The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly reshaped the way people interact with public spaces, introducing new challenges related to safety, awareness and collective responsibility. At a time when maintaining interpersonal distance became a critical requirement, we asked ourselves how technology could support individuals and organizations in adapting to rapidly changing behaviors and environments.
This reflection led us to collaborate with Wi4b in the development of LEO, a device designed to help manage the safe reactivation of shared spaces after lockdown. Combining environmental analysis software, a wide-angle camera and artificial intelligence, LEO detects situations in which distancing requirements are not respected and provides immediate visual and acoustic feedback.
Powered by neural network technologies, the system leverages machine learning and computer vision algorithms to identify people, map their distribution and monitor occupancy patterns in real time across large areas. By transforming complex data into actionable information, LEO supports more informed management of public and professional environments.
The project required translating a highly sophisticated technological infrastructure into a product capable of communicating reliability, accessibility and trust. Inspired by the vision of Leonardo da Vinci, from whom it takes its name, LEO was conceived as an object with a strong identity yet able to integrate harmoniously into a wide variety of architectural contexts.
Its geometry is derived from the icosidodecahedron, a direct reference to the polyhedral studies illustrated by Leonardo for De Divina Proportione. This choice connects scientific rigor and aesthetic research, expressing through form the balance between the visible simplicity of the object and the complexity of the intelligence operating within it. The result is a distinctive technological presence, designed to make advanced innovation understandable, approachable and useful in response to an unprecedented global challenge.