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Category: Human Technology

Mountain communities and digitization: towards technological innovation

Posted on by Neosperience Team

Comunità montane e digitalizzazione

Tourism is on the upswing after the hard setback of the pandemic. Although people have returned to travel, however, tourists' choices and expectations have changed, opening up to scenarios that were unprecedented or underestimated a few years ago.

We have rediscovered the value of proximity tourism and we're more aware of the environmental impact of our trips; above all, though, tourism has gotten more and more digital, particularly if we take into consideration the customer experience that goes into the planning and conduct of the trip.

For this series of reasons, in a scenario that is still delicate and complicated by the coexistence of various factors of instability, territorial valorization has to deal with digitization and must adopt new technologies, individually integrated and customized.

Mountain tourism: innovation and challenges

Mountain communities, in which more than half of Italy's territory falls, constitute a territorial system endowed with a great tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Today more than ever, mountains play a crucial role within the Italian tourism scene, with a total volume of presences rapidly returning to pre-pandemic levels.

At the crossroads between natural scenic attractions, the presence of sports facilities and walking routes, and the emotional resonance of material culture and traditions, mountain communities represent a popular destination for many Italians in both the winter and summer seasons.

Added to this is a mode of land use closely linked to the post-pandemic scenario, which thins the boundary between tourism and residence: that of remote working. More and more Italians are in fact choosing to move away from big cities to go – or return – to live and work in small towns.

Mountain communities and digitization

With the Green Communities project, the PNRR embraces these trends and aims to "foster the sustainable and resilient development of rural and mountain territories that want to make balanced use of the riches they have."

Project funds will go towards the development of more than 30 projects to connect the territory through sustainable tourism, which together with energy, environmental, economic and social development plans will involve more than 500 Italian municipalities with a total investment of 130 million euros.

The big challenge for Italian mountain communities, however, is the need to bridge the gap in telecommunications that still divides them from large cities. This innovation can be only achieved at infrastructural level, as the result of a joint effort between the public and private sectors, in order to fully enable the potential of state-of-the-art tourism solutions.

Indeed, new technologies play a key role in creating memorable experiences that can connect visitors with the cultural heritage of mountain communities while helping to make these areas safer and better served for tourists and residents.

Neosperience has now established a very significant experience in this area. In light of it, we have developed several innovation scenarios for territorial systems, functional for the enhancement of tourism in mountain communities.

Gamification and AR/VR for immersive experiences

Comunità montane e digitalizzazione

We hear more and more about gamification, or the use of game-derived elements to increase participant engagement and motivation. Gamification is an innovative way of increasing audience engagement and can be applied to various products and services.

The application of these dynamics to mountain tourism makes it possible to create unforgettable travel experiences, but also to look at everyday places through different eyes, effectively offering an additional layer of interaction that allows users to experience firsthand the story of the place being visited.

The addition of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality elements to mobile applications also transforms proximity tourism into a true adventure. Travelers of all ages can explore places of interest in new and fun ways, completing "missions" and collecting points.

Between local and global

A local gamification strategy such as the one just outlined can also be integrated with global solutions such as geocaching, a collective "treasure hunt" that has more than three million participants and relies on GPS technology for finding and exchanging notebooks (logbooks) and small gadgets.

Travel companies and private facilities such as hotels, mountain lodges and restaurants can also take advantage of gamification. Solutions such as our Nudging Gamification allow for the creation of mobile applications tailored to the specific identity and goals of customers.

With gamification initiatives, companies and facilities can increase guest engagement and loyalty during their stay, while also quickly and effectively collecting valuable customer data and quantitatively and qualitatively measuring the success of initiatives.

Finally, gamification can prove to be an important tool for raising awareness of environmental issues, with a view to so-called "responsible tourism." Indeed, the creation of a sense of empathy towards the nature and history of a place is even more immediate and spontaneous if travelers can interact with it themselves.

Artificial Intelligence for personalized tourism

Comunità montane e digitalizzazione

Artificial Intelligence is opening up new scenarios in several application sectors, including tourism. In this constantly changing world, still suffering from the travel restrictions of recent years, it has become imperative to keep up with the times and understand the new, often unpredictable habits of travelers.

Integrating Artificial Intelligence within one's systems allows one to establish an ongoing and lasting relationship with the customer, based on a deep understanding of their needs and preferences.

This argument applies even more in cases such as mountain communities: as we have illustrated in the previous paragraphs, often within an area coexist vastly different ways and times of visiting throughout the year.

Using data analysis and Machine Learning, Voice of Customer systems analyze the individual preferences of travelers to create customized packages, from the most rugged itineraries for experienced trekkers to days of pure relaxation for those unplugging from the city.

Specifically, in the case of accommodations and recreational facilities related to the travel, Voice of Customer evolves into Voice of Guest. Listening to the voice of the guest means acquiring and analyzing their habits, identifying the factors that influence each customer's preferences and choices.

Investing in state-of-the-art technological solutions thus propels the hospitality industry toward new business models, capable of reacting more quickly to changes in market dynamics and maintaining a competitive positioning.

Another help to tourism comes from chatbots and conversational agents. These forms of AI can answer travelers' questions and help them book flights, hotels and activities. Thanks to Natural Language Processing, these systems can overcome cultural and language barriers to better understand and fulfill everyone's needs.

Smart Security to prevent forest fires

Mountain communities and digitization

The danger of forest fires affects all mountainous areas of Italy. Climate change has contributed to exacerbating this risk situation over the past few years, necessitating timely solutions that can prevent either natural or human caused fires from breaking.

Forest fire prevention is more important than ever if the biodiversity of mountain communities is to be preserved and nearby urbanized areas secured. Technology can offer valuable help in this context.

This is demonstrated by the projects in which Neoscogen, a company part of Neosperience that specializes in Safety&Security and offers solutions for monitoring and automatic detection of relevant events in different areas, is engaged.

The Artificial Intelligence behind Neoscogen, in combination with special state-of-the-art thermal imaging cameras capable of detecting fire even kilometers away, makes it possible to monitor areas at risk and intervene promptly in case of emergency.

In case of fire, Artificial Intelligence can provide real-time analyses and determine the best containment and damage limitation strategy, alerting the relevant authorities and preparing evacuation measures.

The use of these environmental sensors is also crucial to identify fires even before the fire spreads, but also to gather valuable information on climate and vegetation for preventive purposes.

On-call transportation to facilitate travel

Mountain communities and digitization

From Northern to Southern Italy, public transportation management in small and medium territorial realities is still an open question.

In these contexts, it is necessary to rethink the transportation system to meet the needs of users – whether residents or tourists – with customizable, scalable and user-friendly DRT solutions.

EasyBus is the solution created by Somos, a Neosperience home-grown start-up linked to UniCal, which aims to make local public transport "tailor-made" through a suite of technological services: from a native app for booking seats to an AI system that monitors the service and highlights any critical issues in the frequency of rides.

Designed for congregation control during COVID emergency, EasyBus also finds an application for use in rural and mountainous areas, poorly served by the public transportation network, thanks to its geolocation service that allows passengers to be located and picked up directly from their location.

With Neosperience solutions we enable an empathetic, ecological and sustainable evolution of tourist flows, communities and territory. Our innovation proposals are supported and enhanced by new technologies and the desire to support the economic and cultural growth of territorial and tourism realities.

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Rights and obligations of Artificial Intelligence: where does the law stand?

Posted on by Neosperience Team

AI e legge

Artificial Intelligence has come a long way in recent years: growing in possibility, skill, and prevalence, it has become part of our everyday lives, influencing our habits.

By private initiative, algorithms now regulate our behavior on social networks, preferences for movies and games, the ability to apply for a mortgage or loan, the ability to succeed in a job interview, and so on.

Fascinated and at the same time wary of this new technology, the public and institutions now have to balance the countless benefits of AI with the risks it may pose to our rights.

It has recently arisen the need, shared between the European Union and the United States, to regulate the use of Artificial Intelligence on several fronts, lest private individuals end up with more power and responsibility in their hands than they can really control.

In this in-depth look at the features of the most recent regulations – the AI Bill of Rights and the AI Act, both of which are currently non-binding – which are already expected to become the benchmark for Artificial Intelligence regulation in the world in the coming years.

AI Bill of Rights

The AI Bill of Rights does not yet constitute a legislative proposal, nor does it mention penalties or sanctions for automated systems that do not comply with these rules: rather, it is intended as a set of non-binding recommendations to companies and government organizations that intend to take advantage of or are already making use of Artificial Intelligences.

The document outlines 5 principles by which to regulate the design and implementation of Artificial Intelligence: the text refers specifically to the U.S. public sector, but the guidelines it contains can also be applied in other contexts where it is used.

1 - Safe and effective systems

Citizens should be protected from the use of potentially unsafe or ineffective systems that can do harm to the individual and/or the community.

For this reason, automated systems, even before they are implemented, should undergo independent testing to assess their effectiveness and safety.

2 - Protections against algorithmic discrimination

Artificial Intelligences should be designed and used fairly, taking preventive measures to prevent the risk of algorithmic discrimination.

"Algorithmic discrimination" is defined as unequal treatment by an automated system on the basis of ethnic, social or cultural criteria.

3 - Protection of personal data

Automated systems should by design contain options regarding the protection of personal data and privacy of users and should collect only the data strictly necessary for their operation.

The point also refers to the need to establish explicit consent from the user, not unlike what is done in the European Union with the GDPR.

4 - Notices and explanations

One should always know if and when one is interfacing with an automated system and what the impacts, if any, of the interaction are.

Transparency in the use of Artificial Intelligence includes the need to make explicit not only the presence of the technology in question, but also how it works, in clear language that is accessible to as many people as possible.

5 - Human alternatives, evaluations and reservations

Citizens should always be able to choose a human alternative to an automated system, in ways in which this choice is feasible and appropriate.

The presence of oversight and monitoring figures is particularly recommended in areas considered "most sensitive": criminal justice, human resources, education, and health.

AI Act (European Union)

The AI Bill Of Rights represents an important signal from the United States, the world superpower and cradle of Big Tech, but from the perspective of AI regulation, the European Union has already taken several steps forward.

The AI Act, presented in the spring of 2021 and currently under discussion between the European Parliament and member states, is a piece of legislation that aims to apply the principle of transparency and respect for human rights to the design and use of Artificial Intelligence.

The goal of the AI Act is to regulate the entire sector of the production and deployment of automated systems on the European territory, in accordance with existing legislation in the member states and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The AI Act has several points of contact with the more recent AI Bill Of Rights, from which it differs in that it has a more regulatory slant: in fact, it includes a prior registration requirement for this type of technology and a ban on the use of types of Artificial Intelligence deemed "unacceptable risk."

What are high-risk AIs?

The text of the AI Act divides AIs into four classes of risk, calculated proportionally based on potential threats to people's health, safety, or fundamental rights.

Unacceptable risk

Artificial Intelligences that make use of practices such as profiling for coercion or social scoring purposes, or use subliminal techniques, i.e., distort people's behaviors to cause physical or psychological harm, fall into this category.

Unacceptable risk Artificial Intelligence systems are to be considered prohibited, as they contravene in their operation the values of the European Union and fundamental human rights such as the presumption of innocence.

High risk

Artificial Intelligence systems that have the potential to significantly affect the course of democracy or individual or collective health fall into this category.

Examples of high-risk Artificial Intelligences are:

  • Systems used in education or vocational training for the evaluation of tests or access to institutions;
  • The systems used to assign decisions in labor relations and in credit;
  • Systems intended for use in the administration of justice and crime prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution;
  • Systems intended for use in the management of migration, asylum and border control.

The AI Act pays special attention to high-risk applications of Artificial Intelligence. These will be allowed to enter the market, but only if they meet a set of mandatory horizontal requirements that ensure their reliability and have passed several conformity assessment procedures.

Limited risk

This category includes systems such as chatbots or deepfakes, which may originate a risk of manipulation when the nature of the conversational agent is not made clear to the user.

For AI systems considered low risk, the act imposes a code of conduct on manufacturers based on transparency of information shared with the public, who must be aware at all times that they are interacting with a machine.

Minimal risk

The vast majority of expert, automated and Artificial Intelligence systems currently in use in Europe fall into this category.

For AI systems considered to be minimal risk, the regulations leave vendors free to adhere to codes of conduct and reliability on a voluntary basis.

AI Liability Directive: toward regulation

At the end of September 2022, just days before the AI Bill Of Rights was published overseas, the European Commission released the AI Liability Directive, a proposal on the legal responsibilities of Artificial Intelligence.

In other words, this document is a first step toward enforcing legal measures against individuals or entities that suffer damages related to the use of this type of technology.

In the AI Liability Directive, the European Commission also divides the assumption of legal liability among several actors: first and foremost, it will fall on the companies that make Artificial Intelligence available, but it will also involve other actors in the entire supply chain, not least the users themselves.

Conclusion: is it right to limit innovation?

It is never right to limit innovation, and moreover, blocking the progress of a technology is never the purpose of well-written norms and laws.

Norms live in the culture and history in which they are written, follow its sensibilities, and simply direct technologies toward the most felt needs of the moment, limiting the dangers of creating harm to society.

In fact, it is not forbidden-to take one example-to research new therapies and medicines through genetic technologies; on the other hand, it is forbidden to clone a human being.

Artificial Intelligence will be no exception: as evidenced by the proposals put on the table in recent years by the European Union and the United States, in the near future this technology will be subject to rules that will lead manufacturers to take the necessary responsibility for the products and services they put on the market.

The intent driving these measures is to preserve individual and collective freedoms. It will only be possible to innovate without risking people's freedoms through third-party reality checks, in light of the contemporary and through contributions from different areas of expertise-from pure science to law, via data science and the humanities.

We at Neosperience are explorers of innovation. What has guided us in the development of our Artificial Intelligence algorithms, to the analysis of user behavior to the simplification of business processes, is the desire to bring people and organizations into a more human and empathetic digital environment.

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Overview Effect: an empathic, collective and universal experience

Posted on by Neosperience Team

Overview Effect

In 1632, in the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Galileo Galilei brought to support the theory of heliocentrism the belief that "If you could see the earth illuminated when you were in a place as dark as night, it would look to you more splendid than the moon."

In 1968, more than three centuries later, the U.S. Apollo 8 space mission reached the orbit of the Moon. This was not the occasion when astronauts landed on our satellite for the first time – the moon landing would not occur until a year later –  but something surprising happened nonetheless.

At one point in the live telecast astronauts Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders turned the camera around and framed the Earth, implicitly confirming what Galilei had said. The resulting shot, dubbed Earthrise, is believed to be one of the most significant photographs in human history.

Earthrise: Overview Effect

During the Apollo 8 mission, for the first time three human beings observed our Planet from space, feeling profound emotion at the beauty and fragility of Earth, a blue pearl lost in the infinity of the universe.

Returning from the mission and approaching the atmosphere, the experience of the Apollo 8 astronauts got more intense. Before their eyes unfolded expanses of cyclones and disturbances, but also cities lit up in the night, coral reefs and northern lights - the same view that, decades later, astronauts on the International Space Station still observe today.

In 1987, author and philosopher Frank White gave a name to the specific feeling of wonder one experiences when observing Earth from space: the Overview Effect.

 

What is the Overview Effect?

The term "Overview Effect" defines the cognitive change in perception felt by astronauts and cosmonauts during space missions.

Despite never having experienced space exploration firsthand, White collected interviews with 29 astronauts in a volume titled The Overview Effect. The vast majority of astronauts witnessed a disruptive change in perspective during a space voyage.

Such a radical experience changes the perception of our planet forever. The statements collected by White mostly emphasize the sense of unity and interconnectedness among living beings, the need to appreciate and care for our "home."

Astronaut Jim Lovell, a member of the aforementioned Apollo 8 mission, points out how, from the Moon, Earth looks like "a great oasis compared to the great vastness of space," while cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov perceives the planet as "our home that had to be defended like a sacred relic."

From above, the boundaries and barriers that define life on Earth are invisible. In the holistic view that determines the Overview Effect, our planet reveals all its magnificence and, at the same time, all its fragility.

 

Pale Blue Dot

Space probes reach distances that for the moment are still unthinkable for astronauts: the images they manage to capture show the Earth as a small, fragile sphere packing all life known to date, "hanging" in sidereal space, wrapped in a thin atmosphere layer that protects it from the external environment.

In 1990, astronomer and author Carl Sagan successfully got the Voyager 1 space probe to turn its camera around and take a photograph of Earth from as far as 6 billion kilometers away before leaving the Solar System.

In the resulting shot, dubbed Pale Blue Dot by Sagan himself, our planet is nothing more than an imperceptible speckle, less than a pixel wide, lonely and microscopic-looking in space, bathing the Sun's reflection off the probe's camera.

Pale Blue Dot

In his 1994 text of the same name, Sagan reflects on this very shot, which elicits an indirect, amplified version of the Overview Effect:

"The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

The smallness of our planet in the vastness of space simultaneously amazes and frightens observers.

The need to create a planetary society with a united will to protect and give a future to this "pale blue dot" in space, preserving the environment and transcending social boundaries and barriers, becomes evident and imperative.

 

In space with Virtual Reality

So far less than 600 people in the history of mankind have been able to directly experience the Overview Effect by observing the Earth from space. Even the most significant shots, in their two-dimensionality, do not come remotely close to the holistic, all-encompassing experience these people have been privileged to experience.

Advances in technology in the field of Virtual Reality (VR), however, are giving an increasingly broader audience the opportunity to experience the Overview Effect through immersive experiences.

VR Overview Effect

Virtual Reality technology, due to its controllability and ability to provide a sense of presence, is a unique medium for designing and developing publicly accessible experiences.

Virtual Reality experiences inspired by space exploration, especially when combined with sound effects and mindfulness practices, have been shown to elicit a deep emotional response of wonder and awe in the audience. In other words, if you want to experience the Overview Effect, you don't have to be an astronaut nor do you have to wait to become a space tourist.

 

Overview Effect: a radical change in perspective

The Overview Effect shows that a change of mindset often stems from a radical change of perspective. By shifting from the individual to the universal, from the singular to the collective, rising above the boundaries and barriers of everyday life, we rediscover what makes us human.

Bringing this mindset into business processes is the first step in ensuring the creation of truly empathic products and services.

For years, Neosperience has been guiding companies through digital transformation with an ecosystem of empathic technology solutions that meet and anticipate the needs and wants of the customer base.

We help companies innovate their business strategies with a data-driven approach, giving them the strategic key to build the present and future of their company in the marketplace.

 

Neosperience at Futura Expo 2022

Neosperience believes in the potential of VR technology, which up until today has only been partially exploited by brands in order to deliver truly immersive experiences.

After winning projects that opened up the potential of Virtual Reality in the e-commerce field, we brought our Overview Effect experience to Futura Expo, the event dedicated to a vision of the future in which Man, Nature, Environment and Economy coexist in harmony.

Futura Expo

From Sunday, October 2 to Tuesday, October 4, visitors to Futura Expo 2022 have been able to experience a Virtual Reality experience simulating Earth observation from space by means of Oculus Quest 2 visors at our booth.

With this choice we set out to demonstrate that Virtual Reality is not a "stylistic exercise," nor a fad destined to be soon supplanted, but rather a useful tool to offer new points of view to people and allow them to experience situations that are out of this world.

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Smart Agriculture: seizing the opportunities of a growing sector

Posted on by Neosperience Team

Technology shows all its destructive nature when applied to what has always seemed unchangeable. It is the case of agriculture, and its enormous possibilities for growth and development if interfaced with the latest innovations and technological solutions of Smart Agriculture. 

In fact, it went from a market of 450 million in 2019 to one of 1.6 billion in 2021. This is the figure reported in Research 2022 presented by the Smart Agrifood Observatory.

Going into more detail, the largest investments in the sector are dedicated to connected machinery (47 %), monitoring and control systems for vehicles and equipment (35 %), and then at a distance by management software (6 %), followed finally by remote monitoring systems for land and crops (5 %)

First of all, it should be noted that the technological field that seems to have the greatest application opportunities within Smart Agriculture is IoT (Internet of Things), obviously assisted by other technologies such as Drones, Blockchain, Machine Learning, etc.

Italy invests in Smart Agriculture about 20% of the total of the EU.

But what are the practical advantages of agriculture in adopting these instruments?

In this article we will explain the technological applications within the cultivation processes that can help the farmer manage processes, materials, machinery, human resources, and, of course, the crops themselves more efficiently.

Phytopathology

Phytopathology often causes enormous economic losses to the farmer if not recognized in time. To limit the damage, it is essential to discover its onset punctually, while at the same time preventing its start by highlighting the conditions that increase its risk.

How? For example, through the implementation of sensors (IoT) in the fields, on the trees, on the individual fruits, in the drainage channels, and so on, thanks to which it is possible to recover qualitative information on the health of the plants, on the humidity of the soil, on the presence of harmful substances, insects, diseases, etc.

At the same time, by using drones, orthophotos, and 3D images, it is possible to highlight the different parts of crops, which receive less water, grow less, or appear less healthy or sick.

Precision Farming

Another application of IoT, drones, but also Machine Learning, is explained in the concept of “Precision Farming”.

Usually, resources are used according to the schedule or in any case homogeneously in a crop, without considering the intra-field variability and the real needs.

The new technologies make it easy to collect information to carry out selective treatments, saving time, and applied products. Through predictive analysis, made possible by Machine Learning algorithms, the farmer can predict when certain crops and areas will need to be sown, irrigated, or fertilized.

Other Smart Agriculture Applications

But now let's go into the various features, imagining a ready-to-use solution dedicated to Smart Agriculture. What are its practical applications? 

Plot mapping

Thanks to the solution, the operator can easily draw web maps of their plots using the orthophotos of the area as a background. The system also allows you to upload the cadastre maps. It would be possible to map not only the plots but also tare or parts of land destined for other uses.

Georeferencing plants or rows 

In addition to displaying the plots, when the information is relevant for each plant, it is possible to geo-report plants or rows, using the GPS in the field and reporting the information on the map.

Computerization of crop data 

Each plot drawn on the map can be associated with a multiplicity of useful information both during the evaluation and monitoring of the crop and during the sending of data for regulatory compliance. 

Interface with soil and plant sensors

The solution interfaces directly to IoT sensors positioned in the plots to provide important information about soil and plant response to weather conditions. 

Weather data display

The application provides weather data from fixed control units or IoT sensors installed directly in the plots. The sensors provide useful information about the microclimate that insists on a certain area, which is essential for the assessment of the possibility of occurrence of certain phytopathologies. 

Warehouse management for fertilizers and plant protection products

A specific section of the solution would be dedicated to the management of the fertilizer and phytosanitary warehouse. The system automatically displays a counter to monitor the presence of products in the warehouse.

Processing of graphs and statistics

Smart Agriculture produces numerous graphs and statistics that allow you to carry out a specific analysis for various factors, in particular:

  • Forecast modeling: the solution would be able to produce very accurate forecast models for each area, indicating the probability of generation, fertility, and mortality of a pest agent. This information allows knowing promptly the beginning of a phytopathology or the degree of infestation.
  • Optimize the use of products: the Smart Agriculture solution would allow optimizing the use of fertilizers, plant protection products, and irrigated water thanks to the use of distribution maps and soil parameters obtained from soil sampling.
  • Support in the choice of soil sampling points: the platform would support the farmer to choose sampling points through pedological data, orography, and previous sampling.
  • Highlight the presence of localized criticalities: the solution would highlight various criticalities, such as nutrient deficiency,  phytopathologies, or the presence of water stagnation in the soil through vegetation vigor maps. These maps are created from remotely sensed data by satellites or drones.

Conclusions

In summary, the Smart Agriculture solution that we have imagined allows you to:

- Improve and modernize crop management by replacing paper maps and data;

- Optimize data handling and loading times;

- Prevent the onset of disease and contain its spread;

- Optimize management choices;

- Save on the use of products (fertilizers, plant protection products, water);

- Contain the environmental impacts of activities;

- Produce higher quality goods;

- Conduct time comparisons for the management of criticalities in the plots. 

The time has come for agriculture to enter the era of digitalization.

The future is 4.0. also for agriculture: by developing new solutions for Smart Agriculture it is possible to benefit a growing market, which offers opportunities to companies that believe in an ecological and prudent approach to resources.

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10 Ways The Internet Has Changed The Way We Live (And Do Business)

Posted on by Neosperience Team

internet station

The full-length title of this article should be 10 ways the Internet and the smartphone have changed the way we live - as humans and customers - and how businesses must evolve to improve their customer experience and survive the digital transformation.

We all recognize mobile technology as the real game-changer in the creation of the world as we experience it today. The hidden truth, though, is that there would be no smartphone without the Internet revolution. We are the result of this revolution.

Can you imagine your life without the Internet?

We can start with one simple question: Can you imagine your life without the Internet? Just close your eyes for a moment and think about what life was before the web. You can barely remember that time if you were born and grew up before the Internet. If you are a digital native, this task is simply impossible.

Millennials - also known as digital customers - will never experience a world with no connectivity and mobile devices. Yes, there are still (small) areas of our planet not wired and cabled but - at least for us living in developed countries - it is hard to imagine a life before Google, Amazon, Apple or Facebook.

If you search on Google (where else!), you will find tons of experiments or researches about life without the Internet. They all come down to one single definitive truth: "I cannot even imagine my life without the Internet or the smartphone. It is an integral part of who I am." (Gallup)

The Internet is still relatively young (it just celebrated its 32th birthday in 2021) and yet the connectivity has already produced long-lasting effects. It all started with a cable plugged into the phone line, and now we possess the entire world in the palm of our hand.

There is one exact moment that changed things forever, and that was when the Internet came out of our home, held inside a small box called smartphone.

According to the "Worldwide digital population as of January 2021" by Joseph Johnson, we have reached 4.66 billion connected people in the world. In other words, almost 59.5%  of the worldwide population is now online, at home and on mobile devices.

Every single activity of our daily life is influenced by connected existence:

  • More than 50 million pieces of content are shared every day;
  • More than 1 billion websites are online;
  • More than 500 million Tweets are sent every day,
  • More than 50 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month;
  • More than 15 billion items have been sold on Amazon in 2021, with 40% of those sold by third-party sellers.

What is true for people is, even more, true for organizations. The way you do business today is completely different from the best practices taken for granted only a decade ago. All certainties suddenly disappeared, washed away from a stream of connectivity. The Internet has brought treats but also huge opportunities, for those able to respond timely and unlock the power of emerging technologies.

The years pass by, but the rules of the competition remain the same: you succeed only if you can understand what is going on, if you adapt to the evolution of technology and behaviors, and if you answer to the unprecedented demands of new customers. Business and technology go hand in hand, and so does the customer experience.

Any analysis of how life has changed may look like a trip down memory lane, but it also helps you understand where we are all headed for as human beings, customers, and organizations. So, here are the 10 ways the Internet has changed (and will keep changing) the way we live.

The 10 ways the Internet has changed the way we live

 

RESEARCH

Where do you go when you are collecting information about a product or looking for an answer? Google, of course. The Internet has become the primary source of information, and search engines the main door to access it. Thanks to the smartphone, you have the complete knowledge in your pocket. Education, essays, product comparison, self-improvement tips, technical details, diets, do it yourself, lolcats, the Internet has it all. If you are a brand, you need to be there with meaningful contents.

COMMUNICATION

Do you still remember phone calls and letters? We have witnessed a complex evolution in the way we connect with other people and with companies. First came the chat rooms and forums, then - especially after the spread of smartphones - social networks and online communities. Face to face communication is still important but we increasingly rely on wide circles of strangers to decide what to do and what to buy. In the mobile era, communication is about building networks.

SHOPPING

The success of Amazon, eBay, and online marketplaces says that visiting the physical location of a store is no longer mandatory if you want to make a purchase. Shopping for a particular item looks like a journey across channels: you can see a product in the store, search for information online, compare prices between retailers, make the purchase in-app and pick it up at the store. The disruption of the retail industry always implies the renovation of the retail customer experience.

TRAVELS

Not so long ago, the essence of travel was the idea of discovery. Is it still? Today, you can know everything about a place even before leaving home. And planning has never been so easy and cheap: You have websites for information, mobile apps for real-time discount and offers, virtual reality for a full 3D immersion. Even when you are there, mobile technology is there for you: Uber for affordable transfers, Airbnb for cheap stays, Google Maps to find the way, TripAdvisors for gourmet restaurants. Who needs travel agencies anymore?

ENTERTAINMENT

Remember when you had to visit the video store to rent a VHS, hoping that the movie you were looking for was not taken already? That is the past. With the Internet, you have everything you need in one place, and rarely you need something physical (i.e. a Dvd) to enjoy it. With the emergence of smart TVs and the new generation of gaming consoles, all you need is a connection, be it movie streaming (Netflix), music (Spotify), the sports experience or on-demand personalized contents.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Once upon a time, people had to visit the bank to check the most basic financial operations. That was before the dawn of online banking, before the disintermediation. Before the ‘Uberization’ of retail banking. Technology trends have forced traditional institutions to face the challenge of evolution, transforming generic accounts into actual human beings. What they must do now is to stop focusing on products and money and start caring about the retail banking customer experience. In the name of innovation (mobile wallets, one-touch payments) and personalization.

RELATIONSHIPS

You do not need to know someone to love him/her. You do not need to feel the pressure of playing all your cards in a few minutes while waiting for the bus. Now you can find the love your life - or at least meet new friends - by simply downloading an app and filling out a profile. Be it dating or building professional relationships, there is a place for you online. This evolution has consequences for businesses: people now rely on a wider circle of trust, other people they barely know that can influence their decisions, one way or another.

HEALTHCARE

In the Internet age, everyone is a doctor. While you should not trust what you read online, when you feel symptoms of some sort, it is undeniable that technology has changed the medical experience and the relationship between doctors and patients. On the one hand we have the risk of misleading information; on the other hand, the emerging awareness that mobile devices can improve the quality of life and help prevent diseases. Wearables technology is the main driver of the self-tracking obsession; connected with health platforms (HealthKit), they will shape the future of healthcare.

MARKETING

When the way we communicate changes, marketing techniques change accordingly. If you try to employ traditional marketing ideas to today’s world, you will soon recognize they are outdated and inefficient. The reason is simple: customers have changed, their purchase behavior have changed. Even when they are in the store, they go online to compare products. The success of proximity marketing is due to the need (for companies) to engage customers with context aware contents, and delight them with meaningful and personalized experiences.

EMPLOYMENT

Do you really need to spend eight hours a day in the office to be productive? Twenty years ago, this questions made no sense at all. Of course, you needed to be there. Today things are different, and it is all about the Internet. The evolution of web-based tools and the growth of cloud services have made the physical co-presence unnecessary. We live and work in an ecosystem of constant connectivity, and this is bringing employers and governments to a complete change of perspective, in the name of flexibility. To improve quality of life and cut inefficiency.

Now it is your turn. Tell us how the Internet has changed the way you live and do business.

For every need you have, for every challenge you are facing, Neosperience has a suitable solution for your company. Select your goal and tell us how we can help you!

Select Your Goal
(The article was updated and republished on May 1, 2021)
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Italian Wineries and the next year opportunities

Posted on by Neosperience Team

vigna all'alba

The wine sector today

The wine sector has not yet risen from its lowest point, and is likely to return to pre-Covid levels only in 2021.

Current data - provided by the TradeLab analysis company - predicts a closure of 2020 for wines equal to -28%. This contraction, however significant, is better than one percentage point compared to previous forecasts, but still not sufficient. 

The main reasons for this collapse are due to the sharp decrease in consumption outside home, in the HO.RE.CA channel, due to the closure of the spaces and the clear decrease in foreign tourism. 

Regarding exports, the first half of 2020 saw a 3.4% decrease in value: the largest percentage collapse was that of the Chinese market (-40%). While large production companies are reacting a little better, small companies, those that put quality and territoriality first, are the most in crisis. 

But not everything is lost. Indeed, for many wine producers the coming months will be full of opportunities.

The substantial change in the types of consumption requires a change in the product proposals: in this context, the possibilities for the sector to return stronger than before are considerable.

In this article we will describe the growth opportunities for the wine sector in terms of product positioning, new market opportunities and experiential offerings, with an eye on both the digital world and the indispensable physical experience. 

 

Voice of Customer: listening to improve

vino tavola rotonda

The first thing companies should do today to get back on their feet is “try to understand” what is happening to their customers. The months of chaos we have all experienced have undoubtedly changed our habits, thoughts, behaviours and desires.

Companies cannot ignore these changes: it is necessary to understand which direction the public is moving in. This is the right time to stop and start asking yourself questions.

The Voice of Customer can absolutely help: this is the branch for the collection of feedback and desired users (prospects, customers, employees) with the aim of providing a better user experience (UX), but also aimed at collecting information to support marketing and branding strategies. 

Thanks to digital technology, market research is now much cheaper and more effective. Through major social networks, email, whatsapp, chatbots, but also Amazon Alexa, you can relate one-to-one with your users. Starting from the data collected, it is possible to discover relevant and potentially disruptive information, especially today.

It is therefore essential for the wine sector to start from listening to what the present has to say to us.

 

Digital Commerce: selling without the intermediary of third parties 

Another factor that can no longer be postponed is the adoption of a digital sales channel. Having a Digital Commerce where you can sell your wine to the general public and professionals has become essential. 

This period has allowed millions of Italians to discover the value of Digital Commerce: therefore, it is difficult to go back to pre-pandemic habits. Of course Digital Commerce does not necessarily have to be an exclusive platform for individual producers.

To improve its effectiveness, it would be better to create hubs of more players who together decide to join forces: doing so would reduce costs, increase the visibility of the platform and give more choice to consumers and merchants. An example? A platform that unites all Piedmontese producers of Barolo.

What other benefits does Digital Commerce provide? Obviously it allows wineries to expand their market, differentiate the public and eliminate the expenses of third party operators, whether they are restaurants, wine bars or large retailers. 

In addition, being able to create a direct relationship with the public helps to create all those loyalty dynamics so dear to the company's income statements.

From this point of view, it is necessary to devote a specific study to what is called a subscription economy.

 

Product Subscriptions: Building Lasting Relationships

abbonamento vino

The subscription economy - which has been booming for some years - is an opportunity which, if well exploited, can be a major economic discriminator. What is it? It is simply the offer of a subscription to the products to the customer, in exchange for a discount. We are well aware that this mode of sale is already widespread within the wine sector. Many families, every year, call the trusted manufacturer to stock bottles. 

Digital, however, makes a qualitative leap to this service. In fact, as we have already said, the greater probability to create a loyal relationship with the customer improves the probability that a subscription will take place. Obviously all this applies to both B2B and B2C audiences.

Digital Commerce and Subscription Economy go hand in hand, and in our opinion it is right to implement both once you decide to move a part of the business online. 

 

Gamification: entertaining and engaging the public

Gamification consists of offering to the customers an experience, digital or physical, that aims to involve them through a "game”. Marketers have always known that linking product experience to fun is a winning tool to gain public trust and appreciation. Thanks to digital the possibility of engagement is considerably greater, and allows customers to be reached wherever they are.

Prize games, competitions, badges, trophies and competitions are not to be underestimated if you want to increase your customers and make them loyal to your products. Until a few years ago, only large companies were able to bear the costs for activities of this type: today this is no longer the case. 

In addition, the games themselves have also changed, which over the years have become increasingly engaging: if previously we were limited to collecting stickers, today we can create interactive competitions (contests on social media, in-app games, etc.).

Ultimately, playing today has never been so beneficial for companies.

 

Internationalisation: taking Made in Italy all around the world

Made in Italy has a future only as long as it can attract and involve even the most distant peoples.

To make this, you need to continually renew your offer and distribution channels, to be relevant in the digital age. One of the most complex markets for Italian companies, both culturally and because it is highly digitised, is the Chinese one. 

As we pointed out in the introduction to the article, the Chinese market was the one that experienced the steepest collapse due to the pandemic: -40%. 

As the first country to suffer from the consumption crisis caused by lockdown, China was also the first nation to emerge from it, and to resume growing and buying as usual: at the moment, foreign alcohol purchasing rates are growing rapidly.

The Chinese market was the fastest growing market in wine consumption worldwide. Although the pleasure of wine is universal, in order to be able to communicate with the Chinese people it is necessary to have a valid cultural knowledge of the country: for this reason it is not advisable to engage in promotional and internationalization activities without relying on external consultancy companies, which are able to support and recommend the best strategies. 

Value China, a subsidiary of Neosperience and composed of young Italian-Chinese, has recently implemented a digital promotion program dedicated to Italian wineries. 

Winease offers Italian producers the opportunity to learn directly about Chinese consumers, to discover the most effective ways to communicate with them and to use the most suitable tools to promote their uniqueness.

Through partnership with Wechat, China's largest social media platform, Interwine, the largest and oldest professional wine fair in China, and Putaojiu.com, China's leading press release platform in the wine sector, Value China is able to support and guide Italian winegrowers in conquering the market.

 

Conclusions

Ultimately, the growth possibilities for the sector are considerable and necessarily pass through the implementation of strategies focused on digital channels.

Understanding the public, engaging and retaining customers, eliminating third-party brokerage, joining stronger and more structured hubs, selling online and reaching distant and untapped markets: these are the guidelines for the wine sector that guarantee immediate success against a medium-term investment.

If you have any questions, please contact us and we will be happy to answer your questions.

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5 tips for an effective Lead Generation

Posted on by Neosperience Team

5 tips lead generationThe great salesmen of the past have now become legendary characters, whose stories feature films and television series. In fact, we are all bewitched by the skills of a good salesman, who alone can make a business prosper.

Although it is still important for companies to have a talented sales department, many companies are tempted to give up the human component in commercial activities in favor of digital solutions that promise the moon, but ultimately are very ineffective.

In fact, although they are cheaper and faster than any vendor, Social Selling or Account Based Marketing platforms are far less effective than human activities.

The reason? They lack an essential component: empathy.

Communicating the right message at the right time is complex: it is necessary to analyze the context and a whole set of subjective factors that a machine is not yet able to take into account.

However, this does not mean that digital is not helpful. Today you can find thousands of potential customers using platforms like LinkedIn, or simply browsing the web. Problems arise when a machine is asked to operate independently in the “contact phase”. The risk of passing for spam is more than real: for a company, this is the worst thing to do.

How is it possible to carry out digital sales activities without risking being irrelevant, ineffective, or even harmful?

 

5 Tips for Effective Lead Generation

In this article, we will show you the 5 tips that our sales department has always followed, and we will explain how our solution for Social Selling and Account Based Marketing works and how Neosperience Customer Generator can help your business grow.

  • To sell your products you need to know how to sell yourself

A trivial statement that it is often not put into practice.
Usually, those who contact us on social media or through our website are complete strangers: this obviously makes us think that their communications are spam. Getting noticed before contact is the first step to getting a response, hopefully positive. Create a relationship before direct contact. Like and comment on what is shared. Discuss, show yourself, and hear.

  • You need to examine

Before contacting potential prospects, you need to find out their role in the company and what their interests are, what their company does, and the trends and risks of their sectors. In business, you don't have to assume, but know how your company and services can be useful to that particular person.

  • Be personal

Today companies continually receive copied and pasted messages sent from poorly programmed bots: no wonder the results of these operations are virtually nil. A good sales activity must in fact be as “personal” as possible. So don't just talk about the product, but focus on your personal experience and that of your interlocutor: be “personalized”, tell who you are and what you do in the company, and find points of contact with your interlocutor.

  • Get organized and keep track of everything

The activity of a salesman must be organized. Keep track of what you write and who is your prospect. Take notes on what your prospects do and how they "are", and try changing your strategies to see which ones work best.

  • Supports your direct contact strategy

Sometimes it's the same prospect that finds your company. In fact, value-specific content for different targets is a natural “magnet” for new contracts: articles, whitepapers, ebooks, webinars, or videos, the important thing is that they are interesting and show the value of your business.

Neosperience Customer Generator

 

Neosperience Customer Generator

This is "Neosperience Customer Generator" by Neosperience on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.


What is interesting about this drawing of “empathic” advice is that all the activities described can be supported by our Lead Generation platform, Neosperience Customer Generator, based - among other things - also on Lead Champion, a digital marketing solution that we acquired just a few months ago.

The Neosperience Customer Generator allows you to:

  • Identify

Choose your target audience by combining information from all departments;

  • Discover

Recover the firmographic data of your ideal clientele - company size, location, sector, market position, and annual revenues - as well as strategic factors such as market influence, the likelihood of repeated purchases and the expected profit margin;

  • Save

Automatically load profiled leads and relevant information into the Customer Data Platform (CDP) of the Neosperience Customer Generator. Fill out notes and tags on Lead profiles; reuse this information later to boost your business;

  • Interact

Attract your potential customers and dialogue with them by generating Qualified Leads. View the profiles of your potential customers, identify their skills, follow their activities and send personalized messages automatically;

  • Engage

Create targeted content for each of your leads, dedicated to the specific offers you want to promote. Combine the effects of two strategic approaches: Account-Based Marketing (ABM), to communicate in a personalized way with each corporate actor, and Inbound Marketing, to generate new leads offering relevant and quality content;

  • Measure

Each marketing activity must produce measurable results. Thanks to Neosperience Customer Generator you can always know the conversion rate of your activities, the increase in the number of Leads over time, and their economic value.

Conclusions

Neosperience Customer Generator is a facilitator. It is the union of the best of digital - intelligent and empathetic - with the immeasurable value of the human relationship.

Digital is a tool, not the solution to all problems: for many years to come, the human factor will be indispensable. Our 5 tips are the foundation for a “human” and effective Lead Generation, and the guidelines on which we have developed our solution. If you want to learn more, read the article What is Lead Generation: the definitive guide to acquiring customers online (in 2021), by Lead Champion!

Only by combining digital and physical we can survive in today's ultra-competitive market, governed by digital intermediaries and made even more complex by the crisis that companies are experiencing today.

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Virtual Exhibition: Neosperience and Value China for your B2B event

Posted on by Neosperience Team

virtual exhibitionWe have trust in the future of B2B International Events. 

We know that the last months were the lowest point ever reached by this sector.  

However, according to us, there are a lot of tools and options to overcome this period and to build a new way to think about International Exhibitions. 

Today Problem

One concern is the impossibility of traveling around the globe. 

This is mainly a business problem. 

If you can’t present your products and services in person, how is it possible for you to reach the far market? 

The Solution: Neosperience Virtual Exhibition

It is possible thanks to new technologies. We have a vision: empower the strengths in your fair with an innovative, best-in-class digital platform. 

Neosperience Virtual Exhibition (for the chinese market Smart Exhibition) is a vertical solution that can help Italian businesses to create and manage their own international events. It is specifically designed to build a bridge between the Italian e Chinese markets. 

Why? Because we are convinced that there is not a future for the occidental industry without collaboration with Asian countries. For this reason, we welcomed Value China in the Neosperience family. Our common goal is to create and develop business partnerships between our great countries and economies. 

Your Goal

We have outlined what we think are the essential goals to create a successful event in our post-digital world.  

  • Develop a fair digital ecosystem to forge relationships and invent new ways to involve the exhibitors’ and visitors’ community;
  • Create and deliver engaging experiences that surprise and capture visitors;
  • Leverage the ability to connect, influence, build trust with target audiences, across any platform, or any device.
  • Broaden customers’ data creation sources and increase the level and quality of data;
  • Develop new revenue streams based on the sale of virtual stands with many sources of revenue: positioning and visibility, services activated and used, advertising pre, during and post the events.

 

What We Offer

Let’s talk about our solution. Our Virtual Exhibition and Event Management System is based on the Neosperience Unbreakable Community and provides a set of powerful services, yet easy to use:

  •  A space to make the exhibition topic fun and relevant: keynotes with insights and narratives aimed at both professionals and the general public, one-to-many, one-to-few, and one-to-one sessions;
  • A matching engine to suggest the most profitable meeting opportunities between buyers and sellers;
  • A virtual reality discovery and visit system of factories or regions accompanied by technical specialists that allow both businesses and consumers to live the experience with an extraordinary emotional impact and memorability;
  • An eCommerce Platform to create new streams of revenue for exhibitors and organizers. 

Our goal for your Exhibition is to establish a global destination dedicated to the digital experience. The attractiveness for the product enthusiasts and the global stakeholders’ community will be based on the ability to bring meetings, tests, and in-depth sessions to the virtual world, to promote knowledge of the product and the vendor community.

From a business perspective, the aim is to create the first pole of attraction of the product sector, aimed mainly at the international buyers' community.

Virtual Exhibition: why us?

Neosperience and Value China: together we deliver the best solution combining our "empathy in technology" vision with our knowledge of the Chinese market.

We can help your company extract maximum value from its positioning, supporting the Virtual Exhibition setup and sales 360° from the vision to roll out, thanks to the performance of our team and best-in-class Neosperience Cloud and Solutions.

Moreover, we can leverage our cross-border operating model to serve your company everywhere in Asia and the Pacific area, accelerating the path to connect Chinese buyers to your company more effectively.

The challenge that we face while creating your “unbreakable customer community” is attracting enough members to create value and offering full benefits from the first sign-up.

Thanks to our ready-to-use solutions, we will start with a robust and simple virtual exhibition architecture, and capitalize on viral growth.

Are you interested in our Virtual Exhibition vertical solution? Do you want to be a forerunner on the digital events market?

Contact us!

We will show you all the concrete benefits related to the adoption of the Neosperience Virtual Exhibition.

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Together to defeat Covid-19 thanks to Artificial Intelligence. Join the initiative #defeatcovid19

Posted on by Neosperience Team

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can offer real help against Covid-19. We created a team of experts working with our technologies to develop screening algorithms that support the health system.

With the hashtag #defeatcovid19, we launched the initiative and community defeatcovid19.org to onboard all organizations and experts in Artificial Intelligence. The goal is to identify technological answers that support healthcare departments and doctors in such a difficult time. 

To this purpose, we have already made available our platform and our team of data scientists to organizations and bodies that fight against Coronavirus, joined by the Milan Polytechnic, the first partner of the initiative.

The technologies available include neural networks specialized in identifying specific patterns within images and data correlation models. Patterns can be used to support screening and, subsequently, to make the evaluation of therapies more robust concerning the data collected, thus improving the estimation of the prognosis.

“We are gathering a team of artificial intelligence experts from all over the world - explained Dario Melpignano, President of Neosperience. We made available our Neosperience Cloud platform, Core Edition, offered for free to all public and private and non-profit research institutions, active in the health ecosystem, who will request it for developing novel Covid-19 screening methods. 

Giuseppe Andreoni, coordinator of the TeDH laboratory (Technology and Design for Health) of the Milan Polytechnic and scientific coordinator of the Nestore project, funded by the European research program Horizon 2020, which already sees Neosperience engaged together with 14 European public and private research organizations, is confident of the value of the initiative. “Together with Neosperience, we have created a working group that can develop screening algorithms with which to assist healthcare personnel. The team’s goal is to immediately welcome the contributions of the most expert organizations and data scientists broadly and inclusively, enhancing the efforts of each towards the common good.“ 

A challenge that brings together technical skills and ideal motivations, as the President of Neosperience reemphasizes. “In recent weeks, we have dedicated ourselves to understanding how to be more useful to our community in the difficult situation we are experiencing.

One of the primary needs is to have diagnostic tools available that are quick and easy to integrate into the screening processes. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning can provide a contribution in early diagnosis to health systems around the world: to organize operations, plan therapies, and improve efficiency in such a critical moment. “

Dott. Alberto Barosi, Head of Non-Invasive Cardiovascular Diagnostics at Luigi Sacco Hospital of Milan, an expert in the field of diagnostic ultrasound, contributed to the realization of the project. The initiative involves a pool of Covid Hospitals in the provinces of Milan, Bergamo, and Brescia. 

Neosperience will promote sharing, together with the Polytechnic of Milan and the other partners who are joining (at the moment, the 14 partners of Nestore European Consortium and Value China). The results achieved will remain as shared property of the scientific world. 

The data and models, together with the developed methodologies, will both be made public on open-source tools such as Github and made available to Italian and foreign research groups that request them, thus enhancing the tools to support diagnosis and treatment. Data collected anonymously in compliance with privacy legislation.

The data scientists and the organizations that want to deepen and join the project can visit the website:

http://www.defeatcovid19.org/.

Together we will defeat Covid-19 thanks to Artificial Intelligence.

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Digital Health. Last Trends and the Nestore’s case

Posted on by Neosperience Team

Before I start telling you about the Nestore European project, to which we have dedicated some of our best resources in the last year, we would like to draw the lines of the technological and methodological innovations that are emerging in both public and private health sectors.

In recent years, medicine has demonstrated the effectiveness of revolutionary healthcare innovations, ranging from the invention of vaccines to the discovery of antibiotics.

It is interesting to mention the development of telemedicine, which allows doctors and patients to communicate remotely, and to exchange data from monitoring tools such as wearables and smart clothes.

Furthermore, Augmented and Virtual Reality are now able to help students with their studies, for example through virtual and interactive teaching programs, with the possibility of seeing human anatomical structure and operations where and when they want.

This has significantly decreased the costs and timeframes of health education, and perhaps it will increase the number of students enrolled in medical degree courses.

At the same time, viewers for mixed reality (in-between virtual and augmented reality) are spreading on several levels. Doctors can use them to make remote visits or to visualize patient data virtually and in real-time. 

The Microsoft HoloLens is the device that seems to have had the most success in the field; There are countless case studies in which they have been used both for teaching and as real-time support for doctors in the operating room.

Artificial Intelligence is also becoming central to the treatment and diagnosis of health problems. At the moment, numerous studies are trying to demonstrate it by searching for patterns in the medical records of sick subjects, it is possible to predict whether the same disease will take place or not in healthy individuals.

Although the results of these studies have been criticized by the international scientific community, the application of AI for health will probably make a difference in the coming years.

Future innovations, however, do not stop there. There are also the use of 3D printers for the creation of functioning organs, studies on the sequencing and modification of human DNA, and the creation of "living" nanorobots for the treatment of the most insidious diseases.

In addition to the technological applications that are emerging, Deloitte traces the path of future methodologies that health systems seem to have taken in recent years, highlighting three macro-trends:

  • Health systems will shift their focus from disease treatment to prevention and well-being;
  • The technological platforms will allow the free and safe flow of data of individuals, groups of subjects, health institutions and the environment around them. By analyzing these data, operators can make decisions in real-time;
  • Greater involvement of patients in their health dynamics will guide their attitudes and behaviors towards greater empowerment.

In the next few years, the biggest problem that national health systems, especially Western ones, will face will be the increase in the average age of citizens. As per today, the necessary budget for the sector increases every year; it’s necessary to change strategy and modus operandi.

Today, technology is the most practical and realistic solution for the previously discussed issue which it has shaped the three trends highlighted by Deloitte.

All three trends make up the fundamentals of the European project for the sustenance of the elderly, in which Neosperience is participating. Nestore is a health digital coaching program based on AI and Machine Learning algorithms. It takes the form of an application that users, located in the +65 age group, can use independently.

Within the Nestore application, there are some of the most innovative tools, such as:

  • An intelligent activity management system, which recommends wellbeing pathways based on users' habits and physical possibilities, integrated with wearables and environmental sensors;
  • Environmental sensors "count" visits from friends and relatives, to control the user's social interactions and help them not to suffer from loneliness;
  • One of the latest innovative chatbots enables a truly human dialogue between machine and patient, and which can recognize the emotions of those who use it;
  • An algorithm that recognizes food, and its nutrients, via the smartphone’s camera;
  • Personalized games to improve users' memory and reflexes;
  • A social network to share interests and activities among Nestore’s members, to live together and improve their mental health.

In general, Nestore's goal consists in improving users' daily lives by stimulating responsibility in behavior and a healthy lifestyle. Physical and psychological data are shared with doctors and health personnel, who are thus able to act promptly in case problems arise.

Nestore aims to be a useful and essential tool for public and private actors in the health sector in order to reduce the cost of therapies without sacrificing the quality of the service.

Health is and will always be one of the most important fields of application where it’s possible to test the latest technological and methodological innovations. Today, we live in times where the chances of a structural crisis in the sector are growing more and more; working to find useful solutions to avoid it is a satisfaction and an opportunity that makes us proud.

 

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