The Covid-19 emergency has brought an important issue front and center. It’s something that had already existed, but it’s only now that we can see it with more clarity. The digitalization of the Made in Italy sector, and access to promotional tools that enable competition on the global market, are absolute necessities.
Now more than ever, it’s important to be able to share the value of our products with the world. Just in the last few days, the news has come out that the Pact for Export has been given the green light. This initiative of Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio was signed by the relevant Ministers and Presidents of the main associations in that category. It’s a pact that aims to respond to the need for “coordination, transparency, clarity of intent and speed.” The strategy is based on six strategic pillars:
- Communication
- Integrated promotion
- Training/information
- E-commerce
- Trade Fairs
- Finance
For many years, as Dotfarm we have believed in and invested in unique opportunities in the tech world as it relates to food. And we have just received approval for a patent submitted by Flick on Food – our project focused on immersive technology applied to the world of local products. We designed and registered a wearable kit that aims to democratize access to VR and AR technology. Our target market is Millennial farmer – young entrepreneurs who have decided to work in agriculture, and who, given the most recent data, seem to be constantly growing in numbers. Essentially the ability to communicate with a wider market becomes central with this new device, and hopefully lets people work with the tools and timings that reflect a totally new reality.
The Flick on food patent
Our invention is a system for the production, distribution and consumption of content in the agrifood sector. Just in the last few months, we’ve been witnessing a notable increase in the interest and use of applications that use Augmented and Virtual reality technologies. These immersive technologies definitely have the ability to amplify and enhance narratives and the user’s personal involvement. This functionality is highly appreciated, especially in food storytelling, for the way it can communicate the origins, history, ownership and quality of foods and their ingredients. In particular, AR/VR technology allows people to discover the dynamics and modes of production and the origins of the ingredients, as well as enabling sales of food and wine products, and incentivizing tourism in the region.
flick on food patent smart hat
The Gap in the market
Planning and producing content using the AR/VR technology currently on the market requires the expertise of specialized companies or teams to film 360° videos. This creates costs that are unsustainable for agricultural entrepreneurs, and also demands timelines that aren’t always tenable. That’s why we came up with the idea for our hardware Kit, which uses a 360° camera to record content, making everything much simpler. In this way, we’re democratizing the use of a technology that otherwise would still seem elitist, in order to support the creation of UGC (User Generated Content) by people who work directly in the field. This creates a unique vision of the richness of the territory, the history of the products and the know-how of the farmers.
WEARABLE KIT plus software
Technological innovation is not merely a scientific-technical fact, but a social process of a dynamic nature. – Treccani
smart hat flick on food
There have been experiments in VR and AR solutions for many years, yet the market has never been as ready as it is right now to welcome new innovation. Certainly the need for promotion, and the need to break out of well defined spatial and temporal confines is now a shared urgency. The idea is to grant every single entrepreneur a wearable kit that will allow them to produce AR/VR content in real time, and give them access to editing software. A hat equipped with a microphone, webcam and integrated solar-powered battery charging system (to respect and protect the environment), speeds up the process of producing and sharing content.
wearable kit flick on food