WaterWorld, a magazine that is "dedicated to delivering up-to-date information on technology, products and trends in the municipal water industry", published an article written by Richard Lansdowne, on August 2, 2022 titled, Transforming a Small Town into a Major Smart City. The article covers how the town of Cary, North Carolina, through the use of technology, is becoming one of the smartest cities. What is interesting about this article is that it doesn't say anything about how this technology has improved the city. It only cites the data collection and ability to "predict" an event with that data. Did it work? The World Economic Forum has big ideas on how we should all live. Transforming a Small Town into a Major Smart City
The term "smart cities” implies a common misconception that only the biggest cities are capable of deploying advanced technologies and digital solutions. However, becoming more technically savvy and embracing smart city technology has never been more attainable than it is today. The town of Cary, North Carolina, with just over 175,000 residents, is becoming one of the smartest towns in the United States. Cary started its foray into smart technology by beginning to monitor key elements of its public infrastructure. Today, the town is a smart city with consistent data collection and analysis, and the development of smart solutions to benefit the greater good of the community. Interestingly the term “smart city” has another misconception; that a city is smart once it deploys Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to collect data. In reality, the point at which it becomes truly smart is when the sensor data is streamed into analytics wherein it enables insights and predictions to drive decisions. The Key to Unlocking Smart City Status: Insight through Data Analytics The town of Cary has been committed to invigorating the community for more than a decade. In 2007, the town enlisted the help of SAS, an analytics systems and solutions provider also based in Cary, to improve public safety and develop services within the town. As part of this collaboration, the town government used SAS’s software solutions to compile, organize and analyze data to make smarter, more actionable predictions for the benefit of the town and its residents. With new insights from an untapped wealth of data, municipal operations can run more efficiently by allowing town employees to access information they need, ahead of time, to help the town perform at a higher capacity than ever before. Originally, the town had planned this as a four-year project, but successes were seen almost immediately. This led a group of key decision makers within the town to explore expanding the project’s horizons. To add to the innovation brought by the extensive data and analytics, the town looked to cost effective and efficient IoT solutions. This was the logical next step to improve resident life, establish more sustainable practices, and lead the town of Cary to the apex of smart city innovation. By using IoT sensors — long range, low power sensors that collect data and enable analytics to provide actionable insights — IoT offers information and insight from nearly any area of Cary’s town infrastructure and community needs. Whether it’s monitoring air quality, trash can and water levels, or parking meters, IoT is helping Cary, North Carolina make smarter infrastructure decisions. But smart technologies are only as good as their deployment and ability to analyze their data. The IoT solutions provide real-time predictions that help solve specific challenges. These insights all provide better ways to monitor and safeguard the community and its resources, and help build a more sustainable city. The IoT sensors incorporate Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) connectivity, based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices, which are developed on an open, globally accepted standard for LPWAN applications. Used in IoT networks in more than 100 countries, the LoRaWAN® standard is designed to wirelessly connect battery-operated devices to the internet in regional, national or global networks. The standard targets key IoT requirements such as bi-directional communication, end-to-end security, and mobility and localization services. LoRaWAN connectivity solves many of the challenges that smart city operators face and is well suited to facilitate data collection from key applications throughout a city or town, including streams, storm drains, energy meters, street lighting, parking, condition monitoring equipment, air quality stations, waste and recycling containers, mobile asset tracking and much more. Providing Crucial Information Rain or Shine Long range, lower power IoT devices offer a unique benefit for public sector applications. They have an incredible battery life, lasting up to 10 to 20 years in some cases. The low power devices reduce maintenance needs. This allows towns to operate the devices in many areas — including those that are hard to reach — and in environments that would normally require extra maintenance and extra budget for that maintenance. Many solutions for connectivity – like Wi-Fi or cellular – can be unreliable during severe weather like hurricanes that have high winds and often flooding that knock out local infrastructure. Typically, when a building’s power goes down all connection can be lost. But long range IoT sensors connect to multiple gateways on high-points well away from any potential infrastructure damage. The result is a strong, trustworthy and resilient network connection. This type of connectivity solutions offers two-way communications and also has the ability to penetrate dense building materials to communicate in urban environments at a low operating cost, unlike Wi-Fi, which can’t operate efficiently over long distances or in remote areas. These benefits support creative city planning and development processes in everyday life as well as plans for disaster resiliency. IoT Technology Enhances Disaster Response in Wake of Flooding Smart technologies are only as good as the hands they are placed in and having these edge-to-cloud solutions are critical for driving innovation in the town of Cary. Historically, Cary has faced many challenges when it comes to storm drain water and flooding. As the town faces the realities of increased severe weather brought on by climate change, stormwater that runs off into roads, parking lots, sidewalks and buildings all pose hazards to residents and their property. IoT solutions have proven critical in alerting the town and its residents to potential instances of predicted flooding. With that, the town has been able to turn its disaster response from a reactive and manual process into a more predictive, proactive and automated response – often before a storm even hits. The approach to severe rain, which leads to rising water levels and flooding, has undergone a complete digital transformation. In fact, since deploying the new IoT solutions, the town has created a Stormwater Division that is responsible for capturing, managing and analyzing floodwater data. Sensors leveraging Semtech’s LoRa technology and SAS’s data analytics solutions allow the division to measure the water height, depth, flow and rainfall totals. This data is then uploaded to the cloud and combined with other weather models to predict the strategy for Public Works, Public Safety and Information Technology departments in the town. Planning for a Better Future As with so many projects, there is always room for progress and additional efficiencies. The town of Cary continuously collaborates with their technology partners to innovate and further define what it means to be a smart city. While weather monitoring enables the town and its residents to protect their livelihood — from personal safety to personal belongings and shelter — the town is also looking at other solutions to improve quality of life. From trash can sensors that monitor when a public bin is full, to the development of a new downtown park area, IoT sensors are becoming part of a new model of civic public service, and offers residents a town in which everyone feels comfortable and excited to be a part of.
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In its never ending quest to figure out how to design a city that will control the masses, the World Economic Forum has another fantasy being explored, Society 5.0. Hitachi has a nice, detailed website on what this society entails. Are any Idaho cities headed in this direction? Here is the Wikipedia article referenced in the video. Below is the video of Sam Palmisano, also referenced in the video. By its own admission the World Economic Forum (WEF) is conceding that AI (artificial intelligence) in toys can be dangerous, not necessarily safe for children, and the shocker, "AI decisions can be wrong". As if anyone would trust what the WEF recommends, it has created a rather useless guideline on AI toys and what parents should scrutinize where most of the advice is to visit the product website. The WEF states "AI products use sensors and inputs to collect information about whoever uses them. This information includes images, videos, patterns of use and other data. AI products then "use algorithms to interpret the information" and "make predictions" for their users. Also admitted is that "AI products also have risks...These risks carry even more weight when users are children who may or may not be ready to make decisions about their digital rights...". What? Does anyone even understand what digital rights are? Oh, just another made up WEF scam. Then you have the industries making AI toys claiming to protect privacy, the best toys being "tested by experts". Does Fauci come to mind? This video demonstration doesn't look particularly entertaining for a toy. After getting over the novelty of it, it is likely most kids will become bored and want to move on. Although, it does look like something a dog or cat would love to chase and destroy, well, except the dog in the video who is probably just a wussy dog, not a Rin Tin Tin. Just imagine how much data this ball of rot collected. It isn't really clear what is done with that data other than it might possibly be sold, used to communicate with your child, or shared. There are also AI toys that claim to educate children and that adults will enjoy. Good to know data will also be collected on the parent. But the real goal is training kids for a digital workforce world that we are all being forced into.
Much is lost with these toys. Social interaction between children is the biggest loss. Losing gracefully or being a humble winner, following rules, listening to a coach or referee, or learning skills from other players are just a few. Other toys stimulate creativity and imagination or teach negotiating skills if played with more than one. A simple game of jacks, marbles, or cards can challenge a child to be strategic or work in partnership while often developing hand eye coordination. Playing these types of games often encourages trying again. Oh, these are now all fuddy-duddy games as compared to BB-8. It seems with these AI toys it is mostly telling an object what to do and then watching it respond. How fun is that? Not to worry, there are also AI toys that will be your child's emotional companion that can be their friend. Naturally, these can be bought through your local Idaho WEF partnered Walmart store or Amazon. It might not be too late to take that toy back for a refund. As the World Economic Forum (WEF) and all of its technology partners move forward to force us into its 4th Industrial Revolution (4thIR), where everything is connected together by the Internet of Things (IoT), combining IoT with Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already in progress. The WEF has identified 4 key areas where AI and IoT are already being combined that "continues to transform the fundamental ways in which we live our lives and process data.", also being powered by "5G and Big Data." These areas are Wearables, Smart Home, Smart City, and Smart Industry. According to the article, connected devices "generate 1 billion GB of data" every day. Also mentioned is the amount of profits this agenda will generate for corporations.
As everyone uses any device to communicate, all the data is being collected and plugged into their algorithms for analysis and eventual control over us. |
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