The DUME team represents a dynamic collaboration between Logimade and ARDITI, combining expertise across multiple disciplines to ensure the success of the project. Under the leadership of Dr. Nuno Rodrigues, the team is strategically aligned with the project’s objectives, with key contributors specializing in systems optimization, decentralized architecture, backend development, and business strategy. Together, they work to enhance the functionality of Theia Vision, an innovative platform designed to address user concerns about privacy and data control. In this interview, the team shares insights into their roles, the project’s origins, and how it aims to deliver meaningful benefits to its users.
Can you briefly present your team?
The Project DUME team, a collaboration between Logimade and ARDITI, brings together a diverse group of experts, each contributing specialized knowledge and experience to foster the project’s success.
Leading the project is Dr. Nuno Rodrigues, who coordinates all project phases, aligning them with the strategic objectives to ensure coherent progress.
On the technological front, João Feixa, a Systems Optimization Specialist, translates complex technological designs into practical, efficient solutions. His skills in systems engineering significantly enhance the platform’s operational capabilities. Tiago Ribeiro, a Fullstack Developer, plays a crucial role in adapting the platform to support a decentralized architecture, ensuring that Theia Vision’s functionality seamlessly integrates with new protocols. André Torneiro, specializing in backend development, focuses on integrating the decentralized protocols within the existing Tidy City ecosystem, ensuring smooth functionality across systems.
The business and market strategy unit of the project is supported by Andreia Faria, who leverages her strategic planning expertise to guide the business dimensions of the project. Inês Almeida plays a crucial role in positioning the project’s technological innovations for market acceptance through her sales and market analysis expertise. Magda Duque manages administration and market dynamics, ensuring the project’s alignment with current market trends and maintaining its viability.
ARDITI contributes additional scholarly ability with Dr. David Aveiro, who brings technical and organizational expertise. As a senior researcher, his role extends beyond technical oversight to bridging business and technology aspects of DUME. Dr. Aveiro’s extensive publication record and active participation in international conferences underscore his influential presence in the field.
Duarte Pinto, another key member from ARDITI, ensures that the protocol specifications meet the broad requirements of urban platforms like Tidy City. His certification in FIWARE and involvement in significant ICT projects underscore his capability to handle complex technical requirements.
Dr. Dulce Pacheco, with her background in enterprise engineering and organizational behavior, assesses user needs and oversees project management at ARDITI. Her extensive experience in organizational settings enhances her ability to integrate user feedback into project development, ensuring that the solutions developed are both technically sound and user-friendly.
How did you come up with this project idea and what benefits will it bring to the end users?
The genesis of Project DUME traces back to the initial deployment of the Theia Vision platform, which was already operational in a prototype form and actively being tested by users. During these early interactions, a recurrent theme in user feedback highlighted significant concerns regarding privacy, particularly pertaining to the extensive collection of images capturing public spaces. Users were apprehensive about potential privacy violations stemming from images of people and vehicles, raising questions about their control over the content once submitted to the platform. This feedback underscored a crucial issue: users felt a lack of control over their data and expressed the need for mechanisms that would allow them to manage and, if necessary, retract their data swiftly to mitigate any arising issues.
In response to these privacy concerns, the project team began exploring solutions that would empower users with greater control over their data while maintaining the functionality and effectiveness of Theia Vision. This exploration led them to the Solid protocol—a decentralized data storage technology that aligns with the project’s goals by enabling individual users to own and control their personal data stored in Solid Pods. Solid’s framework allows users to manage access to their data, providing a robust mechanism to address privacy issues proactively.
How is TrustChain supporting your growth and what role does it play for the next steps in your development?
TrustChain has played an important role in the development and refinement of the Theia Vision platform, particularly in enhancing the platform’s user-centric approach and facilitating innovative technological integrations. The support from TrustChain has been instrumental in two main areas: capacity building in user-centric methodologies and financial backing for advanced technological developments.
Prior to TrustChain’s involvement, the team behind Theia Vision lacked substantial experience in conducting sophisticated user-centric studies, which are crucial for understanding the needs and behaviors of different user groups—professionals and citizens. TrustChain mentors provided essential guidance, introducing the team to a range of user study tools and techniques. This mentorship enabled Theia Vision to implement a comprehensive user-centric study that combined both qualitative methods, like think-aloud sessions, and quantitative assessments, such as the NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), System Usability Scale (SUS), and Questionnaire for User Interaction Satisfaction (QUIS). These methodologies have allowed the team to gather deep insights into user interactions, preferences, and challenges, thereby informing better design and functionality adjustments tailored to user needs.
TrustChain’s financial support was fundamental in enabling Theia Vision to pursue higher levels of innovation, particularly the integration of the Solid protocol. This funding not only alleviated financial risks associated with adopting cutting-edge technologies but also allowed the team to explore and implement a decentralized architecture—a futuristic concept that places user privacy and control at the forefront of digital interactions.
Looking ahead, TrustChain’s continued support will be vital for the next phases of Theia Vision’s development. This includes further refinement of the mobile app based on ongoing user feedback, enhancing AI capabilities for better data processing and event detection, and expanding the use of Solid Pods to provide a more robust and user-friendly platform.
Why did you apply to the TrustChain call and has your vision changed since then?
The primary motivation for applying to the TrustChain call was to control the inherent risks associated with innovating the Theia Vision platform through decentralization and the integration of Solid technology, which is still in its early stages of development. Decentralization, while promising, presents a significant risk path, particularly when using technology like Solid that has not yet matured and is prone to potential bugs and malfunctions. The TrustChain call offered an opportunity to reduce these risks by providing the necessary support and resources to navigate this innovative, yet uncertain, view of the future of the internet.
Our vision, however, has remained consistent. From the outset, we aimed to decentralize Theia Vision to provide users with full control over their data, which we hope will become a key differentiator in the market. This goal continues to guide our development, as we believe it will offer a strong value proposition to attract users who prioritize data privacy and autonomy. While we have gained valuable insights through the TrustChain initiative, our fundamental vision of decentralizing Theia Vision remains unchanged.
What is the most valuable takeout from the TrustChain project and why was the topic of the Open Call important to you/your team?
The most valuable takeaway from the TrustChain project has been the development of a deeper understanding of our diverse user base, particularly the distinction between professional users and citizens. Prior to participating in TrustChain, our team lacked significant experience in user-centric studies and the methodological tools necessary to conduct them effectively. With the support and guidance of TrustChain mentors, we were able to design and implement a comprehensive user-centric study.
The topic of the TrustChain Open Call was also critical to our team, as it aligned closely with our initial intention to decentralize Theia Vision and enhance user data control and sovereignty. The Open Call’s focus on trustworthy online platforms that prioritize user privacy and data governance provided the ideal framework for our project.
Did you establish collaboration with any of the TrustChain teams or plan for any kind of synergies? If yes, what is the biggest potential in such collaborations?
We did not establish any significant collaboration with the other TrustChain teams during the course of the project. This is primarily because our project was built on an already developed digital platform, Theia Vision, which has a highly specific purpose. As a result, our activities were focused on the particular technologies, languages, architecture, libraries, and functionalities unique to Theia Vision, which differ substantially from the objectives and technologies used by the other teams in TrustChain. This divergence limited opportunities for meaningful collaboration or shared development.
Additionally, we underestimated the scope of the work required to complete the activities outlined in our project proposal. The workload was more extensive than initially anticipated, which further constrained our capacity to engage with other teams. This challenge was aggravated by a lack of comprehensive documentation for several of the Solid software components we relied on, which demanded additional time and effort from our team to resolve technical issues. These factors collectively made it difficult to pursue collaborations or synergies with other TrustChain teams.
What are your expectations regarding the TrustChain software ecosystem and its contribution to the NGI priority areas?
Our expectations for the TrustChain software ecosystem rely in its potential to advance critical areas within the Next Generation Internet (NGI) priority framework, particularly in terms of data sovereignty, privacy, and decentralized governance. We anticipate that the TrustChain ecosystem will play an important role in the valorisation by users of a more user-centric digital landscape, where individuals and organizations have greater control over their data.
Through the integration of decentralized technologies like Solid, we foresee the ecosystem promoting greater user empowerment by enabling individuals to control how their data is used, shared, and accessed. Moreover, the ecosystem’s emphasis on open-source solutions is likely to encourage other digital platforms to follow the same path, which could drive further advancements in secure and scalable decentralized platforms.
What are the next steps for your team?
The next steps for our team involve exploiting the new features introduced in Theia Vision to broaden the platform’s user base. By focusing on the added value that these features provide—particularly the enhanced user data control enabled by the decentralized architecture—we aim to attract both new users and stakeholders from diverse sectors. This will involve targeted outreach and communication efforts to ensure that potential users fully understand the benefits of these innovations.
Simultaneously, our team will continue to focus on improving the accuracy and functionality of the AI models that power Theia Vision’s urban monitoring capabilities. Enhancing the precision of these models in detecting situations of interest, such as waste management issues or infrastructure deterioration, remains a priority. Furthermore, we plan to extend the scope of these models to cover new types of situations, including vegetation growth, the presence of animals, and pest detection. This will not only increase the platform’s relevance across a broader range of urban management challenges but also solidify its position as a comprehensive tool for public space monitoring.
What is the message you would give to new and potential applicants to TrustChain Open Calls?
For new and potential applicants to TrustChain Open Calls, the message we would give is to approach this opportunity with both a clear vision and an open mind. The TrustChain initiative offers a unique platform to advance innovative projects focused on decentralization, data privacy, and user empowerment, but the journey requires careful planning, adaptability, and a willingness to engage deeply with emerging technologies.
Applicants should be prepared to encounter both challenges and learning opportunities, especially when working with evolving technologies like the Solid Protocol. However, the support from mentors and the collaborative framework provided by TrustChain can be invaluable in navigating these difficulties.
