an
embedded computer and a belt with embedded vibration motors
that provide vibration feedback when an obstacle is detected in
the direction pointed to by the sensor. This system distinguishes
walkable free space from obstacles and identifies a few important
types of objects such as the location of a chair, or the distance to a
stairway. These descriptions of the surroundings are communicated
to the person wearing the device and translated into safe navigation
directions.
Demo Instructions
System I: Belt with motors and depth camera/lidar
1) Learning Phase
· Feel the vibrations of the motors from 1 to 5 with the intensity
going from maximum to zero.
· Learn how to interpret the vibration by going back and forth in
front of a cartoon wall.
· Turn left, right, and around to feel the empty space and learn
the angle of view and the intensity correlated to the distance.
2) Walking Phase
· Go into the maze and walk without collision.
System II: Braille device and depth camera
1) Learning Phase
· Stand in front of one chair and one box, and learn that ‘c’ stands
for a chair, ‘o’ for an obstacle, and ‘f’ is free space. The device
has two lines of pins: the first row indicates objects far away (>
1.0 m), and the second row for close objects (< 1.0 m).
2) Game phase
· Find an empty chair among three chairs in front of you.
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viVIsSioIOnN
Andrea Bocelli Foundation
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overcoming of these barriers
and full self-expression.
MIsSsiSI
mi
oO
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Institute of Technology)
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