Human nature relativizes disadvantages and problems in depending on what they affect us, personally or our environment. With respect to Accessibility and Universal Design, today, we can find the idea that these are problems that only persons related with disability scope must engage.
At the disability world, we can say that general mentality is quite advanced, although not enough yet, and less what concerns to mental health. The changes of attitude towards disability people started at the Renaissance. In Spain, Isabel of Castile created hospitals for soldiers in which prosthesis and therapeutic device were provided them. Even so, disability did not begin to be seen with clinic eyes until the middle of s. XIX, in order to know the causes and suggest possible improvements. But this issue was addressed from social services. People with disabilities were seen as people null, from the point of view social and productive skills.
At mid-twentieth century, in 1955, during the International Labor Conference, a recommendation about “Rehabilitation and Employment of the Disabled” was presented. In this moment, it was considered “the need to make available to people with average disability professional adaptation medias of independently their origin, nature or age, always they can be prepared to exercise adequate employment and they have a reasonable prospect of obtaining and maintaining employment”. Although it has analyzable nuances still, it can be considered as the forerunner of the social and labor integration of people with disabilities.
Following the Convention, Laws that try to go adapting to reality, with more or less success, emerge. And, when have we started to talk about Accessibility? In 2007, the first resolutions concerning access and use of public spaces appear in Law on Equal Opportunities, Non-Discrimination and Universal Accessibility, known as LIOUNDAU. The First National Accessibility Plan 2004-2012 appeared and was published by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The main objective is “to achieve universal access for all environments, products and services to overcome barriers that discriminate against persons with disabilities”.
This legislation has support in different international and national standards and regulations related to interface ergonomics, accessibility of hardware and software, subtitling, audio description and web accessibility, such as
Regarding Universal Design or Design for all, it is necessary to clarify that this concept does not cover all possible cases. As Stephanidis said in 2001, “universal design does not necessarily imply that a single design should be suitable for all users, but it should be treated as a design philosophy that tries to meet the needs of accessibility for the greatest number of potential users”.
After this collection of Laws, regulations and related aspects accessibility in the field of computer science, is clear that the design and accessible development is not an option. Accessibility is an obligation, in legal terms. The problem is that ‘accessibility’ is not understood as part of design – few universities considering ‘accessibility’, and only as an optional subject. This makes that accessible systems development needs accessibility experts and it increases the costs in time and money of any technology project.
We should consider whether these savings offset, in cost or quality, spending necessary to adapt or redo designs, in the event that the Laws of digital accessibility were applied with the same rigor as those affecting architectural designs. Is built a new building without access to level?
Finally, if we are talking about “meet the needs of the most number of users” we should keep in mind that we are opening the market expectations of the products we develop. Where we see an obligation, cannot we have a good business?
“True beauty lies within”, this words have been heard for all of us and in this way we have learned at home. But the reality is far from the theory when we are talking about fruits and vegetables.
Around 30% of the food waste problem is related with the primary production and one cause is that the fruits and vegetables dismissed by the exigencies in terms of quality (shape, size, appearance, etc). For instance, 20% of the potatoes are sorted out in Swedish potato farms due to quality standards (Mattssonet al., 2001). It is true that a lot of these products end up in other industries, like processing/ feed industries, but some produce is left unharvest or wasted. If it was not because they are the “wallflower”, they could arrive to the consumer because they have the same nutritive and organoleptic characteristics.
From this point of view, have appeared in some countries different initiatives which hope contribute to reduce the food waste commercializing theses “ugly” fruits and vegetables.
In 2014, European year against food waste, the French supermarket chain Intermarché launched in their stores the initiative “Inglorious fruits and vegetables”. With a massive global campaign and 30% cheaper, Intermarché decided to sell these non-calibrated and imperfect fruits and vegetables that it is not usually find it in a store, besides they put on sell soups and juices made from these vegetables to show at the consumers that these products could be so good like any other. The initiative was a successful and they got sell 1,2 tonns in a couple of days.
To encourage the purchase of these vegetables other supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury (UK) have started to offer these vegetables in their stores, and so reduce the food waste. Asda, the second supermarket chain more important in UK, put “wonky veg box” on sale by 3,50 pounds, 30% less than standard lines.
In Germany, two women launched a crowdfunding campaign to promote the benefits to consume vegetables that were not accepted in terms of quality. They work directly with local farmers and supermarkets that discard these veg and make dishes that then they sell in a coffee shop, labelling as “Culinary Misfits”.
Terms of quality are not the only reason for the primary production have the majority of the food waste. Inappropriate agronomic practices and wrong variety choices produce inferior quality leading to high losses in the selection process. A lake of appropriate resources during storage and transport or mechanic damage by multiple handling can increase the damage, especially for highly perishable commodities such as fruits and vegetables.
To reduce these amounts of waste it is carrying out some improvements techniques in the primary production, new post-harvest technologies (new silos, protection of storage cereal to pest, new packaging materials, temperature control, etc.), all these improvements have to adapt to the place where they applied remain affordable with respect to local conditions. Often some simple and economic solutions in transport, production and packaging can reduce food losses and waste in development countries (Millennium Project of the United Nations, 2005; FAO 2011B).
In this sense works the Postharvest Education Foundation, with educational programs aimed at reducing food losses, maintaining quality, market value, nutritional value and food safety, and access to references, resources, training activities and mentoring services for young professionals in the field of postharvest technology.
To struggle against the food waste in fisheries, the French organization “La Panier de la mer” collaborates with different fishing ports, where it picks fish that not are been sold or it can’t be sell and it would throw it away. This fish is transformed into fillets or freezing that them it distributes to different food aid associations.
Fish Fight are been worked in the fight against the fish discards at the sea, putting pressure on the politicians to find more sensible criteria in this sense (In 2015 Europeans politicians have voted to ban the discards). Currently it focuses on their struggle to finish with botton-trawling and the promotion of artisan fishing, finding a sustainable production with the environment and avoiding massive catches that increase waste.
These are just some initiatives to change the production system in which we are living and consuming, which must change among all to get a model that can feed the world’s population in a fair and sustainable way with the environment.
Water is the most abundant substance in the human body as much as on Earth and is also essential for the survival of all known forms of life.
And despite its importance, every day more voices warn of the dangerslooming on such a “precious element.” For example, the World Economic Forum met last January in Mount Davos (Switzerland) has placed the water crisis as the third overall risk over the next 18 months … and it will be the first risk to the world in a 10-year horizon.
Which are the causes that are positioning the water in this top ranking ahead of other potential problems such as oil or turf wars? Climate change, droughts, floods, population growth or demographic changes are some of the challenges around water. In addition, because of its close relation to agriculture, the idea of a “water war” breaking out in Africa, the Middle East or Asia is increasingly seen as a real possibility to the extent that these governments need to feed their populations.
To this long list of long-range dangers, today we want to draw your attention to a closest one: the lack of individual knowledge.
You certainly know the price of 1L of gasoline, but do you know what you pay for 1 L of water? First, you need to know that in Spain water supply is under municipal jurisdiction and each local authority sets its own prices and tariff structures. On average, in our country we pay 1.83 € per 1000 L of drinking water supplied to our households. Translated into usual domestic chores, a five-minute shower costs about 0.10 € and a bath about 0,55 €.
However, the key question is not what you pay for the drinking water, but what is the real cost to produceit and if this is a “fair and sustainable price” for the future.
Returning to the case of gasoline, in recent months we have witnessed a drastic fall in the price of crude. However, as consumers we have not benefited entirely from this drop as fuel is heavily taxed in our country (more than half of the final cost is linked to taxes).
Well, the water is at the opposite extreme, ie, it is heavily granted. While it is true that public money comes at the end from “the black box” of our taxes, there is a very important hint facing the taxpayer. It is difficult to value water if its real cost remains unknown and even when waste it goes so cheap. In the choice between taking a shower or a bath it is clear that today, the money does not come into the equation. And if you go for the more sustainable option probably it is because of the 100 L of water that you save when you do not fill the bathtub. But … what if the money began to count?
Apparently positive for the citizen, the situation is untenable and water will be, within a short period of time, a very high value resource that will need to be managed more efficiently.
In Spain, our supply networks are often obsolete and water losses due to leaks are incalculable. Would you be willing to pay a fair price for water if that would guarantee access to higher water quality and helps to improve infrastructure?
Knowing is the first step to value and informed citizens lead to a responsible society. As an example, a study sponsored by the Council of Almeria in 2002 detected the presence of natural radioactivity in the groundwater intended to supply the population. Furthermore, the existing water treatments at that time were not enough to provide water suitable for human consumption. Then, some municipalities launched information campaigns which sensitized population and a raise of the water price was approved. Thereby, new treatments installed allowed the access to a high quality drinking water.
In recent years, the average consumption of water per capita and day has decreased in our country. What you can keep doing? First, use common sense in your daily habits. Remember not to let the water run from faucets when not necessary, think about how you use the toilet if you have a dual flush mechanism, or if you use the washing and dishwasher machine with full loads etc. Also, when buying new appliances, consider criteria of water efficiency, or install aerators on faucets or shower heads to reduce the flow by 50%. If you are interested, you just can google it and read:
“It’s too late to be a pessimist”. In CARTIF we are seeking for solutions to current challenges and water is one of them. Sustainable use of water, removal of micro-pollutants (endocrine disruptors, trihalomethanes), water-energy nexus, water in the context of circular economy, are for us among the water challenges of this century. In future entries in this blog, we will be telling you our research in these lines.
There is a growing concern caused by the possible effects Artificial Intelligence (AI) could have on everyday working life. Recently in the Davos Forum they have dealt with this issue, but two years ago The Economist published an article about the potential job lost that will be caused by this technology.
Films have made Artificial Intelligence familiar to everybody. From Colossus: The Forbid Project, where a super-computer managed to dominate the entire world and stole the girlfriend to its designer; to Ex Machina, where a heartless machine managed to fulfil its ambitions with no moral hesitation. Almost in all cases, it has been portrayed in a dystopian way. However, the AI we will see soon will not look like an android, as Ava in Ex Machina, but it will resemble HAL 9000, the moral disoriented computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think the first AI materialisation we will see is the Cognitive Computation, named by IBM as Watson.
Watson is a machine able to answer questions posed in natural language capable of processing huge amounts of information to give the correct answer. It became known to general public in 2008, when it defeated two human opponents in Jeopardy!, a television contest featuring a quiz competition.
One of the first commercial Watson uses is to support lung cancer treatment by suggesting the best drug combination for every patient. Another application soon available will be to answer call phones in a call centre. Genesys, a company that develops and sells systems for that application, wants to include Watson in its portfolio. Watson will answer the phone, have a conversation with the user and refer him to a human operator if needed. The experience will be quite similar to the current one, but a machine will do a job that requires some intellectual abilities.
Aptitudes like the ones featured by Watson fear analysts there will be a job lostthere where intellectual and routine tasks are done, even if qualification is needed as in accounting, layer assistants, technical writers or drivers. This is similar to fears arisen when the artificial force appeared: machines whose power enabled them to do the same work than a dozen people while they were driven by only one.
Technology has improved artificial force. While at the beginning it was powered by steam pressure, today it is enabled by automation and robotics. Artificial force ousted many workers and make some professions disappear but, at the same time, new jobs requiring higher qualification emerged. Workers had to do a transition from muscle to brain.
On the advent of this new Artificial Intelligence technology, able to carry out intellectual, repetitive tasks, how will be the new transition workers will have to do? It will have to aim at those tasks machines by the moment cannot do: creative and emotional jobs. However, the transition period could be not easy. Required formation could not be afforded by everyone, or to hire a machine could be cheaper than to hire a person. AI cost will be determinant and, considering only Watson hardware cost around three million dollars, it seems not every company will be able to access it.
In any case, we will have to face the old question: to let others to develop the technology and became mere users, or to be the scientific, technological or commercial developers of this new industrial revolution. A Hamlet like decision.
Robotics, mainly service robotics, has long been the subject of science fiction, with protocol droids designed to serve human beings like C-3PO from “Star Wars”, military robots like Johnny 5 from “Short Circuit”, robot cleaners like Wall-E, or maids like Rosie from “The Jetsons”. The service robotics is finally stepping out of science fiction and into service, in our homes for personal use like vacuum robots led by iRobot “Roomba”. And for professional use on multitude of application areas such as cleaning robot for public places, delivery robot in offices or hospitals, rehabilitation robot and surgery robot in hospitals, assistant robot.
What is the difference between service robots and industrial robots? The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) defines service robotics as “a robot that performs useful tasks for humans or equipment excluding industrial automation application”. While in general, industrial robots refer as robot arms used in manufacturing and service robots tend to be smaller and mobile, the definition has been dependent on the end application of the robot. Furthermore, contrary to their industrial counterparts, service robots do not have to be fully automatic or autonomous. In many cases these machines may even assist a human user or be tele-operated.
Market Data Since 2010, IFR has split their report into two sections, one for industrial robotics and one for service robotics. Until now, industrial robotics has been the dominant sector for robots, particularly in the automotive industry and consumer electronics. The industrial robotics sector is worth more than 29 billion euros in sales, software and service, even though there are only 1.5 million industrial robots in the world (compared to more than 10 million Roombas)! There has been steady growth in industrial robotics for the last five years and this trend shows no signs of slowing.
The IFR has tracked overall annual growth at around 11.5% so far, and projects more than 20% annual growth to come in the service robotics industry. But some niche areas have already demonstrated growth of between 150% (mobile platforms) and 650% (assistive technology) in the last year. The primary market areas for service robots so far have been in defence, field (agriculture and inspection), logistics and health/medical applications.
One of the new categories to emerge in the last year is the humanoid helper, kiosk robot or retail assistant.
Leading Countries The largest industrial robot manufacturing country is Japan with giants such as Fanuc, Yaskawa – Motoman, Kawasaki, OTC Daihen and others. Europe also has important players, mainly with ABB, Kuka and Universal Robots. In the US, there is Adept and others that are not as dominant in the market.
With respect to service robotics, the situation is the opposite, with the US clearly leading the way. The US approach is not to build humanoid robots but rather robots dedicated to one application. Robotic industry clusters have formed around MIT, Stanford and Carnegie Mellon universities of which many start-ups have formed from these institutions. In fact, IFR analyses also reveal that of all the enterprises engaged in the service robot market 15 percent are start-ups.
Europe’s Position in Robotics According to SPARC (partnership for robotics in Europe), Europe starts from a strong position in robotics, having a 32% of current world markets. Industrial robotics has around one third of the world market, while in the smaller professional service robot market European manufacturers produce 63% of the non-military robots. The European position in the domestic and service robot market represents a market share of 14% and, due to its current size, this is also a much smaller area of economic activity in Europe than the other two areas.
The European Commission submits Robotics in Europe is a rapidly developing field, with a high potential for supporting growth, creating jobs and solving societal challenges. Service robotics is also bringing unique solutions to key societal challenges from health and ageing society to environmental issues. The goal is to actively shape future developments in this area and enable our businesses and citizens to capture the resulting benefits.
CARTIF and Service Robotics CARTIFhas broad experience in the development of applied research projects in service robotics developing several different mobile robots with different degrees of autonomy. Some of these robots include teleoperated platform for pipe inspection, water reservoir cleaning and maintenance to more complex autonomous robots such as a museum tour guide, a robotic bellboy, a mechatronic head with realistic appearance and an all-terrain robot for assisting emergency squads on different situations.
When we work developing environmental technologies, to quantify the advantages to be obtained by using them can be an important added value. And if we put numbers, we are committed to communicate these numbers in an objective and traceable way, and it is when indicators, as environmental footprints, appear.
The most famous is the carbon footprint (after Armstrong’s footprint on the moon, of course!) but recently, another one resonates, the water footprint. This may be the least known member of the group so there are 9 things about it that, perhaps, you don’t know:
To sum up, we celebrate the World Water Day this month, and it is important to remind that the concept ‘water crises’ goes beyond a definition. The World Economic Forum called it in 2014 as the third overall risk worldwide, over climate change and food availability in the world… to give people pause, don’t you think?
