Maker Faire Rome: Art, Space and Health Tech

“Trying to write about Maker Faire Rome is like trying to catch an ocean in an egg cup”

Maker Faire Rome returned this year with it’s usual spectacular array of passionate startups, entrepreneurs and home grown talent.

All the food and drink packaging at this years event is also renewable and sustainable

It’s essential that we pass on such innovative thoughts and concepts to the next generation.  We see huge leaps in technology because of these types events.

Time to hear about other innovative ideas, this time from the exhibitors:

ComputArte

Don’t be fooled by the name! This is a very clever play on words and delivers a whole lot more than just an art piece.

The team from ComputArte have created what they have called “Loyal Tech” for private artificial intelligence to exploit the best features of today’s technology without being spied on!

These creative containers are suitable for many things and can house all sorts of miniaturised computer tech wizardry.  The entire collection currently stands at 137 design patents and is all handcrafted.  It also has an internal cooling system within the piece which allows for CPU’s to be inserted inside.  It can dissipate the heat very easily.

The purpose of this piece of kit is to be capable of taking over the likes of Alexa and Google Home.  Their operation would include listening to your commands, sending it to a server to be converted into a file and then an almost instant response being sent back to your machine.  The only issue with this of course is the lack of privacy.  You are giving all your data to a server away from your home that is then capable of dissemination to various partners.

They currently house technology from well known names like Intel, Toshiba and Pioneer and the intended use is to become a home resource and bank for all of the searches and conversation.  They use Blockchain and this enables the home owner to personalise and own the content. All of this would normally be tracked by the online giants, but this piece of kit makes it possible to centralise all of your data.  If someone wants to use it instead of them targeting you – they have to buy your data from you.

Another good capability is it can be used by people who are limited in movement.  It also has a kinetic interface as well.

There is also a sensor within the housing that can detect movement and it measures sound waves.  If there is a detection of this sort, a message gets sent to the homeowner saying “Are you indoors?” If there is no response it will notify authorities.  If you do respond it will go no further.

They are currently doing a crowdfunding campaign to launch their first commercial model.

Kayser Italia

I have a great personal interest in space, so jumped at the opportunity to learn more about this stand at this year event.  It’s an Italian company with a subsidiary in the UK and they mostly work in the space scientific research sector.

@KayserItalia at the 2019 edition of the @MakerFaireRome with an exhibition presenting the Bioreactor Express Servicehttps://t.co/xVZPWYkZft pic.twitter.com/no7lqEToyl

— Kayser Italia (@KayserItalia) October 18, 2019

Most of their products enable experiments to be conducted using their hardware.  Currently a lot of the experiments fall in the Life Science domain, for instance the astronaut is the instrument of the research themselves.  In the past it has been about bone density and others physiological or perhaps radiation.  They also help support biological experiments in space.

They attended MFR this year to share their new Bioreactor which has already been used for projects in space.

His hardware has an impressive list of successes.  His stand was a welcome addition to the Space Tech area

ODESSA Project

This ODESSA system stands for Obstacle Detection Sensor for Surveillance on Aircraft that has been developed for the European Union research and development program on aerospace domains.

There was a call for technology by Telesis Aerospace to fill a gap in detection that the Odessa Project plans to fill.  They integrate automotive technologies in the aircraft (planes and helicoptors) and drones sector.

#odessa is #detecting @MakerFaireRome !!! #interconsultingontour pic.twitter.com/dVxVjlPfhD

— Odessa Project (@odessa_project) October 18, 2019

Interconsulting are a defence and space company based in Rome who are the leader of a consortium.  In this consortium they have well known brands such as InnoSenT and SiraLab and together they have created this prototype.

It can detect birds, people, cars and of course other aircraft currently up to 19 metres.  It uses optics only to create a real-time image that can be picked up and displayed on screen, which is ideal for slow ground manouvering.  It can however work up in the air too.

They were at MFR to get more funding as they have some only until the end of 2020.

Sma-rty

I was intrigued by this stand as it was one of the few targeting the older generation.

Smarty is a French company, with locations in France and one in Milan and Luca Maggiani the stand holder, is Italian.   The company have developed an application using artificial intelligence and vision enhanced technologies.

They have brought their prototype to Maker Faire Rome to demonstrate how it works.  It’s a system to help high dependency patients in hospital be monitored continuously.  It works by assessing the health status of the patient by visually checking their movement after receiving drugs or surgery.  It can also detect not just movement, but temperature, heart rate and blood pressure.  To do this it uses thermal camera’s.

All this is performed in a small box that can be mounted on an arm that can be moved into and out of place by the nurses and doctors as they work through the day.  The detection is made by using a laser pointer to the patients body and once set can be switched off.

This application is a method of continually collecting data, between human visual checks.  It collects valuable data that they can reflect back on in the event of a crisis happening.  Not only is the data recorded but Doctors can add an alarm / notification that alerts the medical team if the patient breaches a certain level.  This information is delivered to the team in a purpose built tablet as part of the system.

The data is also kept very secure by simply numbering the patients and the doctors cross reference numbers with the patients notes.  It’s worth noting that the data never leaves the unit either and its not sent off somewhere so its privacy is kept on location.  It will only hold on to the data for a few days before writing over as well.

I think this would be an excellent support system to visual checking, this could well be a welcome addition to HDU in the coming years.

Each of these innovative ideas have had a superb platform to share their ideas and reach more investors.  This is what Maker Faire Rome is all about.