Eureka Park, the CES 2024 pavilion dedicated to startups, hosted well this year 1400 innovative companies from all over the world: 50 are those who are part of the Italian delegation of ICE, the Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies.
We met them in Las Vegas and discovered theirs idee innovative applied to the most diverse sectors, from agriculture to medicine, through solutions for smart cities and neural interfaces. Here are 10 stories that caught our attention.
Innovation AI for medicine, hi-tech agriculture, the smart home: the 50 Italian startups that will be at CES 2024 have been chosen by Emanuele Capone 21 December 2023
Among the possible applications of artificial intelligence in medicine, the early diagnosis of serious diseases is perhaps the one towards which there are the most expectations: Aitem, a spin-off of the multinational Punch Group, develops AI systems in Turin that analyze big data to support doctors and veterinarians in the delicate phase of diagnosis, for example to identify the presence of tumors in starting from the recurrence of some biometric indicators. Active for several years already, Aitem had already made headlines in 2020 for having developed a platform capable of identifying patients affected by Covid-19 starting from the analysis of simple thoracic films. Its predictive algorithms can also be used in industry, for example to plan machine maintenance and streamline the costs of production chains.
Imagine a world where interaction between humans and machines occurs without keyboards, screens or voice commands, but simply with thought: a scenario that until now was science fiction, but which the startup BrainWaves (literally: brain waves) wants to transform into reality. Based in Milan, Brainwaves has developed software that translates brain waves into commands both to activate and control devices of various kinds, from drones to simple computers, and to activate authentication systems. Among the many practical applications that the startup suggests for its technology, the possibility for ALS sufferers to drive a wheelchair with their mind is particularly promising.
While the general public spent the year just ended chatting with ChatGPT, the team behind the Milanese startup Contents (here is our in-depth look at their work) has harnessed generative artificial intelligence to develop SaaS solutions, i.e. in software as a service mode, with which to produce multilingual creative content. By connecting to the Contents.com website, it is possible to choose between various AI-based services such as AI Writer, which, as the name suggests, helps in the creation of texts, AI Chat, which offers suggestions for creativity, and then again a system for image generationone for multilingual translation and even one dedicated to the analysis of online trends, to identify the most debated topics online in real time.
After having been the Holy Grail of technology applied to for decades salute (i.e. coveted and unattainable) today telemedicine is finally becoming possible thanks to a hyper-connected world, the spread of AI-based technologies and the work of startups like Domethics. The Turin company develops IoT products and technologies for the smart home and telemedicine. Already winner of the Innovation Awards 2022 at CES in Las Vegas, Domethics developed products such as the S1MPL0 health monitoring smartwatch, the Adriano home automation hub and now Car?pet: it is a smart carpet that monitors the vital parameters of pets to determine their health status . The device collects data on heart rate, breathing and sleep, as well as environmental information such as temperature and humidity. The measurements can then be shared in real time with the vet. This year the startup was named a CES Innovation Awards 2024 Honoree.
Ganiga – Bientina (Pisa)
Hoooly is the name of the smart bin created and patented by the Pisan startup Ganiga to make the management of waste more intelligent. waste. Thanks to the use of AI, the bin not only automatically separates waste, but also generates data and statistics on the basis of which it is possible to plan an optimized route for collection, in order to simultaneously reduce management costs and pollution. Finally, the information collected by Hoooly could be used to reconstruct users’ consumption habits, allowing the delivery of personalized advertising for each user on the specific basket screen.
Kintana / Morestech – San Mauro Torinese (Turin)
The Turin startup Kintana, a spin-off of Pea Group, presented Morestech, a cybernetic nanny that wants to revolutionize care and learning for the little ones. The company’s solution offers an incentive system that allows the bambino to earn credits by completing daily tasks such as brushing your teeth or tidying up your room, with the ability to detect some of these goals with smart sensors. Morestech can also create personalized stories thanks to generative AI based on photos or keywords, with the possibility to read them directly to the child. The idea is interesting, and although the startup has explored and considered the related ethical issues, some doubts can only remain about the application of AI to such a sensitive field as the learning and education of the little ones
BES Test – Trieste
BES Test aims to revolutionize the diagnosis of fracture potential fragility bone. The test from the Trieste-based company M2 Test combines mechanical engineering and medicine in an innovative way and is one of a kind: it is non-invasive, easy to perform, and offers results in a very short time. It is based on the computer simulation of the application of forces to the internal structure of the bone, derived from a virtual biopsy obtained from radiographic images. The test is also more inclusive than traditional ones: the methods of diagnosis Traditional tests are based on densitometry, whose statistical parameters are calculated on samples of young, Caucasian women. BES Test instead derives the risk of fracture by observing parameters and more complex indicators, with more precise results even for those who differ from the standards due to age, gender or ethnicity. BES Test was born from an idea by Francesca Cosmi, professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Trieste, and her daughter, Dr. Alessandra Nicolosi.
SAM – Sassari
SAM is an acronym that stands for Smart Agriculture Method, or smart method for agriculture: it is developed by the startup Sam Farm based in Sardinia. The SAM platform offers support for industrial agricultural planning by cross-referencing data from smart drones and agro-meteorological stations. The goal is to provide farmers with a tool to optimize strategic decisions on irrigation or distribution management fertilizers based on the specific needs of the crops. Thanks to the SAM solution, farmers can save resourceswith an estimated reduction in water and fertilizer use of 20 and 25% respectively (test data collected by the startup).
SnapAll is machine learning-based software that enables monitoring remote and real-time dei construction sites. Thanks to computer vision, the platform can create automated reports on the progress of operations on construction sites, recognizing (among other things) incoming or outgoing vehicles. The strong point is that new cameras or additional hardware are not needed: the platform is able to produce precise and detailed smart analyzes starting from the images recorded by traditional video cameras wifi which are already used for video surveillance of construction sites. All that is needed is an account to log in to a web app where users can check reports or set custom alerts based on the detection of specific parameters from images.
CES 2024 How Nuance Audio works, glasses for hearing as well as seeing by Alessio Jacona 09 January 2024
Solar panels are increasingly widespread and are a fundamental element of the energy transition towards renewables. However, they still have a problem: they are bulky and not particularly nice to look at. The problem arises especially for sites subject to preservation historical, artistic and landscape. Sunspeker offers a solution: the startup creates coating films that can be customized to display images or graphics that decrease the aesthetic impact of the solar system, all while preserving up to 80% of the panels’ energy conversion efficiency. One of the possible applications it is the advertising poster which, although not solving the aesthetic problem, offers a method to reduce the economic impact of the installation of the systems, thus encouraging greater diffusion.