Imagine a city equipped with technology that enables the visually impaired to recognise people, places or even bank notes, helping them to live more independently whether indoors or in a public place. That’s the promise of so-called smart cities, which use things like internet-connected devices and artificial intelligence to improve services and the quality of life for their residents.
BICSI, the Security Industry Association (SIA) and TIA share a common goal of moving to more efficient security systems to reduce risks and protect soft targets. This article details security advancements since 2013 and looks at the latest technology trends including sensor diversity, object recognition-driven AI an how ICT is championing smart city development.
For the vision of the smart city to be fully realised, there are challenges that need to be overcome. One of the most pressing is around security. Perhaps the question isn’t whether or not security is a concern, but rather whether or not security is being effectively addressed within the cohesive ecosystem of the smart city, and how this is defined.
Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on solutions for Smart Cities. The Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 interesting examples out of 274 relevant solutions.
The connected campus is the proving ground for smart cities. Hardly confined to higher education, connected campuses include medical and technology parks as well as corporate campuses and airports that are miniature smart cities. In addition to highly connected workspaces, smart campuses such as those owned by Google and Apple include childcare, sports and recreational facilities, cafeterias, health-care facilities and smart transportation systems.
As Smart Cities gain traction, there are some shining examples of possibility. However, 99% of the existing buildings in any city remain dumb. Addressing the intelligence level of the majority of buildings is the key to creating smart, clean, and human-centric urban environments. New solutions are evolving to address this problem. The smart building retrofit offering is evolving rapidly to serve the needs of all kinds of buildings. Approaching its 90th birthday, the Empire State Building in New York has been retrofitted with advanced technologies, achieving a 38% reduction in energy consumption. Younger buildings are registering significantly higher savings, with minimal installation costs, as retrofit technology is designed for common legacy systems.
Most people think of 5G as a new wireless service for faster smartphones, but it is also a medium that enables a city to become smarter. In the future, cities will use new applications and the Internet of Things (IoT) to enrich the lives and safety of their residents and visitors. In fact, citizens and visitors will experience new, 5G-enabled technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and autonomous vehicle applications by using smartphones in their daily lives. They will demand these technologies from cities as well. We’ll see an increasing expectation for integration of technology into city services and capabilities.
The Finnish capital of Helsinki is currently in the process of proving that digitalization can minimize the waste of time and resources as well as improve productivity and growth. An early adopter of smart city technology and modeling, it launched the Helsinki 3D+ project to create a three-dimensional representation of the city using reality capture technology provided by the software company Bentley Systems for geocoordination, evaluation of options, modeling, and visualization.
Real estate investment trust Bleutech Park Properties announced plans for a $7.5 billion project in the Las Vegas Valley that will showcase a range of smart city technology, from autonomous vehicles to internet of things (IoT) devices to smart buildings with “self-healing concrete.” The project will break ground in December and is projected to take six years to complete.
A new market report even predicts that the global smart cities market will reach $237.6 billion by 2025, which is an 18.9% growth from 2019 to 2025. The benefits are clear: more efficient homes and buildings and improved mobility in cities, among others. The concept is good, although does present a few challenges. Looking beyond the cost, smart city implementation also requires a systemic approach.
