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“Promoting research for the benefit of humankind”

www.andreabocellifoundation.org

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Opening and Social Gathering

Seth Teller Laura Biancalani Laura Giarré CSAIL, MIT ABF President ABF Advisory Board

Thursday, December 5th

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Outline

La

•Laura Biancalani (ABF foundation) ABF Vision, ABF Mission, ABF Values, What we do, Workshops

• Laura Giarré (ABF Advisory board) ABF commitment ABFChallenge Program, Aims of the workshop

•Seth Teller (MIT) The Fifth Sense Program

•Speakers will introduce their names and their research topic •Discussion •Closing and Dinner

“I strongly believe that love does justice. And that we are called by our faith in love and justice to build a better world. Since love energizes faith, the opposite must also be true. The amazing lives we have been granted, offer us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give the less fortunate a better future and opportunities.” Andrea

ABF Vision

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ABF Mission

Our mission is to empower people and communities who are in situations of poverty, illiteracy, distress due to illness and social exclusion by promoting and supporting national and international projects that help to overcome these barriers. The Foundation works to ensure that all persons and each community can express themselves to the best of their abilities beyond their limits. 5/12/2013 5 ABFMT2013

How Do We Work ABF Values: the 5 Cs

Trust

COURAGE COOPERATION COMPETENCE CONCRETENESS CARE

to believe in changes

for people that we approach

In providing tangible and misurable solution

For action to be efficient

partecipation and contribution

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Challenges program: ABF funds a multi-disciplinary research group at MIT for the creation of a system allowing blind or visually impaired people to achieve greater autonomy, especially outdoors and when socialising. Break the Barriers program: ABF identifies interventions in the fight against absolute poverty that can be measured by impact and number of lives saved, and it is paying particular attention to J-Pal, a social research laboratory at MIT. Two parallel workshops devoted to the intervention programs of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation (related to the research activity currently being conducted at MIT).

ABF MIT : Area Programs

How Do We Work Living Laboratory

Joining forces is the winning slogan of this exciting project Enhance every relationship created by Andrea Open and face to stimulate and work in order to induce changes in culture that bring a higher quality of life for many.

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ABF Commitment Dissemination: Encourage researchers to

work on this issue, find new solutions exchange new ideas (organizing workshops and meetings)

Research:

Fund innovative projects for the creation of assistive technologies Be of support and stimulus to new ideas

Multidisciplinarity:

find solutions from different points of view in order to innovate

Impact: stimulate the development of solutions that can be produced and engineered; increase the exchange between international scientists

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ABF Challenges Program

•Bring together the best minds to find innovative solutions to help people cope with and overcome the limits imposed by their disability or difficulties. • Operate within the area of scientific and technological research and social innovation • Accept major challenges in terms of both investments and results to be achieved in the willingness to allow anyone who experiences economic or social difficulties to fully express their potential. • Launch challenges involving high-risk investments and global interest to improve the living conditions of many people

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Workshop Challenges Pisa July 6°, 2012 “Find innovative solutions to help people to overcome the limits imposed by their disabilities. Italian and American scientist at work”

ABF Challenges Program Pisa 2012 Workshop

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•The MIT Fifth Sense Project: Providing the Functions of Vision to Blind People S. Teller and co-authors, MIT •Music Accessibility for Visual Impaired P. Nesi, G. Nicotra, Univ. Firenze •Intelligence in the Hand: From Human to Artificial Haptics A.Bicchi, Univ. Pisa •When your smart phone becomes your guide dog I.Tinnirello, P. Gallo, Univ. Palermo •Haptic Interfaces: access to digital computing for Visual Impaired C. Avizzano, A. Frisoli, M. Carrozzino, C. Evangelista S. Anna, Pisa •Two Research Projects on Computer Vision for the Visually Impaired C. Guida, M. Fanfani and C. Colombo, Univ. Firenze •Social networks: opportunities and challenges for blind people M. Buzzi, C. Buzzi, B. Leporini, CNR Pisa. •Seeing with ears, hands and the bionic eyes: from theories of brain organization to visual rehabilitation A: Amedi, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem

Challenges Workshop 2012

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Intelligent wearable perception and high-resolution tactile display aimed at increasing the independence of blind people. The system integrates perception and human-computer interaction through a tactile interface.

ABF Challenges Program (Financed Program) Open Work

FIFTH SENSE PROJECT

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Development of a system which proposes the creation of new situational awareness algorithms of perception aimed at:

• Identification of “safe” walking terrain • Recognition of nearby people • Detection and decoding of environmental text

Design of a new, scalable type of tactile element for high resolution displays.

FIFTH SENSE PROJECT

ABF Challenges Program Open Work

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•Find a new understanding of the complex challenge of enabling visually impaired people in getting and achieving a better autonomous life via a multidisciplinary approach. •RESEARCH question: how are neuroscientists and computer scientists working to understand the functional uses of vision and develop innovative technologies enabling visually impaired people to increase their independence and social inclusion? •This problem needs to be reformulated beyond the classical boundaries of each involved discipline in order to achieve innovative solutions

2° Challenges Workshop: AIMS

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We are approaching the problem from our own perspective, but we are all answering the same question: Is it possible for visually impaired people, thanks to technology and science, to live an autonomous life, be independent, work and socialize? •DISCUSSION: how to get a unique multidisciplinary new understanding.

2° Challenges WS

Different Approaches

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Themes: •the neurological aspects of vision; •retinal prosthesis; •the design of assistive technologies helping blind people in the autonomous navigation and orientation, either outdoors or indoors, avoiding obstacles; spotting texts; •assistive technologies to efficiently socialize and recognize faces and people expressions; •games and tools helping blind children; •answers to the question of what is vision without sight and what is vision in terms of perceptual and cognitive functioning for the blinds

2° Challenges Ws Different Approaches

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Welcome to MIT from ABF

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“Promoting research for the benefit of humankind”

www.andreabocellifoundation.org