The Internet of Things has the potential to reduce city center traffic, cut pollution and improve air quality by having all vehicles, traffic lights and other devices talk to each other in real time.
This expansive network of interconnected devices, all sharing data about their location and status, will make use of 5G mobile networks, which offer the bandwidth and low latency to make the technology possible.
An example of how IoT technology is being used to improve city life is found in Cambridge, UK. Although a 5G network isn't yet available, the city has already installed IoT sensors in street lamps, traffic lights and other pieces of street furniture. These connect to a network alongside climate and pollution sensors, and feed data back to companies wishing to make good use of it.
One such company is called GeoSpock, a Cambridge-based firm which specializes in 'extreme-scale' spatial data and provides analytics, visualization and insights to its clients. By partnering with its home city, GeoSpock has access to the city's real-time traffic and air quality data.
Steve Marsh, founder and chief technology officer of GeoSpock, told GearBrain how this data can help improve air quality. "Cambridge has smart street lights, traffic light, Bluetooth traffic centers, microclimate and pollution sensors; all sorts. We're able to pull all that together and tease out analytics that almost no one else knew of before."
Marsh then explained how the data can highlight a link between rain in the weather forecast, and poor air quality on streets lined with trees. "Cambridge is predominantly a cycling city, so when it rains there's a whole bunch of people who would normally cycle but then because it's raining switch to cars, so the number of cars goes up by 400 percent, and congestion then happens."
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This may sound obvious, but because GeoSpock also has access to air quality sensors, it can spot correlation in previously disparate data.
