In this past edition of the Mobile World Congress, inLab FIB presented a proof of concept of an assistance tool for police incident response. This tool was developed jointly with the Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya – Mossos d’Esquadra, and was presented at the same stand. You can see more information about the project in this link.
Our experience began on Monday before the doors were opened to the public, in order to prepare the demonstration for the coming days, and shortly after the opening of the event, people began to show up at the stand. We organized with the Mossos d’Esquadra to be able to make explanations either more technical or more focused on police applications or more generic. This allowed us to cater to all types of visitors from the very beginning.
The first day was spent on visits planned by various governing bodies, including the rector of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Daniel Crespo), the president of the Parlament (Anna Erre), the general director of the Mossos d’Esquadra (Pere Ferrer), and the president of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Pere Aragonès). We appreciate their visits and their genuine interest in the development of this proof of concept and the potential of creating this tool.
The second day was busier than the first, since despite not having governmental visits planned, many more people came asking about our application. The remaining two days were less crowded than the second, but also kept us busy with explanations much of the time.
Also of great interest was the visit of police forces from several countries, such as Hong Kong (who visited the stand twice), Washington, or a former chief of the Canadian police force (now retired), who is in charge of promoting technological improvements for the Canadian police force.
Although we were mostly at the stand, we were also able to visit the different pavilions of the MWC, and see the various innovations that were presented, most of them in the field of artificial intelligence and 5G technologies. There were also other curious technologies, such as a humanoid robot that spoke and moved its features (trying to simulate human behavior), a biological computer (made with neurons in vitro), or haptic gloves for use in virtual reality.
Additionally, this year Algoræ (inLab’s spin-off company) also participated in 4YFN, with a booth at the UPC stands. This gave them a good opportunity to make themselves known to more people, also thanks to the participation of Ernest Teniente in the “Pitch Battle“, or the interview with Jordi Montero.
In general, this edition of the MWC has been a very enriching day, and a great opportunity to proudly show the work done in these last intense months of work.