Activity profile: ICT for accessibility; assistive devices

ProTocuBe started its activity in 2006, after winning the first edition of a competition in Piedmont Region awarding business ideas concerning innovative and technological applications. ProTocuBe currently has its main offices in Turin and is also hosted by the University Business Incubator of Vercelli.

The company promotes the use of Rapid Prototyping Technologies from digital modeling to engineering and prototype/scale model production. ProTocuBe constantly invests in exploring different applications of Rapid Prototyping and rendering technologies:

- ARCHITECTURE (scale models and “maquette” of any kind, renderings, virtual videos, websites and presentations)

- ARCHITECTURAL AND ENVIROMENTAL SURVEYING (processing laser scanning data, 2D drawings from surveying, physical models from laser scanning data)

- DESIGN (true-scale prototypes and scale models, furnishing, character design, ..)

- MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC APPLICATIONS (medical models, reproductions from TAC and RMN)

- ART AND EXHIBITIONS (artistic works, consulting and manufacturing for digital artistic works)

ProTocuBe is particularly interested in finding partners and project consortium to test and develop the following:

- Assistive devices produced through Rapid Prototyping for people with different physical disabilities, through the integration with other mechanical and electronic applications (also domotics). The beneficiaries are people with permanent or transitory physical disability, who wish to adapt the living environment (infrastructure and devices) to their needs, where the use of commercial products and solutions is not feasible, or not sustainable at economical and functional level.

- Tactile models for improving accessibility in the culture and tourism domain for visually impaired people.