From the category archives:
Rio de Janeiro has just launched a new data center that coordinates real-time data about the city and combines data feeds from 30 agencies. This IBM Smart City initiative was profiled over the weekend in a feature in The New York Times. The system includes video feeds from subway stations, detailed weather forecasting, and an [...]
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The China Earthquake Administration has just launched a new earth observation system to monitor the Earth’s crust. The GNSS-based system has a network of 260 full-time observing stations, and 2,000 part-time stations that closely monitor their positions and communicate those throughout the network. The project began in Dec. 2007, with a total cost of 524 [...]
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Following the success of Twine, there’s a new similar Kickstarter open hardware project called Ninja Blocks that has quickly received strong backing. The Ninja Block acts as a hub to connect you more closely with your life, alerting you to such actions on web apps as Tweets, Facebook posts, and whether your friends are playing [...]
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The Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto has added Don Tapscott as an MPI Fellow. Tapscott’s latest book, Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World, focuses on the effect of crowdsourcing and the connected world to change our institutions, and to revitalize our urban areas. The mission of the Martin Prosperity Institute “takes an integrated [...]
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The University of Maryland is partnering with Beijing Normal University to create the Joint Center on Global Change and Earth System Science that will develop tools to track climate change. The center will create an international remote sensing database, track land use and cover, in addition to monitoring agriculture. The agricultural work will focus on [...]
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There’s a new Wifi sensor node from Libelium can collect data from distributed wirelessly connected sensors and send that data to any web server on the cloud or any smartphone. This capability extends the possibilities of the Internet of Things as it adds easy extension of sensors networks using standard protocols such as HTTP. There [...]
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The Gates Foundation announced a series of grants today in Rome, including a $10 million grant to Conservation International for the creation of the Africa Monitoring System. This tracking and diagnostic system aims to holistically monitor agricultural productivity, ecosystem health, and human health with near-real-time and multi-scale data into an open-access online dashboard that policy [...]
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Ericsson, with their research focus on networked society, are the sponsor of a new documentary on Thinking Cities that looks at the role that cities play. The 15-minute video outlines the necessary approach to address the problems that we face. A cameo is given to Carlos Ratti of MIT’s Senseable Cities Lab, where he compares [...]
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We’ve long used sensors to track performance of networks, but the smart city that is comprised of a network of networks that inform and report on infrastructure is a relatively new concept that is taking hold. We’re seeing whole cities built around the concept of constant monitoring and feedback, with central control for increased efficiency. [...]
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SmartBin, an Ireland-based sensor system that monitors the fill levels of recycling containers, and Trimble, a Calif.-based positioning technology company, have teamed to combine sensors and location for more efficient solutions for the environmental services and recycling markets. The bin sensors will be coupled with positioning technology, fleet management, asset management and other logistics and [...]
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