Smarter Cities
Seeding the City - a plan for greening the urban experience - is the latest large scale public art project by artist Eve S. Mosher. Mosher says this project is all about POTENTIAL -potential for community action, potential for more green roof, potential for change. These are small green modules (less than four square feet), but they get people thinking about environmental issues.
Develop a common web environment in which those with needs and those with resources can be matched based on location. Deploy Kioski through out cities to facilitate this and citizen access to eGovernmnet applications.
Philip Mullins, gdchallenge
How does this IDEA make sense?
In the power crisis nation like INDIA it is very essential to cut the power consumption as far as possible, this would save power for the future generation and cut costs for the customers, hence the big companies like IBM who’s main motto is to make our planet SMARTER can put a full stop to this problem in at least in our offices across our country.
The main Idea is to make the power consuming in Lifts as less as possible. Because during peak hours the lifts will be busy but during the usual hours the lights and the fans inside the lift will be in ON status, which consumes power with no purpose, it is a waste of power over there, Hence we should stop this power wastage in lifts across our branches and make our office work smarter.
How does it work?
The equipments used here will be mainly Sensors (proximity), when people enter into the lift this sensor will sense the object (person) and immediately the lights and the fan will ON. It is the choice of the Employee to OFF the fan if he need it or not and when there are no Person inside the lift the lights and the fans will be off so that we can save power to a maximum extent, this is what i feel.
we can save upto 20% of power annually by having this practice and applying this SMART technology in our office.
Advantages
1.The major advantage in investing this technology is we can reduce power consumption to a maximum extent, Hence the cost of power that IBM is paying for the power companies can be reduced.
2.In practice of making the planet SMARTER, we can make our offices more smarter than other offices across globe
3.Since we are running shortage of Power especially in INDIA, having the moral responsibility of saving our planet against exploitation of Natural resources and we being a part of that usage we should take that responsibility to cut the usage of those resources as much as possible so that we can leave it to next generation.
Ashwin Murthy#gdchallenge
Recently a traffic junction on my drive home was changed from a roundabout (traffic circle or rotary) to a set of traffic lights. Sitting at this junction every day I am convinced the old road layout moved everyone through quicker, but who listens to me? I only pay for the road and use it daily.
What I would like as a road user (cyclists, walkers, bus users etc also to be included) is to be able to have a real input into road changes. Currently I can visit the city offices and view large charts displaying proposed changes and make a submission. Realistically this is never going to gather very much input from road users. Software like Arcady is currently used by many planners, couldn’t these be developed further to interact with the public?
A smarter city will go further than fancy websites though. It will actively look for my input. It will show me the thinking behind road changes, ask me what I think or how I would do it differently.
My journey is one of multiple junctions, each effecting the other. Is anyone looking at everyone’s full journeys and crunching the numbers? Currently junctions on main routes are seen as connected when planning traffic flow - but the real picture for most journeys is way more complicated. I’d like my smarter city to listen to my car, tracking my journeys; telling me quicker routes, telling me what they are learning from my route and how that effects their planning; asking me to explain behavior that doesn’t seem logical but may make sense to me (I like driving past farms rather than industry for example).
Urban driving is a world-wide experience. We could do this better. Reduce journey times and fuel consumption, improve the road user experience for all involved. Harness the data that is out there and use cloud computing to crunch it up and make some better plans. A city that listens and learns from us. A smarter city.
Patrick Connolly, #gdchallenge
A Smarter way of ordering cuisines in Hotel’s and Restaurants can be adopted using this smarter technology known as “order Management Application” Which actually an application that helps the customers to place order’s and paying of bills in a smarter way.
How does this IDEA make sense?
1.People can save Time to certain Extent being sitting idle in Hotels.
2.A smarter way of ordering and paying of bills can be adopted which makes our city smarter.
3.People don’t have to wait for a long time in ordering and at the same time for the order to come, which can be reduced using this smarter technology.
4.The menu which the hotel folks use can be made to work in a smart way.
5.A Smarter way of serving can be adopted in hotels through which the smarter hotels can be customized to work in such manner.
How does it work?
1.As i said an application should be developed which comprises of the info about the cuisines.
2.On each table a small TOUCH LCD screen and a card swiping machine can be installed through which the customers can order cuisines through TOUCH LCD Screen and the Chef has to only take an order in the kitchen and finally serve the recipe to the customer.
3.The application should be developed in such a way that it should not only give the info about the list of cuisines available but should also specify the costs of the cuisines, so that the customers knows the actual costs
4.A provision should be provided in an application so that,When the customer orders for the cuisine (which can be one or more than one).he should be able to make payment at the same point of time by swiping his credit card through the swiping machine installed in the same table.
Ashwin Murthy #gdchallenge
Having trouble to find a parking space within a parking garage?
Especialy in dark or undergound garage, it hard to find a free space for your car.
Would it be nice to escort by a light path of led`s right to the free space. This will save time, full, money and less polution in the air.
This al can be done by led`s, sensors and rfid.
Another advantage is that you, once parked, can tag this space on your mobil to find you car back.
All can be done with less power consuption using solars panels outside the building because the led`s do not consume much
City Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
(but could be everywhere in the world in a growded city)
#gdchallenge Ed Landman
People keep on waiting for buses with lot of time wasting over there,They are not able to gauge the time at which the bus would arrive,They are unsure whether the bus which is coming in a couple of minutes would go to their respective destination or not.
By implementing this idea
1.We can save time waiting in bus stops to some extent.
2.A smarter way of commutation is possible.
3.The information becomes very handy in every man who have mobile and a internet connection available in that.
4. As people can know the approximate timings, they can accomplish some other work in that time, which is smarter way of utilizing time as well.
Working of an idea
We can have an application installed in operating system based mobile(windows etc..) giving info about
1.The list of buses coming to that bus stop in next “X” hours
2.The approximate time at which the bus would arrive to the bus stop
3.The bus numbers and the destination info on their mobile using that application.
Implementation of Idea
1.The State government should install the GPS system in every bus.
2.They should maintain a database which constitutes the data about the Bus numbers, the Route, and the approximate
time they reach each destination.
3.The bus stops should be customized to support this technology like:
.Installing Displays in bus stops which gives info about the things mentioned above when the passengers come to bus stops.
4.The mobile companies can develop an application which gives an info about all those things mentioned.
5.In INDIA as people rely more on Government buses this would be a better option.
6. The application that is installed in only operating system based phones can be made compatible to be installed on non-operating system based phones using suitable technology.
7.It can be used in foreign countries also to commute in a smarter way.
Ashwin Murthy
Emergency vehicles are slowed or even stopped due to vehicles not moving out of the way. But if emergency vehicles entered their route it could communicate with OnStar, GPS devices, cell hones and broadcast “more right, emergency vehicles approaching from rear.”
Art Bjornson#gdchallenge
Accidents are quite common in India. The statistical studies shows that there were 3.9lakhs in 2000; 78,911 were killed and 3,99,265 injured. Annually 80000 people die in India in traffic crashes.
The main aim of this model, Accident Avoidance & Detection System is to provide driver safety instructions in highway and restricted areas.
This can be done by playing a pre-recorded samples of an audio or intelligent enough to warn the driver during near apparent collisions, display the parameters such as speed, throttle, brake drum heat, wear out & tear out of tyre on front window. In restricted areas such as schools, colleges, hospitals, the device should lock the speed to 40km/hr. The device should co-ordinate with other vehicle system infrastructure so that accidents can be avoided. It should also read road-side equipment like sign board and automatically lock speed and horn in restricted areas. In each event, measure paramters such as speed,throttle,brake drum heat, fuel usage and wear out & tear out of tyre.
The model resembles intelligent vehicle mechanism, while on the other hand reducing accidents.
Jagath Suresh,#gdchallenge
we often come across situation where in we’ll be needed “BLOOD” very badly, the first thing we do is we ask the hospital officials to ask that blood group in near blood banks but in case if we dont find there then actually the problem begins.
So we need to develop an application and database wherein the hospitals can find the relevant blood banks with that blood group.Even the blood banks should use this application to update the available blood group at that time or update every hour and obviously it should be made accessible over internet also.This would at-least minimize the tension of patient beloved ones.
This would also make searching of blood banks more easier and in a more convenient way and more smarter way.
I think this idea would work more effective way in INDIA, because most of the hospitals wont be having the inbuilt blood banks.
Bangalore, INDIA Ashwin Murthy#gdchallenge
I live in city where tourism is an important activity. Many of the primary sites and locations are commonly known, but the secondary points of interest are more difficult to find. My concept and idea is to create a GPS locating system which provides feedback based on the location of the person(s) GPS. For example, consider if you are sitting at a corner, the GPS would prompt you that 2 blocks to the left is historical site XYZ, and 4 blocks to the right is historical site QRS, and 8 blocks ahead is historical site ABC.
The complexity of this is providing a newer version of a GPS, which provides feedback to location points. The best part of this project is that the GPS unit could be funded by commercial businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, shops ( yeah those terrible tourist traps), and transportation points. This could also be much larger than a single city! If you had one of the properly equipped GPS/Transponder units, if you were traveling long distance on the interstate, and it was late at night, perhaps hotels with empty rooms at 11:00PM could adverstise a special low price helping the hotel to fill empty capacity, or a resturant could provide specific ‘specials’ to get traveler into their business.
The Interactive GPS units would be provided free by the advertisers, and the infrastructure would be provided by business subscriptions. Tourist locations would pay a fee, or be supported by local businesses advertising. The possibilities are endless of interactive GPS!
Edward Johnson
I wake up in intelligence home which is run by IBM softwares and hardwares. Vibrating alarm clock displays the day’s schedule from a touch button abled display. I can cancel or make a new appointment etc. in IBM Notes which is visible in PDA or other mobile device. When checking the daily emails with Notes on thinkpad, I can put the tv/stereos/MP3 and loudspeakers on with the touch of a button and select the right music.
When entering the work, I can see from the bus stop the next coming bus schedule. I use my electric passport what I use in workplaces when entering different rooms and record my lunch for fees. I know that the fee of public transport usage will be automatically charged from my personal bank account. During the day I need to visit the doctor. All the health records are accessible when I show my Personal ID card, the doctor views the sick history from the very secure database in Cloud computing storage what hospital uses. After doctor I quick message to my friend with my PDA device for the lunch. I can search from the Accessibility site via PDA a nice noiseless lunch restaurant which is equipped with assistive listening devices for hearing aid users. I can make a table reservation and order the food in advance with the PDA, so I can sit down and get the lunch faster.
After work I get a SMS to my mobile that public transportations are on strike. I send a new SMS and order a taxi. Taxi comes within few minutes as the call goes to the nearest available taxi.
Post office did send earlier an email where informed a very important letter which needs to be picked up and the code for achieving. After taxidrive I pick up the delivery from the Post office and verify it who am I with the mobile phone code.
Shopping list was sent in advance at work via email to the nearest grocery. I pick up my things and paid them with the mobile phone payment which decreases the bank account.
At home I get a very unclear phonecall. Due of hard of hearing, I am not able to follow the speaker at the phone. I put the display on and see the speakers saying, it worked with automatic speech recognizing software. I speak with the caller normally and see what he is speaking from the display.
During leisure time when watching television, all the domestic programs are captioned automatically which helps me to follow the programs as I can’t fully hear what’s all about.
Before sleeping under the blanket I click the button which back-closes the main door of my flat, closes watertaps, closes electrical devices (tv, stereos, lamps, kitchen heaters) and sets the burglar alarm on. If an alarm comes, I wake up when my bed vibrates.
Perhaps all this is true some day.
Markku Kunnas from Finland IBM , Helsinki
This can apply to all cities globally that have smartphone infrastructures, or web access.
Maintain a central city site where a any citizen can vote on common infrastructure failures to fix, based on photo posts of failures or problems discovered by those traversing the neighborhood. This could show a display, based on geography, of various infrastructure items in differing states of disrepair, such as a destroyed curb that people are tripping over, a sewer grate that is damaged and not allowing water to flow, a damaged light pole, etc.. The list of reportable objects is limitless. Once reported, and when others vote to repair the object, a city worker, or contractors can automatically be dispatched to perform the repair.
Nicholas Karels, #gdchallenge
Chicago, IL. USA.
Combining techniques, technologies and processes that are - individually - in place today, cities and indeed states and countries can remove congestion and pollution from urban and in particular inner city areas:
By combining all of these concepts into a single smart transport solution, cities could truly reduce congestion and pollution while at the same time providing the citizens and visitors an inexpensive, fast and environmentally way of moving through the city. Here are a few scenarios:
Portsmouth, RI, USA
Marcus Umbach #gdchallenge
I have seen traffic signs that allows commuters to use two lanes heading towards downtown in the morning, and open two lanes in the afternoon heading towards the other direction. I have seen traffic light that stays green longer in one direction, during a certain time of the day. I have also seen electronic traffic signs that can be controlled remotely.
Now, what if all traffic signs in a heavily commuted area are all electronic? Signs that can be turned on and off. Signs that can be changed, from turn left to turn right sign, to speed limit, or to stop sign. What if all the signs are controlled and monitored by a clever software that optimize the traffic flows in the area? Commuters could be directed to avoid traffic jam, by re-routing that flow of the traffic, slow down the traffic. Traffic jam could even be avoided completely.
What if the software is also connected to other warning systems, such as police, firefighters, and so on. Flooded area, area closed due to fire, and others could be avoided by changing the traffic signals.
Most navigation systems has traffic jam warning, but not everyone has navigation systems. Radio tells us where the traffic jams are, but every commuters on the street know how to avoid them.
The smartly integrated, electronic traffic signs are the law. It is applicable to all traffic users. It can be avoid traffic jam before it becomes one.
Martin Hadinata (martin_hadinata@ch.ibm.com) #gdchallenge
There is a very long history in China for more than 5,000 years. The old country is trying to re-build its image of one of the engines in the world. To integrate historical culture with modern technology, China government and enterprises are building integrated parks (former development zones) in every city.
The park is small than town and cities, but it is a whole new design with all modern technologies for enterprises and rich citizens. A better management and services qualities are expected by park owners than traditional municipal utility services.
GTS China team is focusing on build smart parks based on IBM’s smart planet solutions. A sensor networks and other wireless networks will be deployed in parks to integrate the sensors for utilities, atmosphere, water and other public services. Vehicles and services equipment will also be monitored by its location in real time. Services persons will get tasks from dispatchers and they will also be dispatched by real-time location.
The networks will be managed through a set of pre-defined smart rules for a better services level. A smart command center with support of workflow, geographic information system and some business intelligence will be in charge of the automation works in the Park. A set of wireless bulletin board plus mobile phone messages will be introduced for 2-way interactions within the park.
There is a pilot case deployed in Daxing, Beijing China for a TV media producing parks. All cameras, TV producers, audience will guided to its expected destinations with proper services. The project has produced over 10 smart workflow rules with a new sensor networks.
Park is small. But it is a transformation point of view for a traditional city in China. The new parks become smart will turn the whole historical country to be smart later. IBM could help.
Liu, Yaxiao (liuyx@cn.ibm.com) #gdchallenge
As the world’s systems become intelligent, how is the business of leading become smarter?
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- Live earthday webcast now: Columbia U. webcast on green skills http://bit.ly/cSMkWH #IBMSkills #sustainability about 8 hours ago
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City Mayors’ transport events pages list and review conferences, conventions and seminars on urban and regional transport including planning, management, integrated mobility, green and intelligent transport as well as public-private partnerships in transport. Check where you can get ideas about making transportation smarter!
Cities (above, Shanghai at night) store more carbon in their trees, buildings, and dirt than do dense tropical rain forests, a September 2009 study says.
This second film further develops the concept of smarter cities. Initially, the focus is on smarter healthcare and how as cities become increasingly populated, the way in which health and social care is administered must change. The second half of the film highlights the need for an educated workforce; in essence, smarter citizens will lead to the creation of a smarter city.
“Cities: Our journey to a smarter future”, check out the new IBM videos at: http://www.ibm.com/uk/cities
As most IT buildings are glass covered, photo voltaic cells can be installed and used to harness solar energy to generate and store electric power. Also spaces in complexes which are either not occupied or sunshades in parks etc can also be covered with photo voltaic cells to generate power and harness alternate energy.
Submitted by Arslan Mir M mohammir@in.ibm.com #gdchallenge
While walking near any building which is powered with central AC system for cooling, one can encounter quite big exhausts which blow out the hot ait at considerable speed.
This hot air should be redirected to run mini turbines which can be used to generate considerable electric power. This is a continuing cycle as hot air would always be emitted from exhausts as long as the Air conditioners are in use and would keep on powering generation of electricity.
Submitted by Arslan Mir M mohammir@in.ibm.com #gdchallenge
A new way of storytelling from IBM
[F]rom Kenya to Colombia to South Africa that cellphones are becoming the truly universal technology. They are the kind of places that have built cellphone towers precisely to leapfrog past the expense of building wired networks that have linked Americans for a century.
The number of mobile subscriptions in the world is expected to pass five billion this year, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a trade group. That would mean more human beings today have access to a cellphone than the United Nations says have access to a clean toilet.
Because it reaches so many people, because it is always with you, because it is cheap and shareable and easily repaired, the cellphone has opened a new frontier in global innovation.
” —Currents - The Triumph of the Ordinary Cellphone - NYTimes.com
…nice to see the mainstream finally picking up on this (cf Park Paradigm 2006…)
(via parkparadigm)
Planetizen is a public-interest information exchange provided by Urban Insight for the urban planning, design, and development community. It is a one-stop source for urban planning news, commentary, interviews, event coverage, book reviews, announcements, jobs, consultant listings, training, and more.
The Smart Principle and the Urban Digital Foundation In the Smarter X frenzy of 2009, it was very easy to skip over the word “Smarter” and not wonder exactly what it was doing there. Thinking about this late last year, I realized that we can in fact define a “Smart Principle” that assigns a very specific meaning to the work in this context.
Let’s start with an example. I am going to pick Road-Usage Charging (RUC) as an example of a Smart solution, but in fact there are many solutions that exhibit the principle I am going to describe. Here are some easy steps: * RUC systems are deployed to automate the collection of tolls for road segments, bridges, tunnels, and so forth. Local government like them because they are often sources of new revenue at relatively low cost. The business cases for these systems have very high ROI and the investment is often recovered in less than one year. RUC systems are relatively simple as IT systems. The basic challenge is to recognize vehicles as they pass through or under a gate. This can be based on an RFID device, e.g. the EZPass system on the east coast of the United States, or on license plate recognition, e.g. City of Stockholm, or a combination of the two, e.g. Singapore. This identification is mapped to an account and a charge transaction is made to the account. Not too difficult in principle.
However, what we have also created here is a stream of high resolution data on the movement of vehicles past well-defined locations in an urban area. Hundreds of thousands of touch points per day being generated free and mainly regarded as a kind of waste product from the business purpose of generating transactional charges. But there in information in that data and in 2007, the Singapore Land Transport Agency (LTA), which was an early adopter of RUC, asked IBM if that data could be used to predict incipient congestion in districts within the city. The mathematicians in IBM Research started looking at the data and although it did not provide complete coverage of the city, they were able to detect patterns of traffic density that are leading indicators for the onset of congestion. In fact, they were able to build predict models that with high accuracy give the city LTA as much as one hour of warning of the danger of congestion. An hour is sufficient time for the LTA traffic managers to change the timing of the traffic lights or to change the tolling for specific roads. The latter is a unique feature of the Singapore RUC.
So here is the Smart Principle: 1) A system is deployed, often for transactional purposes. 2) A free by-product of the system is a dense stream of data about some aspect of the real-world. 3) This stream of data contains information about critical insights on what is going on in the real-world that can be extracted, in “real-time”, by applying online analytical processing. 4) These insights enable the city managers to take better decisions about how to manage the operation of the city’s infrastructure. RUCs are a great example, but in fact there are many such systems for energy, transportation, buildings, public safety and many other areas of city management. This accumulation of such systems in many cities over recent years creates what I call the Urban Digital Foundation - that sea of data, free data, that we can now tap for a very broad understanding of how to build a Smarter City. This is not to say that we never need to install new sensors. Water in particular is a domain that is strongly under-instrumented.
See this IBM video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfEbMV295Kk) that describes a Smarter Planet view of the Internet of Things and illustrates this beautifully. The absence of this Urban Digital Foundation is what differentiates a potential Smarter City from others. In part it has to do with a rich communications infrastructure, but it largely has to do with the creation of these cost-free streams of data. When people challenge me sometime to suggest what we could do to help some of the sprawling mega-cities such as Calcutta, my response is that there is little we can do until this Urban Digital Foundation is established. Without data there is no Smarter City.
” —Le Chantier: The Smart Principle and the Urban Digital Foundation
Co-operative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems (CVIS), an integrated project financed in part by the EU’s Sixth Framework Program for Research and Technological Development, presented extensive demonstrations in and around Amsterdam March 23-26 at the Cooperative Mobility Showcase. Over 60…
CONSERVATION OF ENERGY – need of the hour
The law of conservation of energy states that energy may neither be created nor destroyed. Therefore the sum of all the energies in the system is a constant. When whole earth is considered as a system and integrated within itself, then the law of conservation of energy applies to our whole little planet earth. This put us in trouble that we are spared only with whatever energy is left with. The future option relies on the renewable energy when the energy source from the fossil based is deteriorating. But also remember the Sun which is only source of energy to our earth.
To conserve energy there are three aspects can be adapted in the three broad segment of consumption namely domestic, industries and commercial. The limelighter abbreviations for these arenas are LED, EFB and VFD respectively.
LED (LIGHT EMITING DIODE) - domestic
Although the talk of the town is on LED TVs, LED technology in illumination and lighting flood to a larger extend since lighting load has major contribution in domestic energy consumption. LEDs have many advantages over incandescent light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved robustness, smaller size, faster switching and greater durability and reliability.
VFD (VARIABLE FREQUENCY DRIVE) - industry
Even a small industry cannot be imagined without an electrically operated motor. In the aspect of conservation of energy, the power consumption of these motors is dog-watched. VFD Drive Technology on the motors can save over 30% in energy cost. In recent years, the technology of AC variable frequency drives (VFD) has evolved into highly sophisticated digital microprocessor control, along with high switching frequency IGBTs (Insulated Gate Bi Polar Transistors) power devices.
EFB (eco-friendly building) – commercial
Including the new Secretariat Building of Tamilnadu, shopping complex, IT Park, food mall and many corporate office buildings are now eco-friendly. Eco-friendly buildings are like green houses for human. These buildings have huge savings, better health and performance, besides cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions. It can be done without sacrificing personal comfort. In fact, the gains are not only in terms of energy savings but also in terms of overall health and employee performance. According to The Energy and Research Institute (Teri), using energy efficient building, emissions can be reduced by 40 percent. Buildings use over 30 per cent of global energy today. By 2050 they are projected to go beyond 38 per cent, emitting 3,800 mega tonnes of more carbon.
As energy conservation is directly related to low carbon emissions, the need of the hour is to save the hours left to our future generations’ survival on our planet earth.
Reo on Chennai (INDIA)
#gdchallenge
By Samuel Palmisano | NEWSWEEK
“…. the most important locus for 21st-century innovation—technological, economic, and societal—will be our cities. They present the most promising opportunity to make our planet smarter.
Cities bring together the systems by which our world works: education, transportation, public safety, and health care, among others.
We have the capacity to inject new intelligence into those systems. Enormous computational power can be delivered in forms so small and inexpensive that it is being put into phones, cars, and appliances, as well as things we wouldn’t recognize as computers, such as roadways (to monitor traffic) or rivers (to monitor pollution and better allocate water use). The data captured by these digital devices—soon to number in the trillions—will be turned to intelligence, because we now have the processing power and advanced analytics to make sense of it all.”
