On April 5th, the approval committee for the Digital Fund of the Graduate Schools and Universities Initiative chose three new startups from IMT incubators to receive interest-free loans: Adrock.tv and AiZimov, from the ParisTech Entrepreneurs incubator and Seaclick, from the IMT Starter incubator.
These loans aimed at financing the development of young promising companies have a 0% interest rate and can be awarded for amounts up to €60,000. They are co-financed by Fondation Mines-Télécom, the Caisse des Dépôts and Revital’Emploi.
[one_half][box type=”shadow” align=”” class=”” width=””]Adrock.tv offers an artificial intelligence tool that analyzes images from editorial content online and integrates relevant ads from advertisers. [/box]
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The online tool Seaclick makes it possible to view and buy tickets to local cultural and sports events in just a few clicks.[/box]
AiZimov develops artificial intelligence for sales representatives that lets them select pertinent profiles online and write personalized emails based on the individual’s circumstances.[/box][/one_half_last]
https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Visuel_Une-1.jpg9801350I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-30 09:35:402018-12-28 10:07:48Adrock.Tv, AiZimov and Seaclick: three new startups get interest-free loans
Thanks to its generous sponsors, Fondation Mines-Télécom was able to fund 22 interest-free loans in 2017 for entrepreneurs supported by IMT incubators. A total of €440,000 was awarded to 12 startups. In 2018, the Foundation intends to take its support for entrepreneurship a step further by awarding 30 interest-free loans.
Promising figures
To support the development of startups at IMT incubators, Fondation Mines-Télécom awards interest-free loans to entrepreneurs through the Graduate Schools and Universities Initiative. In 2017, twelve startups selected by the Foundation’s corporate partners benefitted from an interest-free loan. A total of €2.3 million in loans has been awarded since 2008, with an attrition rate of under 8%.
These no-collateral loans ranging between €20,000 and €40,000 help leverage funding for projects. Startups that received these loans have raised considerable funds this year, especially fintech Pledg (€1.2 million) and Seaver, which specializes in the IoT (Internet of Things) for the equine industry. The fact that many of these startups take part in the Las Vegas CES every year also attests to their strong performance. The objective for 2018 is to award interest-free loans to 30 new entrepreneurs to support 15 projects, representing a total of more than €560,000. To help achieve this goal, program partners Caisse des Dépôts and Revital’emploi are renewing their support.
Innovative services and products in the field of digital technology
The startups supported by these loans respond to different needs in the field of digital technology and take advantage of opportunities provided by big data. One such startup, Predictice, provides analytic solutions for court decisions designed for legal professionals.
Many of the startups specialize in connected objects. HEROZ, for example, is a connected accessory that protects smartphones from being stolen, lost, forgotten and also protects against intrusion. Keepen offers an autonomous alarm that everyone can access which is both more convenient and more reliable than current systems.
They also provide innovative services and create new user experiences. ThingType provides an online service for electronic design and creation that makes prototyping simple, easy and affordable, while Bruce, a digital and mobile temporary employment agency, helps businesses meet their needs for temporary employment.
Find out more about the interest-free loan program
Nearly 100 startups and spinoffs are created through the IMT incubator network every year. This is why Fondation Mines-Télécom finances a portion of the Digital Fund of the Graduate Schools & Universities Initiative, part of the Initiative France network, which aims to foster the development of new businesses at graduate schools, universities and research laboratories in France.
The interest-free loans play a key role in the development of startups that strive to expand rapidly, both in France and internationally. The loans provide the project with legitimacy, are accompanied by the incubators’ technical expertise and help leverage funding for startup costs. These loans for an amount of up to €40,000 have a one-year grace period and must then be repaid within five years. Repayments are in turn used to provide funding for loans for other entrepreneurs.
https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Visuel_Une-7.jpg8801333I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-27 10:32:442018-05-02 17:21:2212 startups supported with interest-free loans in 2017
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]elcome to the new era: that of facial biometrics. The launch of the iPhone X, a smartphone featuring Face ID facial recognition, demonstrated that this technology has now reached full maturity. This became possible with the introduction of miniature 3D sensors with high-level computing power, combined with extremely efficient learning algorithms such as deep learning.
But what is facial recognition? It means identifying that two faces are identical despite changes caused by lighting conditions, pose and facial expressions. Generally speaking, this means finding distances within the face that can be used to identify any changes to the face.
Figure showing the same face in different shooting conditions and lighting changes.
In 2014, researchers from Facebook published an article called “DeepFace: Closing the Gap to Human-Level Performance in Face Verification”. To prevent the problems caused by changes in pose, a step was introduced to align the 2D face to a 3D model of the face. The next step involved a deep learning process using a network of artificial neurons consisting of 120 million connections. The learning set was composed of 4.4 million faces of celebrities. The network of neurons was trained to recognize the variances in the faces. The algorithm made it possible to determine if two photographed faces belonged to the same person with a specified accuracy of 97.35%.
In 2015, researchers from Google published an article entitled “FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clustering”. They showed that they were able to achieve a recognition rate of 99.63% using a database of 2D faces captured in an uncontrolled environment. To accomplish this, the authors proposed the use of a neural network consisting of eleven convolutional layers and three connected layers. The idea was to ensure that an image of a specific person would be closer to all the other images of that same person (referred to as positive) than to the images of other people (referred to as negative). The learning was carried out using a database of 200 million face images from 8 million people.
During the training, the learned similarities allowed the images showing the same faces to come closer together, and those showing different faces moved farther apart in relation to a specific metric.
However, the DeepFace and FaceNet experiments were both based on private databases that are not available to the scientific community. A team from the University of Oxford proposed to collect data from the web and has established a database of 2.6 million faces from 2,622 people and has proposed a network architecture called VGG-face consisting of 16 convolutional layers and 3 fully connected layers. Today this architecture is widely used by the computer vision community.
Yet the face is not only a 2D image; it is also a three-dimensional image. Facial biometrics can be used because 3D scanning technologies can scan faces. The major advantage of using 3D in this context is that the facial recognition algorithms are resistant to changes in lighting and pose. Recent work published in 2013 by our team at IMT Lille Douai in the journal IEEE TPAMI, “3D face recognition under expressions, occlusions, and pose variations” showed the advantage of this process. In this article, we proposed to compare two 3D faces by comparing two sets of curves that locally represent the shape of a 3D face. We obtained a recognition rate of 97% (using the testing framework Face Recognition Grand Challenge). The results obtained from several international tests reveal the advantages of 3D faces in facial biometrics systems.
Example of 3D faces captured by the Minolta scanner using laser technology.
Now let us get back to the iPhone X and its 3D technology for facial recognition. A feat made possible by the introduction of miniature 3D sensors on the front of the device: a projector sends 30,000 invisible points onto the user’s face, which are used to create a 3D model of the face. According to Apple, Face ID cannot be fooled by a mere photograph of a face, since the recognition is achieved with a 3D sensor that measures depth.
https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Visuel_Une-3.jpg8601300I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-25 15:24:062018-04-25 17:09:38Facial biometrics: How smartphones can recognize us
In the near future, watermarking data could be the best traceability technique in the healthcare domain. It involves hidding information into medical images with the aim at reinforcing data security for patients and healthcare professionals. After being developed for nearly ten years in the laboratories of IMT Atlantique and Medecom, watermarking has now reached a level of maturity that allows its integration into professional products. Yet it still must be approved by standardization bodies.
Are you sure that is really your body on the latest X-ray from your medical exam? The question may seem absurd, yet it is crucial that you, your doctor and the radiologist can all answer this question with a resounding “yes”. To ensure this level of certainty, healthcare professionals must rely on the latest technological advances. This is a matter of ensuring the right patient gets the right diagnosis—no one wants an X-ray of their lungs to be switched with one from a chain-smoker!
To ensure an X-ray is correctly associated with the patient and to return a lost X-ray to its rightful owner, the name printed on the X-ray film is not sufficient. An ill-intentioned individual or an administrative error could cause the unfortunate exchange of two patients’ images. Medecom and researchers from IMT Atlantique, part of the Télécom & Société Numérique Carnot Institute, have been working on a more secure system based on the watermarking. For over ten years the two entities have been collaborating on this technology and four years ago they inaugurated SePEMeD, a joint laboratory focused on this area, with support from the French National Agency for Research (ANR). Since then, the maturity and viability of the watermark technology have become increasingly convincing.
A Secret Message
“The watermark draws on the principle of steganography, the art of hidden writing, which is almost as old as cryptography,” explains Gouenou Coatrieux, a researcher in imagery and information processing at IMT Atlantique. “In the case of X-rays, we change some pixels in the image to hide a message and leave an invisible mark,” he continues (see box below). The value of the watermark is that the protection is independent from the storage format. The X-ray can therefore be exchanged between departments and hospitals, each with its own unique system for processing X-ray images, yet this will not affect the watermark, which will continue to contain the information related to the patient.
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The watermark: a message hidden in the pixels
The secret to watermarking X-rays is in the pixels, which can be encoded in 8, 16 or 32 bits. If a pixel is encoded in 8 bits, this means its color is indicated by a series of 8 bits—a bit is a 0 or 1 in the binary code. There are 256 possible 8-bit combinations: 00000000, 00000001, etc. There are therefore 256 possible colors for a pixel encoded in 8 bits, or 256 different shades of gray for a pixel in a black and white image.
Watermarking an image involves modifying certain pixels by changing one of their bits. This means the color, or shade of gray, is altered. To prevent this from being noticeable on the X-ray, the bit containing the least amount of information—the one located at the end of the 8-bit sequence—is modified. The colors related to bits 00110101 and 00110100 are very similar, whereas those related to bits 00000000 and 10110110 are very different. The more two series of bits are dissimilar, the less similar the colors.
The changed bits in the pixels form a message, which could be a patient’s name or the doctors’ authorization to access the X-ray. To discover which bits bear this message, the X-ray recipient must have the watermark key associated with the medical image. This ensures the secrecy of the message.[/box]
In addition to traceability, watermarking has other advantages. First, it can help detect insurance fraud. If an X-ray is tampered with by an ill-intentioned individual, for example to fake a disease, the secretly watermarked pixels will also be modified, revealing the attempted fraud. Next, the watermark can be added to data that is already encrypted using a method that has been patented by Medecom and IMT Atlantique. It is therefore possible to ensure traceability while maintaining the confidentiality of medical information the image contains. This also makes it possible to write information about certain doctors’ access authorizations directly on the encrypted data.
Moving towards standardization?
While this watermark technology is now mature, it still must pass the test of standardization procedures in order to be implemented in software and the information systems of healthcare professionals. “Our goal now is to show that altering the image with the watermark does not have any effect on the quality of the image and the doctors’ diagnostic capacity,” says Michel Cozic, R&D director at Medecom. The SePEMeD team is therefore working to conduct qualitative studies on watermarked data with physicians.
At the same time, they must convince certain healthcare professionals of the value of watermarking. The protection of personal data, and medical data in particular, is not always viewed the same way throughout the healthcare world. “In the hospital environment, professionals tend to believe that the environment is necessarily secure, which is not always the case,” Michel Cozic explains. In France, and in Europe in general, attitudes about data security are changing. The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) established by the European Commission is proof of this. However, it will be some time before the entire medical community systematically takes data protection into account.
Ten years of research… and ten more to come?
Since there is still a long way to go before healthcare professionals begin using watermarks, the SePEMeD story is not over yet. Founded in 2014 to solidify the collaboration between IMT Atlantique and Medecom, which has lasted over ten years, SePEMeD was originally intended to run only three years. However, following the success of the research which led to promising applications, this first joint laboratory accredited by the ANR on data security will continue its work until at least 2020. Beyond data traceability, SePEMeD is also seeking to improve the security of remotely processed encrypted images in cloud storage.
“We update our focus areas based on our results,” Gouenou Coatrieux notes, explaining why the SePEMeD laboratory has been extended. Michel Cozic agrees: “We are currently focusing our research on issues related to browsers’ access to data, and the integration of watermarking modules in existing products used by professionals.” The compatibility of algorithms with healthcare institutions’ computer configurations and systems will be a major issue involved in the adoption of this technology. Last but not least: ease of use. “No one wants to have to enter passwords in the software,” observes Medecom’s R&D Director. We must therefore succeed in integrating watermarking as a security solution that is straightforward for doctors.
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The benefit of collaborating with IMT Atlantique: “The human aspect”
Michel Cozic
One of Télécom & Société Numérique Carnot Institute’s objectives is to professionalize the relationships between companies and researchers. Michel Cozic, Medecom’s R&D Director shares his experience: “There is also a human aspect to these collaborations. Our exchanges with IMT Atlantique go very smoothly, we understand each other. On both sides we accept our differences, constraints and we compromise. We come from two different environments and this means we must have discussions. There must be an atmosphere of trust, a good relationship and a common understanding of the objectives. This is what we have been able to accomplish through the SePEMeD laboratory.”
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The TSN Carnot institute, a guarantee of excellence in partnership-based research since 2006
Having first received the Carnot label in 2006, the Télécom & Société numérique Carnot institute is the first national “Information and Communication Science and Technology” Carnot institute. Home to over 2,000 researchers, it is focused on the technical, economic and social implications of the digital transition. In 2016, the Carnot label was renewed for the second consecutive time, demonstrating the quality of the innovations produced through the collaborations between researchers and companies.
The institute encompasses Télécom ParisTech, IMT Atlantique, Télécom SudParis, Télécom École de Management, Eurecom, Télécom Physique Strasbourg and Télécom Saint-Étienne, École Polytechnique (Lix and CMAP laboratories), Strate École de Design and Femto Engineering.
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https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/main-radio.jpg16041246I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-24 11:17:482018-10-09 14:55:27Watermarking: a step closer to secure health data
Opinion. By Hannemor Keidel, TUM Officer for Scientific Alliances with France, and Christian Roux, Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation at IMT. This article is the long version of the editorial published by Innovation Review.
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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he German-French Academy for the Industry of the Future was founded a little over two years ago and the first actions it has supported are now taking shape. Research, innovation and training are the three components that guide the work of this transnational institution created by IMT and Technische Universität München (TUM). The ambitious strategy behind this emerging project is to support European companies in the major changes driven by the digital transition.
The explosion of digital technologies offers an advantage for companies’ competitiveness. The world’s major economic areas—including Europe—have understood this. In supporting the transformation of their industries, they see the opportunity to gain technological leadership and pursue their development, a goal that cannot be reached without the use of disruptive technology and new professional skills. In this area, academic institutions are key. They offer a decisive contribution in their ability to carry out forward-looking analysis and in the technological and educational innovations they develop.
As for many strategic issues in Europe, the cooperation between France and Germany serves as a launchpad for major structural projects. IMT and Technische Universität München (TUM) have sought to further encourage this emulation process by forming a partnership with a Franco-German academy devoted to the industry of the future. Its aim is to create a cutting-edge European institution based on a new model in research, innovation and training for the industry of the future.
The programs they develop will embody the potential of the economy and industry to transition and become digitized while truly considering companies’ real needs. In practical terms, this action will take the form of transnational industrial Chairs, new initial and lifelong training opportunities for professionals, networks of incubators and technology platforms.
Not merely a vision: concrete action
Five research projects related to the scientific component were launched in June 2017. The projects can be categorized into two themes. On the one hand, HyBlockArch and Industry without Borders are studying network cooperation for the industry of the future. On the other hand, the SCHEIF, SeCIF and ASSET projects are focusing on cyber-architecture and cyber-security. The exploration of scientific fields will expand to include other themes of the future: advanced materials, additive manufacturing, energy, industrial logistics, predictive maintenance…
In the area of training, the German-French Academy has also developed initiatives. Two summer schools were held in 2017: one at EURECOM in France on human factors and human-machine interaction and another in Munich on mobility and smart roads. New summer schools for PhD students and research professors will also be offered on new themes. In addition, a wide range of training (initial, ongoing and lifelong learning) will be developed to offer solutions to companies in key sectors that are the most affected by digitization. This training will be supported by a selection of MOOCs devoted to the industry of the future.
Finally, the Academy’s third component, innovation, will be launched in the spring of 2018. IMT and TUM will offer companies joint services that will give them access to the very best in academic research and innovative systems. By allowing economic actors to access leading-edge technology platforms, IMT and TUM are seeking to foster a value within the Academy for supporting the economy and French and German manufacturers. This will be another step forward in this joint development project for the future of European industry.
https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/v2-Christian-Roux-Hannemor-Keidel.png330660I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-23 16:08:412019-02-19 09:58:13Industry of the Future: How is the German-French Academy supporting European companies?
Anonymization is still sometimes criticized as a practice that supposedly makes data worthless, as it deletes important information. The CNIL decided to prove the contrary through the Cabanon project conducted in 2017. It received assistance from the IMT big data platform, TeraLab, for anonymizing the data of New York taxis and showing the possibility of creating a transportation service.
On 10 March 2014, an image published on Twitter by the New York taxi commission sparked Chris Whong’s curiosity. It wasn’t the information on the vehicle occupancy rate during rush hour that caught the young urban planner’s interest. Rather, what caught his eye was the source of the data, cited at the bottom, that had allowed New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (NYC TLC) to create the image. Through a tweet comment, he joined another Twitter user, Ben Wellington, in asking if the raw data was available. What ensued was a series of exchanges that enabled Chris Whong to retrieve the dataset through a process that is tedious, yet accessible to anyone with enough determination to cut through all the red tape. Once he had the data in his possession, he put it online. This allowed Vijay Pandurangan, a computer engineer, to demonstrate that the identity of the drivers, customers, and their addresses could all be found using the information stored on the taxi logs.
Problems in anonymizing open datasets are not new. They were not even new in 2014 when the story emerged about NYC TLC data. Yet this type of case still persists. One of the reasons is that anonymized datasets are deemed less useful than their unfiltered counterparts. Removing any possibility of tracing the identity would amount to deleting the information. In the case of the New York taxis, for example, this would mean limiting the information on the taxis’ location to geographical areas, rather than indicating the coordinates to the nearest meter. For service creators who want to build applications, and data managers who want the data to be used as effectively as possible, anonymizing means losing value.
As a fervent advocate for the protection of personal data, the French National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) decided to confront this misconception. The Cabanon project, led by the CNIL laboratory of digital innovation (LINC) in 2017, took on the challenge of anonymizing the NYC TLC dataset and using specific scenarios for creating new services. “There are several ways to anonymize data, but there is no miracle solution that fits every purpose,” warns Vincent Toubiana, in charge of anonymizing the datasets for the project, which has since transferred from the CNIL to the ARCEP. The Cabanon team therefore had to think of a dedicated solution.
Spatial and temporal degradation
First step: the GPS coordinates were replaced by the ZCTA code, the U.S. equivalent of postal codes in France. This is the method chosen by Uber to ensure personal data security. This operation degrades the spatial data; it drowns the taxi’s departure and arrival positions in areas composed of several city blocks. However, this may prove insufficient in truly ensuring the anonymity of the customers and drivers. At certain times during the night, sometimes only one taxi made a trip from one area of the city to another. Even if the GPS positions are erased, it is still possible to link the geographical position and identity.
“Therefore, in addition to the spatial degradation, we had to introduce a temporal degradation,” Vincent Toubiana explains. The time slots are adapted to avoid the single customer problem. “In each departure and arrival area, we look at all the people who take a taxi in time slots of 5, 15, 30 and 60 minutes,” he continues. In the data set, the time calibration is adjusted so that no time slot has fewer than ten people. If, despite these precautions, a single customer is within the largest time slot of 60 minutes, the data is simply deleted. According to Vincent Toubiana, “the goal is to find the best mathematical compromise for keeping a maximum amount of data with the smallest possible time intervals.”
In the 2013 data used by the CNIL, the same data made public by Chris Whong, NYC TLC made over 130 million trips. The double degradation operations therefore demanded significant computing resources. The handling of the data to be processed using different temporal and spatial slicing required assistance from TeraLab, IMT’s big data platform. “It was essential for us to work with TeraLab in order to query the database to see the 5-minute intervals, or to test the minimum number of people we could group together,” Vincent Toubiana explains.
Once the dataset has been anonymized in this way, it must be proven useful. To facilitate its reading, a data visualization in the form of a choropleth map was produced—a geographical representation associating a color with each area based on the amount of trips. “The visual offers a better understanding of the differences between anonymized data and that which is not, and facilitates the analysis and narration of this data,” says Estelle Hary, designer at the CNIL who produced the data visualization.
To the left: a map representing the trips using non-anonymized data. To the right: choropleth map representing the journeys with a granularity that ensures anonymity.
Based on this map, they began reflection on the kinds of services that could be created using anonymized data. The map helped identify points in Brooklyn where people order taxis to complete their journey home. “We started thinking about the idea of a private transportation network that would complement public transport in New York,” says Estelle Hary. Since they would be cheaper than taxis, this private public transport could cover areas neglected by buses. “This is a typical example of a viable service that anonymized data can be used to create,” she continues. In this case, the information that was lost to protect the personal data had no impact. The processed data set is just as effective. And this is only one example of a potential use. “By linking anonymized datasets with other public data, the possibilities are multiplied,” the designer explains. In other words, the value of an open dataset depends on our capacity for creativity.
There will certainly always be cases in which the degradation of raw data limits the creation of a service. This is the case for more personalized services. But perhaps anonymity should be seen, not as a binary value, but as a gradient. Instead of seeing anonymity as a characteristic that is present or absent from datasets, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to consider several accessible degrees of anonymity according to the exposure of the data set and the control over the use? That is what is the CNIL proposed in the conclusion of the Cabanon project. The data could be publicly accessible in fully anonymized form. In addition, the same dataset could be accessible in versions that are less and less anonymized, with, in exchange, a more significant level of control over the use.
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TeraLab, big data service for researchers
Teralab is a big data and artificial intelligence platform serving research, innovation and education. It is led by Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT) and the Group of National Schools of Economics and Statistics (GENES). Teralab was founded in 2014 through a call for projects by the Investments for the Future program called “Cloud Computing and Big Data”. The goal of the platform is to aggregate the demand for software and infrastructure for projects involving large volumes of data. It also offers security and sovereignty, enabling stakeholders to entrust their data to the researchers with confidence. [/box]
https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Une-cabanon_plus_claire.jpg13141806I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-20 16:02:432018-04-20 16:16:07Is anonymized data of any value?
Our electronic and computing devices are becoming smaller, more adapted to our needs, and closer to us physically. From the very first heavy, stationary and complex computers, we have moved on to our smartphones, ever at the ready. What innovations can we next expect? Éric Lecolinet, researcher in human-machine interactions at Télécom ParisTech, answers our questions about this rapidly changing field.
How do you define human-machine interactions?
Human-machine interactions refer to all the interactions between humans and electronic or computing devices, as well as the interactions between humans via these devices. This includes everything from desktop computers and smartphones to airplane cockpits and industrial machines! The study of these interactions is very broad, with applications in virtually every field. It involves developing machines capable of representing data that the user can easily interpret and allowing the user to interact intuitively with this data.
In human-machine interactions, we distinguish between output data, which is sent by the machine to the human, and input data, which is sent from the human to the machine. In general, the output data is visual, since it is sent via screens, but it can also be auditory or even tactile, using vibrations for example. Input data is generally sent using a keyboard and mouse, but we can also communicate with machines through gestures, voice and touch!
The study of human-machine interactions is a multidisciplinary field. It involves IT disciplines (software engineering, machine learning, signal and image processing), as well as social science disciplines (cognitive psychology, ergonomics, sociology). Finally, design, graphic arts, hardware, and new materials are also very important areas involved in developing new interfaces.
How have human-machine interactions changed?
Let’s go back a few years to the 1950s. At that time, computer devices were computing centers: stationary, bulky machines located in specialized laboratories. The humans were the ones who adapted to the computers: you had to learn their language and become an expert in the field if you wanted to interact with them.
The next step was the personal computer, the Macintosh, in 1984, following work by Xerox Parc in the 1970s. What a shock! The computer belonged to you, was in your office and home. First the desktop PC was developed, followed by the laptop that you could take with you anywhere: here the idea of ownership emerged, and machines become mobile. And finally, these first personal computers were made to facilitate interaction. It was no longer the user’s job to learn the machine’s language. The machine itself facilitated the interaction, particularly with the WIMP (Window Icon Menu Pointer) model, the desktop metaphor.
While we can observe the miniaturization of machines since the 2000s, the true breakthrough came with the iPhone in 2007. This was a new paradigm, which significantly redefined the human-machine interface, making the primary goal that of adapting as much as possible to humans. Radical choices were made: the interface was made entirely tactile, with no physical keyboard, and it featured a high-resolution multi-touch screen, proximity sensors that turned off the screen when lifted to the user’s ear, and a display that adapted to the way the phone was held.
Machines therefore continue to become smaller, more mobile, and closer to the body, like connected watches and biofeedback devices. In the future, we can imagine having connected jewelry, clothing, and tattoos! And more importantly, our devices are becoming increasingly intelligent and adapted to our needs. Today we no longer learn how to use the machines; the machines adapt to us.
There has been a lot of talk in the media lately about vocal interfaces, which could be the next revolution in human-machine interfaces.
This technology is very interesting. A lot of progress is being made and it will become more and more useful. There is certainly a lot of work being carried out on these vocal interfaces, and more services are now available, but, for me, they will never replace the keyboard and mouse. For example, it is not suitable for word processing or digital drawing! It is great for certain, specific tasks, like telling your telephone, “find me a movie for tonight at 8 o’clock,” while walking or driving, or for warehouse workers who must give machines instructions without using their hands. Yet the interactional bandwidth, or the amount of information that can be transferred using this method, remains limited. Also, for daily use, confidentiality issues arise: do you really want to speak out loud to your smartphone in the subway or at the office?
We also hear a lot of talk about brain-machine interfaces…
This is promising technology, especially for people with severe disabilities. But it is far from being available for use by the general public, in video games for example, which require very fast interaction times. The technology is slow and restrictive. Unless people accept to have electrodes implanted into their brains, they will need to wear a net of electrodes on their heads, which will need to be calibrated to prevent them from moving, and conductive gel will need to be applied to improve their effectiveness.
A technological breakthrough could theoretically soon make applications of this technology available for the general public, but I think many other innovations will be on the market before these brain-machine interfaces.
What fields of innovation will human-machine interfaces be geared towards?
There are a lot of possibilities, a wide range of research is currently being carried out on the topic! Many projects are focusing on gestural interactions, for example, and some devices have already appeared on the market. The idea is to use 2D or 3D gestures, and different types of touch and the pressure to interact with a smartphone, computer, TV, etc. At Telecom ParisTech, for example, we have developed a prototype for a smart watch called “Watch it”, which can be controlled using a vocabulary of gestures. This allows you to interact with the device without even looking at it!
This project also allowed us to explore the possibilities of interacting with a connected watch, a small object that is difficult to control with our fingers. We thought of using the watch strap as a touch interface, to scroll through the screen of the watch. There will be ongoing development in these small, wearable objects that are so close to our bodies. For example, we could someday have connected jewelry! For example, researchers are working on interfaces projected directly onto the skin to interact with these types of small devices.
Tangible interfaces are also an important area for research. The idea is that virtually all the objects in our everyday lives could become interactive, with interactions related to their use: there would be no need to search through different menus, the object would correspond to a specific function. These objects can also change shape (shape changing interfaces). In this field of research, we have developed Versapen: an augmented, modular pen. It is composed of modules that the user can arrange to create new functions for the object, and each module can be programmed by the user. We therefore have a tangible interface that can be fully customized!
Finally, one of the major revolutions in human-machine interfaces is augmented reality. This technology is recent but is already functional. There are applications everywhere, for example in video games and assistance during maintenance operations. At Télécom ParisTech, we worked in collaboration with EDF to develop augmented reality devices. The idea is to project information onto the control panels of nuclear power plants, in order to guide employees in maintenance operations.
It is very likely that augmented reality, both virtual and mixed, will continue to develop in the coming years. The so-called GAFA companies (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) invest considerable sums in this area. These technologies have already made huge leaps, and their use is becoming widespread. In my opinion, this will be one of the next key technology areas, just like big data and artificial intelligence today. And as a researcher specialized in human-machine interfaces, I feel it is important to position ourselves in this area!
Social Touch Project: conveying emotions to machines through touch
Tap, rub, stroke… Our touch gestures communicate information about our emotions and social relationships. But what if this became a way to communicate with machines? The Social Project Touch, launched in December 2017, seeks to develop a human-machine interface capable of transmitting tactile information via connected devices. Funded by the ANR and DGA, the project is supported by the LTCI laboratory at Télécom ParisTech, ISIR, the Heudyasic laboratory and i3, a CNRS mixed research unit that includes Télécom ParisTech, Mines ParisTech and École Polytechnique. “You could send touch messages to contacts, “emotitouches”, which would convey a mood, a feeling,” explains Éric Lecolinet, the project coordinator. “But it could also be used for video games! We want to develop a bracelet that can send heat, cold, puffs of air, vibration, tactile illusions, that could enable a user to communicate via touch with an avatar in a virtual reality environment.”[/box]
https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/IHM-rognee.png9371486I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-19 14:23:572019-01-29 15:19:45Coming soon: new ways to interact with machines
Existing methods for measuring ocean surface currents are expensive, difficult to implement and limited in the amount of information they can gather. The solution proposed by the eOdyn startup, based on the algorithmic analysis of data from maritime traffic, represents a real technological breakthrough. It is very affordable and more effective, enabling the real-time and delayed observation of marine currents across the entire surface of the globe. Using this technology, eOdyn is developing many different services for the those involved in maritime transport, from the offshore oil industry, to sea rescue and research on climate change. Incubated at IMT Atlantique, the startup’s customers and partners include CMA CGM, Airbus Defence and Space, the European Space Agency and IFREMER.
Two main solutions are used to measure marine currents on the high seas. The first is to throw drifting buoys into the sea equipped with GPS and track their travel. This historical technique is still just as effective, yet it is costly and difficult to implement. It requires the buoys to be spread throughout the ocean in a homogeneous manner, and the batteries of the drifting sensors must be regularly changed. The second method is to measure the ocean currents using the six altimetry satellites that are currently in orbit. At best, when the six satellites are located above the ocean, and not above the continents, they can obtain six measurements of the water’s surface at a given time that can be used to deduce the presence and direction of the currents. This technique also requires considerable financial means, as evidenced by the €1.2 billion price tag on the next project involving the development, launch and three-year operation of the new-generation altimetric satellite known as SWOT.
The eOdyn startup now proposes a simple and inexpensive solution for the digital analysis of open data, including AIS data (Automatic Identification System), to measure the currents in real time and delayed time. This data allows ships to be operated as sensors collecting information on the currents. Considering that approximately 100,000 are sailing around the globe simultaneously, this represents 100,000 measurement points, as compared to the six points currently provided by satellites.
A simple, affordable and complete solution for observing marine currents
Each ship emits an AIS message every ten seconds. This message contains information on the vessel itself, its position and its path. All data is collected by an international network of receivers and antennas installed along the coastlines or on satellites in low Earth orbit. These AIS messages were initially designed and used as a maritime security system for preventing collisions. “It was necessary to create an open system that allows for exchanges of unencrypted information between vessels, so that they can see each other,” says Yann Guichoux, the startup’s founder.
eOdyn collects and analyzes these AIS data and submits them to an algorithm capable of analyzing each vessel’s path in different navigation conditions and produce a model of hydrodynamic behavior. Based on the vessel’s movement in relation to its planned path, it deduces the direction and intensity of the current it is affected by. “The algorithm needs a significant amount of data to function,” explains Yann Guichoux. “This is where the concepts of big data and machine learning come into play. For the algorithm, there is a learning phase for each vessel that is analyzed.”
In addition to being inexpensive, the solution proposed by eOdyn offers more comprehensive data than the altimetry satellites: “Altimetry measurement is limited, because it only obtains information on the current that is perpendicular to the satellite track” Yann Guichoux explains. “The information provided only pertains to a geostrophic current, a theoretical current. The actual current includes this geostrophic current, but also includes the tidal current and the current affected by the wind speed, which eOdyn replicates.”
Fuel economy, sea rescue and climate research
“At first, our business modelwas to sell the data we obtained. Now, we are progressively moving towards providing value-added services to various sectors,” Yann Guichoux explains. In the field of maritime transport, rather than selling the data directly to companies that do not know how to process and use them, the startup will propose optimal navigation routes that will allow ships to take advantage of driving currents and save on fuel. Furthermore, a monitoring system is being developed for offshore oil companies. It will alert the companies in real time of the presence of whirlpools that could potentially disrupt the drilling operations, cause material damage and the release pollutants into the ocean. Yann Guichoux also plans to develop a drift prediction tool for sea rescue, which will provide an estimation of the location of a person who has drifted out to sea in order to help guide search and rescue operations. Finally, the startup is also interested in providing data for research on climate change, for example to ascertain the slowdown of the Gulf Stream current.
But eOdyn won’t stop there! Using the same algorithmic basis, modified with significant variations, the startup is working on new projects for measuring swells and wind, which will come out in 2018. “A ship is a moving object in the water, subject to the constraints of the currents, swells and waves. When we look at the data and its analysis, we gain an overview of these three parameters,” Yann Guichoux explains. With the development of new tools based on the observation of these phenomena comes the promise of new fields of application waiting to be discovered.
https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Visuel_Une_eOdyn.jpg9801391I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-18 10:37:542018-04-18 10:37:54eOdyn: technological breakthrough in the observation of ocean surface currents
Although additive manufacturing is already fully integrated into industrial processes, it is continuing to develop thanks to new advances in technology. The Additive Manufacturing Tech’Day, co-organized by IMT Mines Alès and Materiautech – Allizé-Plasturgie, brought together manufacturers and industry stakeholders for a look at new developments in equipment and material. José-Marie Lopez Cuesta,Director of the Materials Center at IMT Mines Alès, spoke with us about this event and the latest innovations in 3D printing.
What were the objectives of the Additive Manufacturing Tech’Day?
This event, which brought together nearly ninety people, was co-organized by IMT Mines Alès and Materiautech, which is network of institutions that organizes educational, technological and business activities on different plastic materials and processes for manufacturers and students. This provided an opportunity for several industry stakeholders to present their new developments in materials, tools and software through a series of conferences and demonstrations.
For us as researchers, the main objective of this tech day was to present our strategy in this area and build partnerships, particularly with manufacturers, with the aim of initiating projects.
What research projects are you currently working on in the area of additive manufacturing?
We have had the machines in the laboratory for a little over a year now, and we are beginning to launch projects. We just started a project focused primarily on engineering, for manufacturing an orthopedic brace, a medical corset. We also have a project in the initial development stages on SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) additive manufacturing technology, in partnership with a company based in Alès, and with potential funding from the region.
Has industry successfully taken advantage of 3D printing technologies?
Yes, absolutely. Today, 3D printing is seen as one of the major advanced manufacturing technologies. It is developing very quickly, with the emergence of new machines and new materials. As a laboratory, we want to be a part of this development.
For manufacturers, the goal is to develop new products with original shapes that could not be formed using traditional processes, while ensuring that they are durable and possess the mechanical properties required for their use.
Although it was initially used for rapid prototyping, 3D printing is now being used in all industrial sectors, particularly in the aerospace and medical industries, due to the complexity of the parts they produce. In the medical industry, additive manufacturing is used to produce prostheses and orthoses, as well as intracorporeal medical devices such as stents, mesh inserted in the arteries to prevent clogging, and surgical screws. Manufacturing these parts requires the use of biocompatible and approved materials, an aspect mastered by certain companies, which produce these materials as polymer powders or wires adapted to additive manufacturing.
In the aeronautics industry, this technology is used especially for printing very specific parts, for example for satellites. It allows parts to be replaced, especially metallic parts produced using molding techniques, by lighter and more functional 3D-printed parts. These parts are redesigned based on the innovations made available through additive manufacturing, which means they can be produced using as little material as possible, resulting in lighter parts.
Finally, 3D printing is perfectly adapted to manufacturing complex replacement parts for older devices that are no longer on the market. We are moving towards production means that are increasingly customized and flexible.
In additive manufacturing, what are the latest innovations in materials?
Materials are being developed that are increasingly complex. Nano-composites, for example, which are plastic materials comprising nanometric particles, offer improved mechanical properties, heat resistance and permeability to gas. New bio-composites are also being developed. These materials are composed of bio-based components and have a lower environmental impact than synthetic polymers. Other new materials present new features, such as fireproofing. We are seeking to enter these areas based on the areas of expertise that are already present at the Materials Center of IMT Mines Alès.
Beyond new materials, are there any new machines that have introduced significant innovations?
In this field, innovations appear very quickly: new machines are constantly coming out on the market. Some are even able to print several types of materials at the same time, or parts with increasingly complex symmetry. We also see greater precision in the components, and improved surface conditions.
In addition, one of the main issues is the speed of execution: enormous progress has been made in printing objects at greater speeds. This progress is what made it possible for 3D printing to expand beyond rapid prototyping and start being used for manufacturing production parts. In the automotive industry, for example, additive manufacturing technologies are in direct competition with other production processes.
Finally, 3D printers are more and more affordable. You can find €2,000 or €3,000 machines on the market. You can easily acquire a 3D printer for home use or take a sharing economy approach and use the printer within a joint ownership property. Now anyone can manufacture their own parts, and repair or further develop devices.
https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/VISUEL_TechDay-Ales-redim.png8901771I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-17 10:38:252021-08-31 16:42:42What are the latest innovations in additive manufacturing?
The development of technological tools has opened the way for many innovations in the e-health sector. These products and services allow doctors to remotely monitor their patients and help empower dependent persons. Yet the companies that develop and market these solutions find it very difficult to establish viable and sustainable business models. As part of the Better Business Models project, Charlotte Krychowski, a researcher in management at Télécom École de Management and Myriam Le Goff-Pronost, a researcher in economics at IMT Atlantique, have focused on company case studies to better understand this situation.
Connected capsules and blood pressure monitors, platforms for medical consultation by telephone, home automation and remote assistance services for dependent persons… All these innovations are the work of companies in the e-health sector, which has been booming with the development of new technologies. “The innovations in e-health offer real benefits for patients: some of the connected objects, for example, are able to detect when an elderly person falls and alert a doctor,” Myriam Le Goff-Pronost explains. Far from being unnecessary gadgets, these new products and services help establish efficient medical services, while reducing healthcare costs. But despite the quality of the services they offer, companies in the e-health sector face many challenges in establishing viable business models.
The BBM (Better Business Models) project, funded by the ANR, with partners including Myriam Le Goff-Pronost (IMT Atlantique), Charlotte Krychowski (Télécom École de Management), Université de Lille, Université Savoie Mont Blanc and Grenoble École de Management, focuses on the challenges companies face in establishing business models in the areas of e-health and video games. “These two industries were chosen because digital technology plays a predominant role in both, and in France there is a dynamic group of companies in these sectors. Along with twenty researchers from other schools, Charlotte and I have worked on e-health companies,” Myriam Le Goff-Pronost explains. The researchers worked on case studies to understand how business models have developed in these sectors. “We studied businesses that were very different in terms of their size and activities, but also in terms of their success, so that we could study an eclectic and representative panel,” says Myriam Le Goff-Pronost. “This has required a lot of work through regular meetings and interviews with business leaders in order to understand their decisions in terms of their business model and the way these models have developed.” Unfortunately, for now, none of the e-health companies they studied have succeeded in generating profits.
Two different worlds with different problems
While all the companies studied experienced economic difficulties, they faced different challenges in establishing a sustainable business model. Myriam Le Goff-Pronost and Charlotte Krychowski observed that the companies could be divided into two distinct groups: the well-being world, geared toward the general public, and the medical world, which proposed medical devices.
From connected scales to wristbands that track activity, the “well-being” products are usually sold directly to the general public. “The main difficulty for the “well-being” companies is that, often, they find themselves competing with big American manufacturers, and it is hard to make their product stand out,” explains Charlotte Krychowski. “Not to mention that they are adversely affected by the ban on marketing health data.”
In the medical world, because of how difficult it is to obtain marketing authorizations, and the health system’s structural problems, it takes a long time to reach the break-even point. While waiting to reach this break-even point in the health sector, Bodycap, which offers a connected capsule for measuring body temperature in real time, turned to veterinary medicine and top-level sports to survive. Yet there are many possible applications for human health: monitoring a patient during a lengthy surgical operation, post-surgery follow-up after the return home, monitoring patients confined in sterile room, etc. “To survive, companies are turning to sectors where regulation is much more flexible, no need for marketing authorizations! And in top-level sports, prices can be very elastic,” Charlotte Krychowski explains.
Finally, there is a reason it is so complicated for companies offering medical services and devices to establish business models in the e-health sector: the patient, who would benefit from the service, is not the one who pays. Social security, complementary health insurance organizations, EHPAD (residential homes for dependent older people), are just a few examples of the intermediaries that complicate the process of establishing cost-effective and sustainable business models. The Médecin Direct Platform, which offers medical consultations by telephone, has chosen to build partnerships with insurance providers to establish a viable business model. The insurer offers the service and pays the company. “The State’s validation of their remote medical consultation activity has enabled them to write prescriptions remotely, which really helped them economically” Myriam Le Goff-Pronost explains. “Still, the company is not yet generating profit…”
Structural problems to resolve
“Although these companies are struggling to find a suitable business model, this does not mean they are not doing well or have made bad choices,” says Charlotte Krychowski. “For most of them, it will take years to become profitable, because the viability of their business model depends on the long-term resolution of structural problems in France’s health sector.” Because while innovations in e-health help in prevention, hospitals and doctors are paid on a fee-for-service basis, for example for a consultation or operation. “Currently, whether a patient is doing well or poorly after an operation has no impact whatsoever on the hospital. And what’s more, if the person must be re-hospitalized due to complications, the hospital earns more money! The pay received should be higher if the operation goes well and the post-surgery follow-up is carried out properly,” says Charlotte Krychowski. In her opinion, our health system will have to transition to a flat-rate fee for each patient receiving follow-up care in order to integrate e-health innovations and provide companies in the sector with a favorable environment for their economic development. It will also be necessary to train caregivers to use the digital tools, since they will increasingly need to provide follow-up care using connected devices.
Furthermore, other legislative barriers hinder the success of e-health companies and the development of their innovations, such as marketing authorizations procedures. “The companies studied that produce medical devices are required to conduct clinical trials that are extremely long in relation to the speed of technological developments,” says Charlotte Krychowski. Finally, current legislation prohibits the marketing of sensitive health data, which deprives companies of an economic lever.
The difficulties encountered by all the companies in the study led the two researchers to publish the case studies and their findings in a book that is currently in progress, which will give business leaders keys to establishing their business models. According to Myriam Le Goff, this work must be continued to produce specific recommendations to help e-health entrepreneurs break into this complicated market.
https://imtech-test.imt.fr/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Visuel_Une-6.jpg12801920I'MTechI'MTech2018-04-13 15:00:082018-04-13 15:09:22e-Health companies face challenges in developing business models
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