The audience hangs on their every word as Gerrit Baarda, founder of high-tech company ZiuZ in Gorredijk, and Bert Garlich CEO of ZiuZ, talk about how they use smart software to provide solutions to social issues. Major social issues, such as preventing child abuse, for example. A police officer came to me with two boxes full of hard disks and the question: How on earth can I get the images and videos on these hard disks viewed in time so that we can prevent even more child abuse victims,” says Baarda, visibly touched. He gives the only possible answer for him: ”I'm going to help you. The result is a system of clever software that allows large amounts of images and videos to be screened by a computer for appropriate characteristics. ”In this case, images of possible victims of child abuse. Investigation time of months we reduced to a few days for this agent with the result that the perpetrator could be apprehended and thus no longer abuse children."
Socially relevant
That social relevance is top of mind for Baarda and Garlich. ”Otherwise we wouldn't do it,” Garlich explains. , ”Of course we want to earn a living, but the most important thing in our work is that we can make the world a little more beautiful.” That's why they stopped working on a project for super night vision devices. "The applications for these are mainly in defense. We don't want to participate in that." Their IRIS is an example of combining existing technology with their smart software. Baarda: "This device scans pills before pharmacists or nurses give them to patients. The error rate is less than 1 in a million, whereas with manual checking, 20 percent of pills end up with the wrong patient." This is the social relevance Baarda and Garlich want to achieve with their products.
Help out
After the lecture, a conversation ensues with the audience about how to use this technology for good, for example, to support artesians in making a diagnosis. It also turns out to be relevant for securing airports, for example. According to Garlich, people simply have poor perception. The number of television screens that guards have to watch is increasing. While the guard watches the screen on the bottom left, he cannot see what is happening on the screen on the top right. Moreover, his perception is colored by such things as his upbringing, background and education. A computer can help him objectify everything he sees and focus his attention.” Garlich explains that a smart camera scans the environment and presents only those images to the guard that are of interest to him. ”That saves a lot of time, is not boring and enables humans to make decisions." Because that is what Garlich and Baarda stand for with their technology: helping people so they are better able to make decisions.