https://www.iotworldtoday.com/wp-content/themes/ioti_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Galleries
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Video / Podcasts
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Strategic Partners
  • IOT World Events
    • Back
    • Internet of Things World: San Jose
    • IoT World 2020 News
Iot World Today
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Galleries
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Video / Podcasts
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Strategic Partners
  • IOT World Events
    • Back
    • Internet of Things World: San Jose
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • newsletter
  • IIoT
  • Cities
  • Energy
  • Homes/Buildings
  • Transportation/Logistics
  • Connected Health Care
  • Retail
  • AI
  • Architecture
  • Engineering/Development
  • Security
ioti.com

Smart Environments


Thinkstock

Image shows smart city concept and technologies.

Smart City Projects Still Driven by Single-Purpose IoT Deployments

Smart city projects are still most successful when they tackle discrete, sometimes isolated, city issues.
  • Written by Lauren Horwitz
  • 24th January 2020

Smart city initiatives are underway across the country. But they face funding and technology challenges. Many cities want to upgrade infrastructure to improve resident experience, safety and to generate revenue.

But modernization can be too costly without help from private companies.

Only about 16% of cities can self-fund their infrastructure projects. That prompts some to join forces with private companies to fund infrastructure projects such as smart streetlights, internet connectivity initiatives and smart parking meters. As a recent McKinsey report noted, public-private partnerships often involve distinct roles for both entities: cities are cast with the role of implementer, while private companies serve as investor.

 

[IoT World is North America’s largest IoT event where strategists, technologists and implementers connect, putting IoT, AI, 5G and edge into action across industry verticals. Book your ticket now.]

In San Leandro, California, for example, public-private partnerships have fueled various smart city initiatives.

Private dollars have enabled these projects to expand and even drive revenue for the city. But public-private partnerships can’t solve overcome the siloed nature of IoT technologies in action: That is, cities continue to struggle not only to identify smart city project funding but also to successfully extend smart-city projects beyond single-use IoT instances. [See Figure 1 from McKinsey and Co. “Smart cities: Digital solutions for a more livable future.”]

Still, the smart city market is growing at a clip.

The global population is set to reach $9.7 billion by 2050, two-thirds of which will live in cities, according to United Nations estimates. And the global smart cities market is expected to reach $237.6 billion by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 18.9% from 2019 to 2025, according to a May 2019 study conducted by Grand View Research Inc.

This growth, say experts, takes a segmented approach, with cities working on specific problems.

“We will continue to see more examples [of smart city applications],” said Jessica Groopman, industry analyst and founding partner at Kaleido Insights. “We will see vertical-specific applications in emerging applications in parking, lighting, energy and trash, for example.”

Expanding Connectivity Brings Revenue, Competition

This siloed approach reflects San Leandro’s experience.

San Leandro’s smart streetlighting project should be characterized as a success—with some caveats about the single-purpose IoT approach. The project upgraded streetlights to LED bulbs, which has saved the city millions in energy costs and reduced its carbon footprint. Via that project, the city also introduced IoT sensors, creating a 4,800-node mesh network with its streetlight infrastructure. In addition, they have positioned IP cameras at various intersections.

Sensors can help cities manage traffic flows and lighting, as well as improve pedestrian safety. Positioned cameras can also aid in investigations with vehicles involved in accidents or crime.

But, as Tony Batalla, the city’s chief technology officer noted, it has been difficult to extend beyond single uses cases for IoT sensors. “The [lighting] system isn’t built for applications to be attached to it. It requires a ton of software and hardware engineering [to add a new use case],” Batalla said. “What’s been challenging is broadening IoT networks beyond single use cases and expanding the use cases on that network. Now that we have a city-wide IoT network, what can you connect to it? What other sensors can you deploy?”

Batalla and his team have evaluated various areas where IoT might help the city—trash pickup, air quality, pool management and more. But, he said, it’s been challenging to identify a project that has enough momentum to garner funding and one where developers can develop an application for it on top of the existing IoT network. “That’s the hardest part,” Batalla said.

Experts agree that many smart city projects are still constrained by this single-purpose IoT approach.

“It’s going to be some time before we see that longer-term vision of everything is interconnected, municipal services, a platform of city data—we’re not there yet,” Kaleido Insight’s Groopman said.

Toward Multipurpose IoT

Some projects show the potential for multiple uses, however. The city installed cameras at some city intersections for transportation and is evaluating them for public safety, for example. These cameras can identify vehicles involved in accidents or even in crimes. Traffic cameras, another common use, take a snapshot of cars when they run a red light, and according to some data have reduced collisions by 30%.

Batalla said cameras also afford the opportunity to evaluate traffic patterns, see traffic flow in real time, and further reduce accidents and optimize flow.

In this way, cameras not only can be used in public safety but also helpoptimize traffic signal timing. That requires, as Batalla noted, city officials to use camera data to change traffic behavior.

“The really important thing is that you use that information to inform your policy decisions,” he said. “You change your program and change your signaling timing to reflect what is happening on the street in real-time. That’s where you start to see the value of smart city technology,” he said.

At the same time, Batalla acknowledged there are important privacy implications with cities’ use of cameras. (San Leandro has developed a policy to govern camera usage in the city.) The debate is particularly fervent concerning facial recognition technology.

A recent National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) study revealed that facial recognition software can suffer from racial bias; algorithms generate a higher rate of false positives for Asian and African-American faces relative to images of Caucasians—by a factor of 10 to 100 times.

As a result, some areas have moved to ban this potential privacy incursion. In October, California officials signed a temporary ban on police departments’ use of facial recognition with body cameras, and the city of San Francisco has banned law-enforcement use of the technology for privacy reasons.

Batalla noted that cameras in San Leandro have been for vehicle identification, but not facial recognition.

“There is no push for facial recognition technology today in San Leandro, so the city council is not banning it, but perhaps taking a wait-and-see approach,” he said. “We are more comfortable recommending cameras be strategically located around hotspots.”

Other technology trends, such as digital twins, may also help IoT break out of its single-use box.

A digital twin of a city intersection can depict signal timing, traffic flows and pedestrians in the crosswalk as well as other factors, such as CO emissions, temperature or other relevant factors.

The city of Palo Alto has a digital twin analyzing 120 intersections for vehicle and pedestrian traffic in real time. The digital twin visualizes traffic lights, foot traffic and so forth to identify traffic chokepoints and safety issues in real-time.

“You can monitor CO2, streetlight data, people data in a single pane of glass,” said Bill Pugh, co-founder and managing partner at Smart Connections Consulting, “Digital twins will be hugely prevalent in 2020.”

Ultimately, cities may be able to use tools such as digital twins to gather data for multiple smart city projects and kill several birds with one stone, with a tool that provides a view into several problems at one time. But, as Groopman noted, a unified approach to IoT deployment will take time.

Developing the IoT Network

Today, San Leandro also enlists public-private partnerships to develop its IoT network beyond single-purpose IoT applications. A planned upgrade—which Batalla dubs its “version 2.0 of the network”—will enable the city to deploy  applications for services such as water management, parking or energy efficiency without requiring excessive custom development.

The city works with its private developer partner, and he says, each have a role to play here as well. Ultimately, the city role is about delivering better resident experience.

“We’re not product innovators. We’re working with the product innovators—private companies—and saying here’s what we would like to see,” Batalla said. “And that in turn enables us to do service innovation.”

But today, experts say, the reality is that most IoT uses are segmented and vertical. City planners may want to approach smart city projects with a broad brush and tackle various city challenges, but the reality is they need to be laser focused in their approach.

“Move beyond viewing the IoT as a general technology wave by applying an industry lens to identify relevant use cases,” counseled Chet Geschickter, Gartner research director in a Gartner e-book on IoT deployment.

 

 

 

 

Tags: Strategy Internet of Things World 2020 Conference Coverage

Related


  • DeviceAuthority_healthcare-iot-001_1144x644
    Patient Health Data Is Increasingly Democratized--Despite Data Quality Issues
    People have access to more patient health data than ever generated by IoT and AI. But serious challenges have emerged with data quality and meaningful use of that data.
  • How to Build and Monetize an IoT Product
    IoT is no longer confined es it take to build an IoT product and successfully bring it to market?to connected vehicles and homes. In the last 5 years, almost a trillion dollars were spent by consumers on smart products, with an ROI for manufacturers of $400M. Potentially any consumer product can be made smart. In […]
  • Image of magnifying glass against chart background
    Analytics in Supply Chain Management Becomes Central As Coronavirus Escalates
    Analytics in supply chain management may be critical to mitigating inventory shortages and evaluating customer demand as coronavirus continues its global spread.
  • digital business agility
    Digital Business Agility Should Be Company Priority
    While digital transformation is an overused phrase, companies should focus on bringing agility to operations says an EY consultant. 

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your IoT World Today account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Content

  • Integrating Analog Controls into IIoT Systems
  • PwC Exec Shares Insights on Digital Transformation Strategy 
  • Enterprise AI Adoption Gathers Steam – Incrementally, Selectively
  • IoT Managed Services Mature, Despite Measured Enterprise Adoption

News

View all

Private LTE Market Projected to Grow to $13 Billion

12th January 2021

IoT World Announces 2021 IoT World Advisory Board

9th December 2020

White Papers

View all

Smart and Flexible Automotive and Tire Production

20th December 2020

Unlock the Potential of Digital Transformation in Oil & Gas

15th December 2020

Special Reports

View all

Cybersecurity Protection Increasingly Depends on Machine Learning

28th October 2020

Webinars

View all

From Insights to Action: Best Practices for Implementing Connected Device Security

15th December 2020

Real Cyber Threats and Best Practices Cyber Security Strategy and Solutions for Smart Manufacturing

1st December 2020

Galleries

View all

Top IoT Trends to Watch in 2020

26th January 2020

Five of the Most Promising Digital Health Technologies

14th January 2020

Industry Perspectives

View all

IoT Spending Holds Firm — Tempered by Dose of ‘IoT Pragmatism’

1st December 2020

The Great IoT Connectivity Lockdown

11th May 2020

Events

View all

IoT at the Edge

17th March 2021

Embedded IoT World 2021

28th April 2021 - 29th April 2021

IoT World 2021

2nd November 2021 - 4th November 2021

Twitter

IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

The DOD turned to #kubernetes #containers for #IoTdevelopment to brace for rapid change. dlvr.it/RqzsLz https://t.co/t8W7coEdZN

20th January 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Food for thought: Food and Beverage Industry eBook @ROKAutomation dlvr.it/Rqz00T https://t.co/Z3y18vuozF

20th January 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Facility of the Future dlvr.it/Rqyzvm https://t.co/ytpsOUTtGP

20th January 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

A new day in automotive production #digitalmanufacturingsolutions @ROKAutomation dlvr.it/RqyrNS https://t.co/yxPFrBZGVg

20th January 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Unlock the potential of digital transformation in Oil & Gas @ROKAutomation dlvr.it/RqyrBV https://t.co/kzHcGjf2OK

20th January 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

.@Airbus’s #datdriven #digitaltransformation focused on getting its existing data in order rather than just gatheri… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

19th January 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

#EdgeNLP enables devices to do much more #NLP locally that better approximates human conversation.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

19th January 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

#Supplychain analytics, #digitaltwins and other tools are key to predicting COVID-19-style disruption in the supply… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

18th January 2021

Newsletter

Sign up for IoT World Today newsletters: vertical industry coverage on Tuesdays and horizontal tech coverage on Thursdays.

Special Reports

Our Special Reports take an in-depth look at key topics within the IoT space. Download our latest reports.

Business Resources

Find the latest white papers and other resources from selected vendors.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IoT World Series
  • Channel Futures
  • RISC-V
  • Dark Reading
  • ITPro Today
  • Web Hosting Talk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Login/Register

FOLLOW IoT World Today ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X