If the smart home is the face of the IoT for most consumers (and it is), then smart cities are going to be the IoT’s heart and circulatory system. In a fully smart city, almost all aspects of citizens’ lives will be touched by the IoT.
Energy, information, transportation and services will all be informed by M2M devices and personalized through sensor nets and intelligent analytics of big data sets about activity and needs. To accomplish this ubiquity, comprehensive solutions will need to be deployed through municipalities. Cities all over the world are starting to see this, and are beginning programs for implementation, including Brussels, Chicago and London.
According to studies by Gartner, IDC (News - Alert) and others, Asia is right now the area of biggest IoT growth, and that doesn’t exclude smart city technology. To capitalize on that Altiux, a technology services company recently unveiled a suite of new Smart City Solutions at IoT Asia 2015 in Singapore and smart cities India Expo 2015 in New Delhi.
The solutions include connected parking and street lighting technology, designed to address problems with parking space shortages and lighting energy management.
“Our Smart City solutions address needs of equipment manufacturers, city administrators as well as end-users. We leverage our expertise and technology portfolio in IoT to solve problems around scale, security and reliability typically required for such solutions,” said Shyam (News - Alert) Vedantam, CEO, Altiux Innovations. “We are also partnering with leaders in communication and semiconductor technology to jointly take our solutions and services to global markets.”
As awareness and opportunities around Industry 4.0 and Digital Cities increase, Altiux is enlisting technology innovators and pioneers to take the lead on developing new solutions and participating in building viable ecosystems for IoT business growth, the company said in a release.
It is important to devise a targeted strategy for growing smart cities, beginning with solving ground-level challenges like parking, public transportation and street light management. Perhaps the next step is tube travel.