7 research outputs found
Craftmanship and Digitalization in the Italian Knitwear Industry. A Paradigm Shift for the Narrative of Made in Italy
Knitwear is a consolidated industry in Italy and, at the same time, a
typical expression of the Made in Italy paradigm linked to the ideas of craftsmanship.
While, on the one hand, knitwear is associated with the idea of craft and
manufacturing traditions, on the other hand, it is nowadays produced by numerical
control machines (CNC) where the technological contribution and the level
of automation are very relevant. The convergence of physical and digital environments,
at the heart of the Fashion Industry 4.0 debate, is an established feature of
knitwear design practice.
In the contemporary industrial scenario, knitted items are produced on digitally
programmed machines through sophisticated software, and the manual contribution
of the individual operator during the knitting phase is reduced to a minimum.
In the light of these premises, this contribution questions the opportunity
and value of the integration of digital technologies in the storytelling of traditional
manufacturing without losing the power to evoke Made in Italy’s values such as
quality, aesthetic refinement, and exclusivity. To analyze these issues, the authors
report the case study of SMT – Società Manifattura Tessile, a leading knitting
company where the technological presence equals that of traditional manufacturing
craftmanship, keeping both elements at balance. The case study suggests the
importance of the contemporary knitting craftsman to increasingly develop communication
skills to make the relationship between technology andmanufacturing
explicit and possibly smoothly blend it with the Made in Italy archetypes
Applying value chain analysis to informal sector recycling: A case study of the Zabaleen
CAPABLE: Engineering, textile, and fashion Collaboration, for citizens' Awareness and Privacy Protection
Many private companies and public bodies in authoritarian and democratic states have joined
facial recognition technology, used for various purposes. This situation is due to the gene-
ral absence of a specific regulation that monitors its use. There is no consensus in society
regarding the ethics of this technology. Furthermore, there are many doubts concerning the
long-term ethical sustainability of facial recognition and its compliance with the law. A pro-
blem that emerges from the use of this technology is its obscurity. We do not know who is
responsible for the decision automatically made; we do not know how the data is used by
those who collect it, how long this data is kept, who can have access to it, to whom it is sent,
and how this is used to create a profile. In addition, facial recognition systems are powered by
numerous images collected from the Internet and social media without users’ permission: it is,
therefore, impossible to trace the origin of the data. Consequently, any citizen could be classi-
fied, most likely discriminated against, and become the victim of an algorithm. The boundary
between security and control is decidedly blurred: many cameras do not respect the privacy of
individuals and often harm human rights when they are used to discriminate, accuse, power,
and manipulate people. From this discussion on privacy and human rights, it was born first
the desire to create awareness, in particular regarding these technologies and the possible
issues linked to them. Secondly, it was born the will to create a product that would be the
spokesperson for these concerns and allow citizens to protect themselves. On this basis, a col-
laboration between fashion, engineering, and textile has developed to produce fabric and then
garments, which confuse facial recognition systems in real-time. The technological innovation
aims to create a system capable of generating adversarial knitted patches that can confuse the
systems that capture biometric data. By integrating an adversarial algorithm into their jacqu-
ard motifs, the garments prevent the wearers from being identified, preserving their privacy.
The adversarial textile is made with computerized knitting machines. Compared to a printed
image, knitwear acquires texture, durability, wearability, and practicability. Furthermore, a knit-
ted fabric allows modifying the single yarn material based on the results and performance
we want to obtain. These fabrics have been tested on Yolo, the fastest and most advanced
algorithm for real-time object recognition. The project was born in New York in 2019; the first
experiments with computerized knitting machines were carried out at the Politecnico di Milano
in January 2020. The textile was developed in the workshops of the Shenkar College of Tel
Aviv. On February 8, 2021, the patent of the industrial process to produce the adversarial knit-
ted textile was filed, with the patronage of the Politecnico di Milano. Today, the research on this
fabric and these thematics has carried on within a Ph.D. that combines human-centric design
and engineering
METODO PER REALIZZARE UN TESSUTO DI MAGLIA CHE RIPRODUCE UN’IMMAGINE AVVERSARIA
METODO PER REALIZZARE UN TESSUTO DI MAGLIA CHE RIPRODUCE UN’IMMAGINE AVVERSARIA PER CONTRASTARE LA LETTURA IMPROPRIA DI DATI SENSIBILI PER LA PRIVAC
Epidemiology of skin disorders in Ethiopian children and adolescents: An analysis of records from the Italian Dermatological Centre, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia, 2005 to 2009
Skin disorders are an important problem in children living in developing countries, but only a few epidemiologic investigations on pediatric dermatoses are available in the literature. Our study is an analysis of the range and frequency of skin diseases presenting to the Italian Dermatological Center in a pediatric Ethiopian population. A retrospective analysis was performed on 17,967 medical records of children aged 0 to 18 years attending the Italian Dermatological Centre in Mekele (Ethiopia) from January 2005 to December 2009. Infections and infestations accounted for 47% of the disorders seen; fungal infections were the most common (44.1%), followed by bacterial and parasitic diseases. Dermatitis constituted the second most common diagnostic category (24.7%) of the disorders seen, and contact dermatitis was the most common diagnosis (48.8%). Pigmentary disorders and disorders of skin appendages were more common in girls, whereas fungal and parasitic infections were more common in boys. Bacterial and parasitic infections were more common in children younger than 1 year old, fungal infections in those aged 1 to 5.9, and disorders of skin appendages and pigmentary disorders in those aged 15 to 18. These findings demonstrate that most of the disorders seen could be easily managed in clinical practice with appropriate skill development. It is crucial to ensure that training of medical students and pediatricians focuses on accurate recognition, diagnosis, and management of these common skin diseases and that families, teachers, health workers, and nurses be educated about the most common signs of prevalent skin diseases to help facilitate appropriate care. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc