Fitness tracker for a city?
Indeed. It’s called the Array of Things, or AoT.
Kindly elaborate…
Well, we’re talking about an “urban sensing” project, where a chain of interactive, modular sensor boxes placed on light poles will monitor, photograph and ‘listen’ to the city. Sounds like a unique experiment? That’s exactly what Chicago is doing by deploying nearly 500 such ‘robots’ in and around the city. The Internet of Things (IoT) project — a collaborative effort of researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory, University of Chicago, and a few companies — is likely to cost $7 million and will be complete in 2018. Urban Studies experts say this could be the largest urban data collection of its kind.
Fine, but what will these little robots do?
These nodes will gather real-time data of Chicago’s environment, infrastructure and activity for research and public use. The AoT will measure factors that affect livability such as climate, air quality and noise. In essence, it will become the city’s fitness tracker.
How exactly do they operate?
The nodes look like beehives, and have an array of sensors with computing powers. They process data on the device itself. A camera in the node will track pedestrians and vehicles. It will scan how people walk; how cars move; how congestion forms on the road; and so on. The camera can even see if there is water pooling on the street. Another camera will probe the sky, while a microphone will check noise levels.
Interesting...
Also, there are sensors that measure temperature, pressure, light and even vibrations. While particle sensors spot pollen in the air, gas sensors test air quality and track pollutants. Even the magnetic field will be monitored.
So, what will happen to this pool of data?
It will be available in the public domain. You can check it out at OpenGrid.io portal once the city manages to place enough sensors, which is going to happen this fall. Chicago administration hopes businesses, community groups and other bodies in the city will “creatively use” the data and enhance quality of life.
Like how?
Sample the administration’s own efforts. It has a team of 17, including data scientists, business intelligence experts and database wizards who may use it for, say, ‘predictive analytics’.
Take traffic, for instance. Earlier, Chicago used to conduct spot surveys to measure traffic and pedestrian flows. Now, camera data (two photos a second) will help it continuously track movement at intersections and find ways to improve them. The administration expects that soon institutions will be able to use the data to control carbon emissions, adjust shifts based on traffic trends, modulate people movement based on environmental changes, and so on.
But aren’t there privacy concerns?
Authorities say surveillance of this kind is no privacy breach thanks to the on-board processing of data. The data will be analysed and junked automatically. The devices will auto-delete images every ten minutes or so.
The other data they transmit will reach a cloud-based server, which researchers will use for studies. That the data is available in the public domain helps ensure public scrutiny of its (mis)use. Now, other cities are keenly watching whether this mission will flower or fail based on which they will devise their own urban data programmes.
I’m sure India will have a lot to learn from such experiments.
Sure. Especially given the way the Centre is pushing its smart city plans. Urban data management using IoT is an area smart cities can ill afford to ignore. But, is the government listening?