Smart Cities: Securing the Neighborhoods
As we continue moving towards making sense of data and using it to develop and harness sensors and connectivity, the question of security is raised. How can all these new technologies help in making our lives more secure? Aside from smart home applications, we want to see how the IoT will completely transform smart cities.
How can IoT secure Smart Cities?
A few years back in 2016, the city of Detroit in the United States reported a reduction of their crime rate by a 50% with the launch of various initiatives such as Project Green Light. The project consisted in installing cameras in certain strategic locations and assigning police officers to track the footage of the cloud-based video surveillance equipment. The result? It helped officers catch criminals right after and improved the search for suspects. It also allowed them to identify and track criminal patterns to work on crime prevention.
Now 3 years later and with technology advancing at higher speeds, the solutions have broadened. This past January, at the CES conference, many interesting IoT products were on display that included flying taxis - yes! Now, since we're on the topic of safety, here are some innovative solutions in IoT that are meant to reduce crime and secure our lives.
Connected Lamp Posts
In August of 2018, Hong Kong installed lamp posts that are connected to a wifi network to "enable real-time collection of city data, such as weather, air quality, temperature, people and/or vehicle flow related information, for city management and the support of various applications of smart city initiatives." Aside from improving lighting and providing important updates about traffic and weather, these sensors also serve as wifi hotspots.
Communication for Traffic Safety
The talk about improving vehicle-to-vehicle communication to reduce traffic accidents have advanced. Here's a video that shows how V2V could potentially save a life.
Gunshot Detection with IoT
The police in Colorado have been testing an IoT-powered gunshot detection solution: " a network of acoustic sensors that detects when a shot is fired, pinpoints the location of the gunfire and immediately notifies police"
This technology aims to accelerate the response of the police when gunshots are fired and also to deter criminals from pulling the trigger.
Many smart cities are focusing the use of IoT on infrastructure, but public safety is also a big concern that needs to be addressed. We look forward to witnessing continuous innovation in this sector as well as others that can help advance our society.