Intelligent street

Last updated

Intelligent street is the name given to a type of intelligent environment which can be found on a public transit street. [1] It has arisen from the convergence of communications and Ubiquitous Computing, [2] intelligent [3] [4] and adaptable user interfaces, and the common infrastructure of the intelligent or mixed pavement.

Contents

The Intelligent Street is the basis of the intelligent city and is normally formed of four layers (physical infrastructure, sensors, networks and services), thus improving on the traditional street (which originated in Roman roads [5] or Roman streets) which served solely as transit streets (but did not have any type of “intelligence”).

Concept

The concept of the Intelligent Street is associated with that of the Intelligent Environment, since it is built of/ absorbs all information and communication technologies and sensor systems on any public transit street. This allows the facilities it offers to be integrated into its users’ daily lives for their convenience, but without these users having to make any type of effort or undergo invasions of privacy.

These dual objectives of comfort and simplicity are the basis of the concept of the Intelligent Street, which can be defined as an environment in which users interact in a transparent manner with a multitude of interconnected devices using different types of wireless communication. It is thus possible to construct “intelligent cities”, in the sense indicated by Professor William John Mitchell of the MIT, "Intelligent Cities" (PDF)., by taking advantage of the ‘third wave of technological innovation’ provided by sensors and digital labels, and which will substitute previous waves, relative to the incorporation of computers and the era of connection implied by the introduction of the Internet. As this expert points out, inhabiting intelligent cities implies being continuously connected to different networks, thus allowing these cities to be able to ‘extend’ people's capacities in a more complete and global manner.

The Intelligent Street thus becomes the basis for the Intelligent City, since it permits the creation of interactive spaces which take computing to the physical world, thus supporting a set of interconnected people who, together with their mobile phones, computers and other apparatus, will buy, sell, and exchange information and services.

As has occurred with the television, it seems likely that there will be an “analogical blackout” in cities, and their inhabitants will be able to celebrate this with our new services (as are shown below) via a system of invisible and sustainable infrastructures.

The concept of the Intelligent Street allows the vision of an Information Society in public zones to become a reality, and ensures its ease of use, efficient service support and the possibility of maintaining natural interactions with citizens. Its principal objective is characterized by the fact that it will provide people with intelligent and intuitive interfaces which will be integrated into normal pavements, and that it will be able to recognize and respond to the presence and needs of diverse individuals in a completely discrete and imperceptible manner. Apart from consisting of streets and squares, in which its principal utility resides, the Intelligent Street will also be of great use in schools, transport networks, airports, promenades, theme parks ... and in all those places in which it can assist the pedestrian to find information, relate to others, carry out activities, receive help ... and feel secure.

This concept therefore takes ubiquitous and pervasive computing to public transit streets. Ubiquitous Computing [6] signifies computing that is available everywhere [6] and it is pervasive [7] in the respect that it is integrated, in this case invisibly, into normal pavements.

The Intelligent Pavement

Conventional pavements, be they formed of kerbs, tiles, paving stones, or any other construction material, are intended to be solely and exclusively a decorative element with which to make transit streets or open or enclosed spaces passable. This type of pavement is fundamentally characterized by its colour, form and resistance, and its other useful possibilities (whilst maintaining these characteristics) are not normally considered. The Intelligent Pavement, however, has the peculiarity that its interior contains elements which are not normally associated with pavements (electrical and electronic components, radio frequency components, communication components and components for telephones and the storage of any type of energy), signifying that, in addition to fulfilling its conventional function (a decorative element with which to make transit streets or open or enclosed spaces passable), it also fulfils a secondary function by supporting the infrastructure of the Intelligent Street's services.

All this is possible since, as we know, the advance of technological innovation has led to a reduction in the size of certain objects and elements, both in communications and in other technological sectors, to the extent that tiny electrical, electronic, radiofrequency, communication, sensorial, telephonic and energy storage equipment now exists, which is used with civil or military purposes, and whose casings, casts or boxes are of different forms and textures, and are located in different places.

The Intelligent Street’s Habilitating Elements

As occurs with any intelligent environment, "Libro blanco de Telefónica". the Intelligent Street is based on the following technologies and characteristics:

Micro-servers

The Intelligent Street's mechanisms consist of people, other servers and micro-servers which support software applications that can be used by others, thus creating a distributed and in-built intelligence that is totally invisible to its users. These mechanisms connect with each other, without human intervention, solely through their insertion in the Intelligent Pavement.

Terminals and Sensors

The Intelligent Street supports sensorisation [8] and therefore offers services related to, amongst others, the following:

- Temperature. - Humidity. - Contamination. - Barriers. - Pedestrian Transit Streets. - Wheeled Transit Streets. - Pedestrianisation. - Keys and Switches. - Video-Security.

Voluntary Identification

The machine codes in our mobile phones, or a simple ZigBee bracelet ZigBee [9] [10] can serve as both pagers and master keys with which to obtain services from the Intelligent Street.

Nevertheless, in the future it might be possible to use identification techniques based on biometric characteristics, or on individual behaviour patterns, so that the service obtained will be personalised.

Personalisation of services

The services [4] offered by an Intelligent Street of the future will be personalizable, signifying that they will be available, with the appearance desired by each individual, and that it will be possible to add elements depending on the context and circumstances (place, environmental conditions, capacity in terms of the provision of accessible communication networks etc.).

Reconfigurability, adaptability and learning

The Intelligent Street will be adaptable to space, and will thus be reconfigurable to serve the spatial function that its users may require at any given moment in the best possible manner. User numbers and behaviour are normally modified over time, since a zone might be commercial in one decade and residential the next, or because sensitivity and use necessitate another type of behaviour.

The Intelligent Street can also learn from the people that use it in order to offer them services which are better adapted to their needs.

The fact that a street reconfigures its services and reach implies a reconfiguration of its “intelligence”, thus altering the ‘applications’ that are supported by the micro-servers which are built into the intelligent pavement.

Multi-interface access

The Intelligent Street provides access to images, sound, voice, text etc. via any standard device [11] and is always adapted to the utmost to the zone used, thus making it unnecessary to use special devices, which may need additional investment and training on the user's behalf if they are to interact with the environment.

Examples of positive moments

The Intelligent Street's specific services can assist in numerous situations: from making a call to the emergency services to requesting information about cultural activities, scholastic control, the generation of statistical data, the selection of restaurants, services for the disabled and even to promote citizens’ security in situations such as those of heavy snowfalls or icy roads.

Standardisation

IEP – Intelligent Environments Pavement ™ is the Intelligent Pavement's first specific standard currently in force in the EU, and therefore supports the installation and maintenance of the Intelligent Street.

The IEP (“The Intelligent Pavement”) standard is a de facto standard created by its manufacturers in order to allow public organisations and administrations to install the Intelligent Pavement in their cities with a total guarantee of service, supply, maintenance and connection to other cities. This standard provides for all the types of elements and organizations that may be interested in the pavement and its associated services.

The IEP standard also allows knowledge and services to be modelled with regard to the technological validity of its developments and installations.

See also

Related Research Articles

Ubiquitous computing is a concept in software engineering, hardware engineering and computer science where computing is made to appear anytime and everywhere. In contrast to desktop computing, ubiquitous computing can occur using any device, in any location, and in any format. A user interacts with the computer, which can exist in many different forms, including laptop computers, tablets, smart phones and terminals in everyday objects such as a refrigerator or a pair of glasses. The underlying technologies to support ubiquitous computing include Internet, advanced middleware, operating system, mobile code, sensors, microprocessors, new I/O and user interfaces, computer networks, mobile protocols, location and positioning, and new materials.

Intelligent transportation system Advanced application

An intelligent transportation system (ITS) is an advanced application which aims to provide innovative services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management and enable users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and 'smarter' use of transport networks.

Wireless Transfer of information or power that does not require the use of physical wires

Wireless communication is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most common wireless technologies use radio waves. With radio waves, intended distances can be short, such as a few meters for Bluetooth or as far as millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications. It encompasses various types of fixed, mobile, and portable applications, including two-way radios, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and wireless networking. Other examples of applications of radio wireless technology include GPS units, garage door openers, wireless computer mouse, keyboards and headsets, headphones, radio receivers, satellite television, broadcast television and cordless telephones. Somewhat less common methods of achieving wireless communications involve other electromagnetic phenomena, such as light and magnetic or electric fields, or the use of sound.

Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such as for home automation, medical device data collection, and other low-power low-bandwidth needs, designed for small scale projects which need wireless connection. Hence, Zigbee is a low-power, low data rate, and close proximity wireless ad hoc network.

Context awareness refers, in information and communication technologies, to a capability to take into account the situation of entities, which may be users or devices, but are not limited to those. Location is only the most obvious element of this situation. Narrowly defined for mobile devices, context awareness does thus generalize location awareness. Whereas location may determine how certain processes around a contributing device operate, context may be applied more flexibly with mobile users, especially with users of smart phones. Context awareness originated as a term from ubiquitous computing or as so-called pervasive computing which sought to deal with linking changes in the environment with computer systems, which are otherwise static. The term has also been applied to business theory in relation to contextual application design and business process management issues.

Mobile computing Human–computer interaction in which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage

Mobile computing is human–computer interaction in which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage, which allows for the transmission of data, voice, and video. Mobile computing involves mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software. Communication issues include ad hoc networks and infrastructure networks as well as communication properties, protocols, data formats, and concrete technologies. Hardware includes mobile devices or device components. Mobile software deals with the characteristics and requirements of mobile applications.

Autonomic computing (AC) is distributed computing resources with self-managing characteristics, adapting to unpredictable changes while hiding intrinsic complexity to operators and users. Initiated by IBM in 2001, this initiative ultimately aimed to develop computer systems capable of self-management, to overcome the rapidly growing complexity of computing systems management, and to reduce the barrier that complexity poses to further growth.

Smart device Type of electronic device

A smart device is an electronic device, generally connected to other devices or networks via different wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, NFC, Wi-Fi, LiFi, 5G, etc., that can operate to some extent interactively and autonomously. Several notable types of smart devices are smartphones, smart cars, smart thermostats, smart doorbells, smart locks, smart refrigerators, phablets and tablets, smartwatches, smart bands, smart key chains, smartglasses, and many others. The term can also refer to a device that exhibits some properties of ubiquitous computing, including—although not necessarily—Machine learning.

Mobile device Small, hand-held computing device

A mobile device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Typically, any handheld computer device will have an LCD or OLED flat screen interface, providing a touchscreen interface with digital buttons and keyboard or physical buttons along with a physical keyboard. Many such devices can connect to the Internet and interconnect with other devices such as car entertainment systems or headsets via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular networks or near field communication (NFC). Integrated cameras, the ability to place and receive voice and video telephone calls, video games, and Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities are common. Power is typically provided by a lithium-ion battery. Mobile devices may run mobile operating systems that allow third-party applications to be installed and run.

Over-the-air programming refers to various methods of distributing new software, configuration settings, and even updating encryption keys to devices like mobile phones, set-top boxes, electric cars or secure voice communication equipment. One important feature of OTA is that one central location can send an update to all the users, who are unable to refuse, defeat, or alter that update, and that the update applies immediately to everyone on the channel. A user could 'refuse' OTA, but the 'channel manager' could also 'kick them off' the channel automatically.

Contiki Real-time operating system

Contiki is an operating system for networked, memory-constrained systems with a focus on low-power wireless Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Extant uses for Contiki include systems for street lighting, sound monitoring for smart cities, radiation monitoring, and alarms. It is open-source software released under the BSD-3-Clause license.

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) refer to networks of spatially dispersed and dedicated sensors that monitor and record the physical conditions of the environment and forward the collected data to a central location. WSNs can measure environmental conditions such as temperature, sound, pollution levels, humidity and wind.

The concept of the "sensor web" is a type of sensor network that is especially well suited for environmental monitoring. The phrase the "sensor web" is also associated with a sensing system which heavily utilizes the World Wide Web. OGC's Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) framework defines a suite of web service interfaces and communication protocols abstracting from the heterogeneity of sensor (network) communication.

Ambient intelligence

In computing, ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Ambient intelligence was a projection on the future of consumer electronics, telecommunications and computing that was originally developed in the late 1990s by Eli Zelkha and his team at Palo Alto Ventures for the time frame 2010–2020. Ambient intelligence would allow devices to work in concert to support people in carrying out their everyday life activities, tasks and rituals in an intuitive way using information and intelligence that is hidden in the network connecting these devices. As these devices grew smaller, more connected and more integrated into our environment, the technological framework behind them would disappear into our surroundings until only the user interface remains perceivable by users.

Smart environments link computers and other smart devices to everyday settings and tasks. Smart environments include smart homes, smart cities and smart manufacturing.

Home network Type of computer network

A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of computer network that facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of a home. Devices capable of participating in this network, for example, smart devices such as network printers and handheld mobile computers, often gain enhanced emergent capabilities through their ability to interact. These additional capabilities can be used to increase the quality of life inside the home in a variety of ways, such as automation of repetitive tasks, increased personal productivity, enhanced home security, and easier access to entertainment.

Intelligent Environments (IE) are spaces with embedded systems and information and communication technologies creating interactive spaces that bring computation into the physical world and enhance occupants experiences. "Intelligent environments are spaces in which computation is seamlessly used to enhance ordinary activity. One of the driving forces behind the emerging interest in highly interactive environments is to make computers not only genuine user-friendly but also essentially invisible to the user".

A smart object is an object that enhances the interaction with not only people but also with other smart objects. Also known as smart connected products or smart connected things (SCoT), they are products, assets and other things embedded with processors, sensors, software and connectivity that allow data to be exchanged between the product and its environment, manufacturer, operator/user, and other products and systems. Connectivity also enables some capabilities of the product to exist outside the physical device, in what is known as the product cloud. The data collected from these products can be then analyzed to inform decision-making, enable operational efficiencies and continuously improve the performance of the product.

Urban computing is an interdisciplinary field which pertains to the study and application of computing technology in urban areas. This involves the application of wireless networks, sensors, computational power, and data to improve the quality of densely populated areas:

Mobile technology Technology used for cellular communication

Mobile technology is the technology used for cellular communication. Mobile technology has evolved rapidly over the past few years. Since the start of this millennium, a standard mobile device has gone from being no more than a simple two-way pager to being a mobile phone, GPS navigation device, an embedded web browser and instant messaging client, and a handheld gaming console. Many experts believe that the future of computer technology rests in mobile computing with wireless networking. Mobile computing by way of tablet computers is becoming more popular. Tablets are available on the 3G and 4G networks. Mobile technology has different meanings in different aspects, mainly mobile technology in information technology and mobile technology in basketball technology, mainly based on the wireless technology of wireless devices equipment information technology integration.

References

  1. ↑ A public transit street is “A street, square, road or other place in which the public moves or circulates”. Oxford English Dictionary.
  2. ↑ es:Computación ubicua
  3. ↑ Joseph W. Sullivan and William Mark, Intelligent User Interfaces (ACM Press Frontier Series) , 1991, ACM Press.
  4. 1 2 INTELLIGENT USER INTERFACES: Adaptation and Personalization Systems and Technologies by Constantinos Mourlas and Panagiotis Germanakos 2008, Idea Group Publishing.
  5. ↑ Calzada Romana (in Spanish)
  6. 1 2 "Ubiquitous computing" Weiser; Gold; Brown (1999-05-11). Retrieved 2008-05-07.
  7. ↑ ISBN   3-540-00218-9 Hansmann, Uwe (2003). Pervasive Computing: The Mobile World. Springer.
  8. ↑ V. C. Gungor, G.P. Hancke, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks: Challenges, Design Principles, and Technical Approaches, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 56, Issue 10,(October 2009).
  9. ↑ ZigBee Alliance. ZigBee Specification Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine (2008).
  10. ↑ A. Wheeler, Commercial Applications of wireless sensor networks using Zigbee, IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 45, Issue 4,(2007).
  11. ↑ (Multimedia Interaction and Intelligent User Interfaces: Principles, Methods and Applications (Advances in Pattern Recognition)) by Ling Shao, Caifeng Shan, Jiebo Luo and Minoru Etoh, 2010, Springer

Bibliography


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.