While taking part to big projects, we face big issues and develop big innovative solutions
RESEARCh & DEVELOPMENT
Innovation is the core activity of Mathema.
Two remarkable areas of current research are:
Human Behavior Modelling
Through multiple and co-ordinate state machines. Our human behavior model has been widely used to represent the particularly various and complex phenomenon of the Italian citizens in the whole world.
Large Database Clearing and Exploration
OUR TECHNOLOGIES
the technologies that we develop
AI
Machine Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence for Mathema is not a mere bunch of algorithms, techniques, platforms and computers. It is primarily a different way of viewing the world and conceiving a system. AI for Mathema is a powerful intellectual tool to discover the synthesis not the analysis of Reality. The whole essence, not the single parts.
Mathema is only interested in AI techniques and applications that provide some sort of superhuman capabilities, not some small incremental progress in traditional systems. For example, if we are going to develop a water meter reader we ask for a 99.99% digit recognition accuracy: 99.0% is not enough for us! To have such a level of performance you have to change the paradigm and the paradigm that Mathema follows is based on trying to see what is not directly visible and to achieve what seems to be unachievable.
For us the Reality is represented by data and data possess inherent structures and nuances that are never wholly captured by models built by humans. To capture this substantial but hidden aspects of Reality we use Deep and Reinforcement Learning looking for:
- features;
- latente spaces;
- representation spaces.
Domains where Mathema exploits AI are:
ART
We developed a system named DaVinciFace that captures the unique painting style of Leonardo da Vinci – the polymath Genius- and it is capable of yielding a digital portrait from a photo as painted by Leonardo.
SUSTAINABILITY (Water)
We developed:
- a system able to predict the daily water consumption of a household;
- a universal water meter reader.
SECURITY
We developed a human pose estimation system to counter-shoplifting;
FORM RECOGNITION
We developed:
- a system to detect and recognize box checking and handwritten text on a letter;
- a system to read a paper ballot for the voting tallying.
WELLBEING
We developed a system to guide elderly people in a walk suggesting the best path given the circumstances and the user preferences.
RECOMMENDATION SYSTEM
We developed a “Recommendation System” based on Reinforcement Learning to lend works of arts to sophisticated customers.
BLOCKCHAIN
Secure transaction.
Secure authentication
BlockChain is for Mathema a founding technology. Current information systems and event AI datasets and models are potentially subjected to manipulation and fraud. BlockChain, with its immutable ledger, guarantees that data or applications (or, in general, events) are registered once for all and may not be forged.
Mathema has a sound theoretical knowledge and practical experience of BlockChain technology, particularly for “permissioned blockchain” but, as usual, for Mathema technology is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end. In this case, we have a provable expertise in translating legal contacts in smart contracts to enforce legal obligations or to guarantee copyrights or micro-copyrights. Mathema knows how to model a BlockChain network with its assets, smart contracts, channels, permissions and so on. Moreover Mathema makes extensive use of Oracles to access external APIs from within smart contracts.
Relevant projects where Mathema displayed its expertise in BlockChain are:
- SchoolChain, a project aimed at guaranteeing copyrights for teachers authoring innovative educational material;
- Reasset, a project aimed at demonstrating how BlockChain technology may be used in very large Global Service Maintenance for heath structures (hospitals or other healthcare institutions);
- ERICA, a project aimed at providing micro-Intellectual Properties for creative workers.
VR/AR
Virtual/Augmented Reality
Faithful to the motto “seeing the unseen and achieving the unachievable” Mathema has dedicated a lot of effort in the domains of Virtual and Augmented Reality. Despite the disappointing performances provided by the current VR/AR headsets (even the most celebrated) Mathema has developed a methodology to create virtual or augmented or mixed realities to support mission critical tasks (e.g. an environmental emergency) through mobile control rooms.
A notable example of this VR/AR application is the CyberTrust project where we designed and implemented a mobile control room to manage cyber attacks in complex environments.
Early developments in the VR/AR domains are about recreating historical situations and events such as “Florence Capital” or the Great Flood in 1966 (“Once Upon the Time” project).
BIG DATA
Collection, Management, Mining, Analytics
Big Data is a traditional area where Mathema produces research, innovation and operative efforts.
Mathema managed for almost 25 years the community of Italians abroad that is currently estimated in 6 millions all over the world. Moreover Mathema has also managed a proprietary big data repository of all countries, locations, postal codes and (a large part) of addresses in the world. Not even Google Maps possess such a complete and updated repository.
Mathema managed Big IoT Data for a very large network of water meters for water consumption measures.
Currently Mathema is processing Big Data for:
- maintenance of devices spread on large territories;
- maintenance projects and contracts;
- research projects management and reporting.
Mathema has since recently mainly used statistical methods to analyze Big Data but it is rapidly converging to Deep Learning techniques (particularly in the Graph Neural Networks domain) to extract new and deeper insight from Big Data.
