Mobile technology ‘will ease’ human move to city living
In 2008, for the first time, more than 50% of the world’s population began to reside in cities. By 2030, 5bn people will live in urban environments, according to the UN.
Michael Halbherr, vice president of Nokia, cited the explosion in population of Istanbul, which had 1m people at the end of the Second World War, but today has approximately 16m-17m inhabitants.
Technology will play a role in smoothing the interaction between people and their services, such as policing, energy consumption, and travel, Mr Halbherr said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
He used the example of a city lens sensor to illustrate one of the ways in which internet-enabled devices will connect with each other in daily activities.
A city lens sensor can be inserted in a device such as a headset or a pair of sunglasses, so the wearer could drive through a city and be able to pinpoint points of interest such as monuments, streetnames and buildings: The information could be relayed onscreen or by voice.
In one of the exhibition halls for the conference, the organisers have set up a fake city street, a bit like the movie set for a spaghetti western. It includes a cafe, an office, an apartment, a department store, a town hall, and a car showroom.
The impact of mobile connectivity on transport was a common theme with several of the speakers at the conference. Management consultants PwC calculate that mobile-based traffic management and public transport improvements could help drivers reclaim an entire week of their lives each year.
Erik Brenneis, head of M2M Vodafone, spoke about a system his company installed with Mobius for Dorset City Council as part of last summer’s Olympic Games in London. Dorset, which was hosting the sailing competition, wanted to implement a traffic management system that would alleviate heavy traffic flow to its coastline during the Games. Because of its nature, the sailing competition was not ticketed.
People could sign up in advance for an application which was loaded on their smartphones or other internet devices. It showed them where they could park, where to get the nearest public transport system, and updates about traffic flow, among other information. The system was a success, cutting traffic congestion costs by 40%, said Brenneis, and avoided, for example, the traffic chaos experienced at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.
Brenneis also explained the benefits of a mobile health system, which could enable infirm, elderly people to live in their own homes for longer. Sensors can be set up in each room, linked to the elderly person through a device that could hang around the neck or on the arm like a wristband. If the person fell, for example, or the person failed to get out of bed, an alarm would be activated to alert a son, daughter, or carer.
