Integrating body scanning solutions into virtual dressing rooms

The world is entering its 4th Industrial Revolution, a new era of manufacturing characterized by ubiquitous digitization and computing. One industry to benefit and grow from this revolution is the fashion industry, in which Europe (and Italy in particular) has long maintained a global lead. To evolve with the changes in technology, we developed the IT- SHIRT project. In the context of this project, a key challenge relies on developing a virtual dressing room in which the final users (customers) can virtually try different clothes on their bodies. In this paper, we tackle the aforementioned issue by providing a critical analysis of the existing body scanning solutions, identifying their strengths and weaknesses towards their integration within the pipeline of virtual dressing rooms

Chatbots as a novel access method for government open data

IIn this discussion paper, we propose to employ chatbots as a user-friendly interface for open data published by organizations, specifically focusing on public administrations. Open data are especially useful in e-Government initiatives but their exploitation is currently hampered to end users by the lack of user-friendly access methods. On the other hand, current UX in social networks have made people used to chatting. Building on cognitive technologies, we prototyped a chatbot on top of the OpenCantieri dataset published by the Italian Ministero delle Infrastrutture e Trasporti, and we argue that such a model can be extended as a generally available access method to open data

A Petri-Net Based Approach to Measure the Learnability of Interactive Systems

We propose an approach to measure the learnability of an interactive system. Our approach relies on recording in a user log all the user actions that take place during a run of the system and on replaying them over one or more interaction models of the system. Each interaction model describes the expected way of executing a relevant task provided by the system. The proposed approach is able to identify deviations between the interaction models and the user log and to assess the weight of such deviations through a fitness value, which estimates how much a log adheres to the models. Our thesis is that by measuring the rate of such a fitness value for subsequent executions of the system we can not only understand if the system is learnable with respect to its relevant tasks, but also to identify potential learning issues. © 2016 Copyright held by the owner/author(s)

Considerazioni critiche sulla nozione di integrazione dei migranti

Il tema dell'integrazione dei migranti e dei rifugiati rappresenta una rilevante emergenza sociale e formativa del nostro tempo. Tale questione impone una riflessione critica sulla nozione di integrazione sociale. Lo studio delle forme di inclusione dei migranti nella società impone, infatti, di "ribaltare" la questione dell'integrazione sociale, che viene solitamente declinata "a senso unico" in prospettiva assimilazionista come semplice inserimento, e rappresenta la cartina di tornasole per comprendere quale risposta si è in grado di offrire di fronte a quei processi globali che causano la dissoluzione, la disgregazione sociale e l'impoverimento di intere aree del pianeta

Surveying human habit modeling and mining techniques in smart spaces

A smart space is an environment, mainly equipped with Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies, able to provide services to humans, helping them to perform daily tasks by monitoring the space and autonomously executing actions, giving suggestions and sending alarms. Approaches suggested in the literature may differ in terms of required facilities, possible applications, amount of human intervention required, ability to support multiple users at the same time adapting to changing needs. In this paper, we propose a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that classifies most influential approaches in the area of smart spaces according to a set of dimensions identified by answering a set of research questions. These dimensions allow to choose a specific method or approach according to available sensors, amount of labeled data, need for visual analysis, requirements in terms of enactment and decision-making on the environment. Additionally, the paper identifies a set of challenges to be addressed by future research in the field

Ontology-based explanation of classifiers

The rise of data mining and machine learning use in many applications has brought new challenges related to classification. Here, we deal with the following challenge: how to interpret and understand the reason behind a classifier's prediction. Indeed, understanding the behaviour of a classifier is widely recognized as a very important task for wide and safe adoption of machine learning and data mining technologies, especially in high-risk domains, and in dealing with bias.We present a preliminary work on a proposal of using the Ontology-Based Data Management paradigm for explaining the behavior of a classifier in terms of the concepts and the relations that are meaningful in the domain that is relevant for the classifier

Intercultural Mediation as a strategy to facilitate relations between the School and Immigrant Families

The contribution focuses on the role of intercultural mediator as a facilitator of relationships between the school and immigrant families.The perspective of interculturalism in schools represents the political and educational response to the challenges of the multicultural society. In this task, strategies of intercultural mediation have been adopted in the schools in order to develop links and promote effective relationships between people from different cultures.In particular, an intercultural mediator (also called a ‘community interpreter’ or a ‘cultural linguistic’ or ‘cross-cultural mediator’ in certain contexts) is an operator in charge of facilitating communication between individuals, families, and community as part of measures to promote and facilitate the social inclusion of immigrants. As a mediator between immigrants and the society of reception, he/she promotes the removal of cultural and language barriers, the development of a culture of openness, inclusion and the advocacy of rights, and observance of the duties of citizenship. Moreover he/she facilitates the expression of immigrants’ needs on the one hand, and the characteristics, resources, and constraints of the welfare system on the other.Finally some key results of quantitative research in Italy are presented with regard to biographical and professional experience of intercultural mediators active in the Italian school system

Challenging Interculturalism: The Inclusion of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Italy

Albeit through contradictory policies, Italy has adopted an intercultural approach for the management of cultural diversity. The recent significant increase in the number of refugees arriving in Italy deeply challenges this paradigm. There are 93,000 people in Italy today who have been forced to leave their country of origin due to persecution, war or violations of human rights. Although many of them would prefer to get to northern Europe, under the current legislation they cannot choose the country in Europe in which to settle and they are often obliged to remain in a country they have not chosen as their final destination. Analysing some key elements of Italian intercultural policies, this paper highlights critical issues surrounding the inclusion of asylum seekers and refugees in the Italian context in which inadequate responses to the complex needs of this particularly vulnerable population have been shown. Finally, concluding implications include the issue of the inclusion of refugees for an intercultural approach able to offer opportunities of interaction and integration in the Italian context are presented