“A virtual assistant to explore industrial tourism in Prato”
Kalliope, with its subsidiary company Awhy, is also among the protagonists of the European project EPIC – Experience Prato Industrial Culture, approved under the European Urban Initiative and led by the Municipality of Prato together with a network of nine public and private partners. The aim of the project is to enhance and innovate Prato’s industrial tourism experience through an integrated offer combining historical heritage, immersive technologies and local community involvement.
Within this ambitious context, Awhy contributes its technological know-how by providing a conversational virtual assistant designed to make the tourist experience even more accessible, engaging and interactive.
The role of Awhy
The virtual assistant developed by Awhy will be integrated into the physical and digital paths of the EPIC project and will perform two main functions:
- Answering cultural questions in real time, helping visitors discover the history, curiosities and peculiarities of the industrial heritage of Prato and its areas involved in the project.
- Interpret voice commands during virtual reality experiences designed by Immerxive, offering a natural and intuitive interface for navigating and interacting with virtual environments. Simply speak commands such as ‘continue’, ‘go to the fabric palace’ or ‘find out more’ to move through the virtual tour or explore specific content.
This technology will extend the tourist experience across time and space, facilitating access to personalized and interactive information during the visit. Furthermore, thanks to its conversational mode, the system will be able to adapt to the needs of a diverse audience, making the experience more inclusive and participatory.
Innovation at the service of the territory
Awhy’s intervention fits perfectly with EPIC’s vision, which aims to transform Prato into an example of “industrial tourism of the future”: a tourism without temporal and spatial boundaries, capable of integrating physical and digital experiences, material and immaterial culture, storytelling and technology. The virtual assistant will be active at the physical stations envisaged by the project, helping to enrich the technological core of the virtual reality experience.
A European project, a shared vision
EPIC involves various partners, including public bodies, foundations, social enterprises, research institutes, and SMEs, in a participatory co-design process. These include:
- Municipality of Prato (leader)
- Fondazione Museo del Tessuto di Prato (Non-profit organizations)
- Fondazione Sistema Toscana (Non-profit organizations)
- CNR – Istituto per la Bioeconomia (Higher Education and Research Organization)
- Associazione Eutropian (Non-governmental organizations)
- Cristoforo Società Cooperativa Sociale (Social Enterprises)
- Lama Impresa Sociale (Social Enterprises)
- Awhy (Small and medium-sized enterprises)
- Flod (Small and medium-sized enterprises)
- Immerxive(Small and medium-sized enterprises)
The project also includes transfer partners such as Bilbao (Spain), Miskolc (Hungary) and Pilsen (Czech Republic), with the aim of capitalizing on the Prato experience and potentially replicating it in other European cities.
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