Level Up: Smart Cities
Smart Homes to Smart Cities
In the technology era we are living in, computers, phones, homes and even cities are getting smarter each and every day. As more people start to connect to the internet, so do other “things”. One of the common discussion topics of our guest speakers was the dependency on connectivity. To catch up to the speed of technological developments, the need and demand to be constantly connected via our surroundings increase. Smart homes allow us to connect our home devices all together and enable us to control them all at once using a hub. These smart devices share the aim of making our lives easier. We can control the lights, TV, temperature, door lock etc. just by a single tap on our smartphones. While some advancements have a great impact on our daily lives, some others are not always realized. We are transitioning from smart homes to smart cities that use the internet of things (IoT) technology to change our lives by increasing sustainability, quality of life, advancing health and safety. [1, 5]
Where and How?
IoT has many usages in creating smarter cities and there are many applications all around the world. I believe that the challenges that smart cities face carry higher importance but before getting into that, here are a few of IoT applications in smart cities:
There were sensors installed in the streetlights of Kansas City, in order to gather information on traffic and parking availability. The data from the sensors was used to display the location of available parking spots, traffic amount and even foot traffic, which can be very helpful for retailers. [3]
In Louisville, sensor-equipped inhalers were given to asthma patients. This allowed the government to track where the inhalers were used and in what frequency. With the gathered data, they were able to locate most polluted areas and by planting trees they could reduce the particulate matter by 60%. [3]
Another usage is “IoT modules at cultural sites”. [2] Smart cities aim to leverage the city and the government not only through citizens but also by increasing tourism. For instance, in Germany, augmented reality is used with IoT in order to allow tourists view historical photos of the monuments using their smartphones. This way, tourists can make the most out of their travel and gain more and accurate knowledge based on the app.
Facing Challenges
Smart cities are greatly dependent on data gained from the sensors, buildings, social media and other systems. However, in order to make the most out of this data, citizens should be part of the improving process rather than solely being the end user of these services. [1] This highlights the importance of open data and the contributions of the citizens to develop smarter cities that create a better ecosystem to live in.
The great size of data that comes along with smart cities pose many challenges to both the government and the citizens. One of the most debated areas is how the highly available data will invade citizen’s privacy. Therefore, the need for leaders who can “interpret and use the data wisely” is urgent. [4] In addition, this portrays how the democracy and governing leaders will be affected as well. “Smart cities will need leaders who have the courage to defend their data, say what it means and establish it as a truth upon which cities make decisions.” [4]
It’s easy for us to change our light bulbs, switches, door lock and buy a hub with a personal assistant because the number of smart devices we need are limited to an extent. However, building smart cities requires devices and sensors on a much larger scale. The amount of sensor needed in order to gather data from across the city and for multiple purposes is harder than it seems. Let alone producing billions of sensors, the ability to power them is a great challenge. According to Hatem Zeine, it’s impossible to manufacture and keep track of 1 trillion batteries needed for the estimated 1 trillion sensors that will be produced until 2020. That’s why he proposes wireless power to solve the major issue on powering a smart city. [4]
Another issue is “interoperability” [2]. It’s similar to the case where we have many IoT devices at our house but not all of them can connect to each other, can be operated by the same mobile app or same personal assistant. There are many different data sources that could be used to improve smart cities, like the city’s own sensors, crowdsourcing and social media. Therefore, the need for a common platform will continue to increase in order to allow access all data possible. [2]
As smart cities start to spread out around the world, our criteria of living standards, quality of life, vacation spots and livable cities will change. Just like Wi-Fi being a major determinant in choosing restaurants, cafes, hotels etc., smart cities will be the next Wi-Fi that will be an inseparable part of our lives. We’re only at the beginning of this change, the best is yet to come.
References:
- Celino, Irene, and Spyros Kotoulas. “Smart Cities [Guest editors’ introduction].” IEEE Internet Computing6 (2013): 8-11.
- Minerva, Roberto. “How and Why Smart Cities Can Use IoT to Wow Tourists.” Engadget. IEEE Standards Association, 09 Dec. 2016. Web. 20 July 2017.
- Totty, Michael. “The Rise of the Smart City.” The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 16 Apr. 2017. Web. 19 July 2017.
- Zeine, Hatem. “The Problems With Smart Cities.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 19 June 2017. Web. 20 July 2017.
- “Smart and Connected Communities.” IEEE Transmitter. N.p., 13 Apr. 2017. Web. 19 July 2017.
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11 comments on “Level Up: Smart Cities”
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I have been working on cross-platform mobile application development for my previous internships. I am a member of the Society of Women Engineers, I was chosen as a Future Leader and participated in their FL'17 program.
Great post, Romi! IOT certainly has had a great impact on various aspects of our lives, and the speakers this week touched on automotive and smart home applications, so it was interesting to read about another way it is impacting us. I have seen parking sensors in various spots across the Bay Area, but your example of Kansas City implementing sensors to track traffic and parking combined with data processing capabilities can have huge implications for retailers, consumers, and city planners. It is interesting to think of how fast we have progressed as technology has become more advanced, and to think of all the future problems that could be solved as technology progresses even further especially with the rise of AI/machine learning. Combining the data collected from sensors and connected devices with advanced processing will be monumental to tackle the biggest issues!
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Hi Romi,
Thank you for your post and sharing.
Smart City is definitely one of the main focus for government around the world. In where I live, government recently conducted a study for formulating a smart city blueprint for Hong Kong with the end goal of using innovation and technology to address urban challenges.
The suggestions include developing intelligent transport systems to provide real-time information on traffic conditions, installing a multi-purpose touch screen which shows news, weather conditions, estimated time of bus arrival and bus occupancy at major bus stops, and integrating monitoring systems for available parking spaces with a mobile app to provide real-time information on parking space vacancy.
With government opening more data for the public, private companies and start-ups can create useful applications. The collaboration between government and private companies will bring the city into a smart city.
References
http://www.ejinsight.com/20170707-pwc-identifies-three-ideal-sites-for-smart-city-pilot-projects/
MS&E 238-A student
Fung Tsz Sum
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Thank you for sharing information about your own city and your take on this topic.
As I also live in a crowded city (Istanbul), I found it very interesting to see how the applications you mentioned would impact the hectic everyday life. Especially transport is an essential area since it is very time and energy consuming in our daily routine.
I haven’t previously thought about the contributions of private companies and start-ups, but your comment made me realise this collaboration could be the start of a revolution and might speed up the transition into smart cities exponentially.
A Nice article illustrating the examples of how several countries are utilizing IoT to help improve health care, traffic information, and travel information. I believe that one of the challenges for IoT is security. Here, I want to share more information about IoT and my opinion about it. On the one hand: as more and more intelligent devices are interconnected, they are exchanging information to millions of online devices. And as there are different standards for this type of devices, many of them are vulnerable to attack. In one of the studies conducted by HP: 70% of IoT devices are vulnerable to attack. [1] And also, for some of these devices, because they are connected to the Internet, hackers may use these smart devices to attack more devices on the Internet. Besides the attack from the outside, there are also privacy issues. Devices are collecting image or audio information from us, and these data may contain some private information. [2] On the other hand, home based IoT devices are providing a lot convenience for customers. Now, you could close your curtain, brow your coffee by just calling the Siri on your phone. So overall, in my opinion, there will be trending amount of home IoT devices. And there’s the need to establish a universal standard to provide the same communication and security standards.
References:
[1]: HP Study Reveals 70 Percent of Internet of Things Devices Vulnerable to Attack. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2017, from http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press-release.html?id=1744676#.WXJ4lcaZMkU
[2]: Privacy concerns in smart cities. (n.d.). Retrieved July 21, 2017, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X16300818
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Thank you for enriching the post with your contribution. It is very important to highlight the vulnerability of the IoT devices. I strongly support your claim that there should be security standards to prevent cyber attacks.
Thanks for your blog post!
Silicon Valley hosted the first Smart City Week in May, and here are a few startups that have helped cities and businesses win honors during the conference attended by city leaders around the U.S. This year’s conference theme is open data and community action, which is very in tune with what we have been discussing in class and in guest lectures.
1. LocalIntel is a startup that is helping municipalities use their own open data promote local business and job growth and share market intelligence. [2] It is affordable to the government and requires very minimal extra technology specialists to be able to integrate their platform on government’s website.
2. Aerostate provides air quality analysis and 4 day forecast of air quality data, visualized as a dynamic heat map and distributed through API and as SaaS. It is intended for users of mobile apps and IoT platforms and are helping governments and businesses understand better than ever the air quality conditions in their communities.
Reference:
1. http://na.smartcitiescouncil.com/article/startups-helping-cities-and-businesses-thrive-win-honors-smart-cities-week
2. http://www.localintel.co/
3. https://aerostate.io/
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Thank you for your great contribution!
I am glad you shared your knowledge about this conference and its outline. Since smart cities are fast progressing, it carries high importance to be up to date on recent projects and new start-ups. The two start-ups you mentioned seem to be very promising. Especially Aerostate looks at the smart city issue from another perspective, taking into consideration the pollution, which directly affects our health.
Thanks for an interesting read!
In my view, it will be interesting to see how consumers will react to the privacy concerns related to the proliferation of IoT devices (smart home devices and otherwise). It seems most consumers in the younger generations are unconcerned by data privacy issues when they relate to online services for which the price is data. One can speculate that this is because what happens online is perceived to be detached from what’s going on “in real life”. But how will consumers react when companies are not only able to gather information about your online behavior but also your offline behavior? One could argue that consumers would feel more creeped out by companies knowing how long they shower or how often they go to the toilet (which can be achieved with smart metering and sub metering) than by companies knowing, say, their political opinion. And if this is the case, the proliferation of IoT (including smart home and smart city tech) might be slowed down unless companies find a balance between data collection and “avoiding creepy”. See this link for more info on “creepiness” in data collection: https://iapp.org/media/presentations/14Academy/A.CSA14_Understaning_Creepy_PPT1.pdf
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Hi Romi, thank you for this inspiring post!
One of the most interesting point of your article for me was the privacy issue. Indeed, do people want to sacrifice their privacy and provide a huge amount of personal data to improve their quality of life? That is even more crucial to find the answer to this question since, as you said, people must contribute to the effort in order to make smart cities a reality…
The post also made me think of another central aspect needed to develop smart cities: the velocity of data transmission. Indeed, John Donovan insisted on the need to improve transmission speed -today it is mostly transmission from the cloud servers-, since some technologies need this higher velocity. And I think that this is particularly true while considering smart cities!
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Great post! The IoT has huge potential for smart cities, as well as in the home, but one thing that needs to be taken very seriously is the security of ‘systems of systems’. As was discussed in the talk on Friday, the traditional defence of a perimeter firewall is no longer satisfactory, given the connectivity of the IoT. Modern approaches around ‘damage limitation’ (i.e. making it hard for the hacker to do too much damage once they are in) may not sound as appealing as they imply that firewall penetration is inevitable, but they are essential, because unfortunately with the IoT, it is becoming inevitable!
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