IDC Smart Cities

Global spending on smart cities initiatives will reach US$189.5 billion in 2023, according to the latest report published by market research firm IDC.

“Although smart grid and smart meter investments still represent a large share of spending within smart cities, we see much stronger growth in other areas, related to intelligent transportation and data-driven public safety, as well as platform-related use cases and digital twin, which are increasingly implemented at the core of smart cities projects globally,”said Serena Da Rold, program manager in IDC’s Customer Insights & Analysis group, in the statement.

The research firm is expected to see five cases account for over half of all smart cities spending in 2019: smart grid, fixed visual surveillance, advanced public transportation, smart outdoor lighting, and intelligent traffic management. However, their share in investment will somehow decline by 2023, the firm said.

Strong vertical applications drive the investments in smart cities, but with horizontal platforms and digital twins picking up speed.

October 29, 2019

IoT Smart City buzz

SOM fortsätter med cyklar, laddplatser och lugna miljöer

Digital Humans – Sista fasen av SOM-projektet har inletts och en rad nya projekt är i uppstartsfasen. Att Lund är en cykelkommun märks tydligt genom att det blir ytterligare två projekt med cyklar – men det kommer också bland annat att handla om förbättringar av laddplatser och störningsövervakning av elnätet.

IoT handlar om att göra nytta mha data och uppkoppling. Nya spännande och nyttiga projekt i SOM-projektet.

October 28, 2019

IoT Sensative Smart City buzz

SOM har redan gjort stora avtryck

Digital Humans – SOM-projektet har pågått i två år och redan har många delprojekt avslutats eller befinner sig på upploppet. För undersökningen av cyklisternas cykelvägar med hjälp av ny teknik och av hur sensorer kan förändra sopbranschen är redan forskningsrapporter gjorda. Vi har också bland annat arbetat med sensorer i stadsodling, sensorer för att övervaka kritisk infrastruktur i staden, en smart by, lösningar för att visualisera sensordata samt undervisningspaket för sensorer i skolan. Här är en summering av vad som hänt hittills.

An update from the SOM project in Lund, where Sensative provides the Yggio IoT platform.

October 23, 2019

IoT Smart City buzz

Open standards: The answer to the smart city data dilemma | Smart Cities Dive

Many organizations involved in smart services are privately owned and use their own proprietary service platforms. This approach tends to discourage competition for more cost-effective services.These complexities mean we are at risk of a smart cities stalemate, with potential technological or monetary barriers rendering services inaccessible for residents.

First of all, we need to have standards. The next step is to have these standards interoperable.

We remember those early days of mobile phones. Every supplier had its own tech and joining with other suppliers in creating standards. We had GSM, TDMA, CDMA to mention a few, and they were all incompatible. You couldn’t bring a phone on a trip since it just didn’t work in another country. In the end, GSM ate them all. Without interoperability, you will have fierce competition to the death. And to a huge cost. All phones had to be replaced to the winning standard, all losing networks had to be replaced.

Open standards with interoperability with “fellow standards” and legacy technologies are the way forward for a future proof smart city.

Or anything IoT for that matter.

October 8, 2019

IoT Smart City buzz

Uppkopplad infrastruktur för färre elavbrott och smartare soptömning – Sydsvenskan

Ska resultera i färre elavbrott och smartare soptömning.

Ett spännande projekt där vi gemensamt testar ny teknik och nya lösningar. Ur Sensatives perspektiv är det extra intressant med de nya säkerhetslösningarna vi implementerar då Kraftringen har extra höga säkerhetskrav.

September 23, 2019

IoT Smart City buzz

Future-Proof Smart Cities: the Case of Bordeaux

Bordeaux-Métropole (Greater Bordeaux) set its ambitions high: It aims to be a state-of-the-art smart city and community with citizens at the centre of its digital transformation strategy. Bordeaux has been…

“But when investigating how IoT applications could support other city operations, Bordeaux found that the technologies required would often rely on different connectivity and data models.

It became clear that deploying IoT in silos (e.g. lighting, mobility, waste management) would limit the ability to scale smart city solutions. It also became clear that IoT platforms based on open standards are best capable of supporting a diverse range of IoT applications, the sharing of associated data (subject to proper permissions) and avoid lock-in to technology providers.”

Then Bordeaux decided to develop their own IoT platform based on available open building blocks. This is a very common next step in the evolution of smart cities. But, not necessarily the last. There comes a time where maintenance becomes a challenge. People leave, code gets old, and it is difficult and extremely costly to keep the pace with the tech development.

The same reason why very few develops their own HR or CRM systems today. Why develop it inhouse when you can buy a much better product and at a considerably lower cost?

A better strategy is to buy that IoT capability as-a-service, from a specialized supplier that drives tech development in regards to interoperability, data quality, security, etc. Sensatives Yggio is a leading interoperability platform, based on open-source FIWARE, integrating everything, exposing all data, events, and functionality through a common standardized API. And we provide it as-a-service so that we guarantee that we always support the latest IoT technologies.

As a city, you should focus on what to do with the information, and not on data acquisition.

September 17, 2019

IoT Smart City buzz Yggio

Nu blir elskåpen smartare i Lund – Kraftringen

Det mesta av en stads infrastruktur är i dagsläget inte uppkopplad, vilket innebär att den kontrolleras manuellt, eller kanske inte alls. Genom att bygga upp ett nät för kommunikation av sensordata och förse infrastrukturen med sensorer blir stadens funktioner både bättre kontrollerade och effektivare underhållna.
Ett första steg i detta arbete är att göra elskåpen smartare. Under två veckor kommer Kraftringen att installera smart teknik i tjugo elskåp runt Mårtenstorget.

Det är spännande att se när gemensamma utvecklingsprojekt blir till verkliga tillämpningar, då vi, som medlemmar i SOM, är mycket aktiva i detta projekt med vår IoT plattform Yggio. En viktig komponent är den innovativa kommunikationssäkerheten som behövs i denna miljö. Kraftringen vill ju få in larm och kunna kontrollera status, utan att kunna hackas eller störas ut.

Detta är bara ett första steg. Spännande utveckling följer… 🙂

September 6, 2019

IoT Security Smart Building buzz Smart City buzz

IP cameras and IoT sensors combine to make cities smarter – asmag.com

Needless to say, video surveillance plays a critical role in smart city initiatives. Now, with more and more IoT sensors being deployed, they can work with IP cameras to make cities even smarter, safer and livable.

Many reasons why our partnership with Axis Communication is so important for Axis, us at Sensative, and our customers in smart buildings and cities.

August 29, 2019

IoT Smart Building buzz Smart City buzz

Advancing BIM: Digital Twins

It’s time to learn how to create, visualize and analyze digital twins

Since Bentley is a 3D company (CAD/GIS/Visualization, etc) they argue for the need to construct the digital twins. We fully agree, since we look one step further, how to utilize the digital twin.

The first step is the visualization of assets and historical data in a 3D model. But, the real usefulness comes when the digital twin is updated with real-time data and events from the real world, creating a digital mirror image. This is done through the integration with IoT. Then you will have a complete 3D dashboard to the real world, a control center where you can plan, act, simulate scenarios, and optimize depending what is happening right now.

The model will never be better than the access to data.

August 29, 2019

Smart City buzz

Why Los Angeles decided to open source its future – TechRepublic

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation needed a way to improve traffic, so it open sourced it.

“Cities increasingly see the value in open source as a way to save money, avoid vendor lock-in, and get access to the most capable, tested, and widely-supported technology solutions. Most cities aren’t looking to eliminate vendor relationships, but rather to make sure they’re getting the best value for the taxpayer money they spend on technology.”

This is true Smart City thinking.

August 15, 2019

IoT Smart City buzz

Global smart city technology revenue to reach $1.7 trillion by 2028

Revenue for the global smart city technology market will reach $1.7 trillion by 2028, according to market intelligence firm Navigant Research.

Smart cities are gradually instrumenting the urban fabric at every layer, and cross-sector benefits are starting to be realized.

This is what we mean with IoT interoperability. That IoT services can communicate through a plethora of standards to any type of sensor. Across every domain or sector. Enabling cross-domain services with real-time, technology-neutral, normalized data.

August 13, 2019

IoT Smart Building buzz Smart City buzz Yggio

The IoT: Yesterday’s Predictions Vs. Today’s Reality

Here’s a look at some of the key predictions we at Forbes Technology Council initially had for a fully connected world, the reality we are dealing with today and how businesses can best prepare for the IoT’s continued evolution.

The biggest obstacle is the complexity of technologies, standards, silos and legacy systems. IoT requires interoperability and co-operations in eco-systems to be able to deliver on the expectations.