What does this mean for government and communities? This connection of things has the power to create neverbefore-seen efficiency, further optimizing the city system. Challenges that government leaders face, such as improving educational outcomes, shoring up aging infrastructure and reducing crime rates, can all be improved by connecting networks to physical objects.
The concept has piqued the private sector’s interest as demand for this technology promises to accelerate. According to Cisco, the market for Internet of Everything technology and services could top $14 trillion. And a 2012 report from General Electric estimates that adding network connectivity and big data analytics to industrial machinery could pump $10 trillion to $15 trillion into the global gross domestic product.
The public sector, too, has started to dabble in Internet of Everything technology. Here are some examples of applications and projects taking place at present in our three focus areas of water,waste and energy:
Water. At Wichita State University, Ravi Pendse, an engineering and computer science professor, is attaching moisture sensors to trees and plants campus wide as part of a smart sprinkler experiment. Pendse says the automated sprinklers run only when plants are thirsty, saving the university a bundle on water costs. While this is a small-scale project, there are life-saving implications for water-poor regions of the world.
Waste. In the U.K., trash bins outfi tted with sensors allow garbage trucks to skip empty or half-full cans, cutting down on overhead and reducing pollution. In recent years, smart trash cans have caught on in major cities around the world, with Philadelphia reportedly saving $1 million annually through the use of self-reporting trash compactors.
Energy. Chattanooga, Tenn., one of the localities featured in our “Vibrancy of smart streetlights, which can be operated automatically to save electricity and manipulated individually to assist with police searches. Someday, the lights could be upgraded to off er additional functionality by creating sensor networks or equipping the light poles with Wi-Fi gear.The Internet of Everything is catching on in other areas, too. Smart parking structures and smart parking apps are also becoming more popular. Mobile apps use city parking data to show drivers where parking is available.
The U.S. Department of Transportation contracted with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute to launch the nation’s largest connected vehicle pilot project late last year. The year-long experiment involves 3,000 vehicles that are equipped with transmitters and receivers, allowing them to communicate with one another and with roadside infrastructure. A smaller number of vehicles also are equipped with multiple cameras and other equipment that allows them to actively warn drivers of impending danger.
The city of Ann Arbor, Mich., is overseeing the deployment of wireless communications gear that will cover 73 lane miles to exchange data with the smart vehicles. Analysis of that information will help the city better manage its transportation infrastructure.
Each of these examples represents an early stage of Internet of Things development. Just as the Internet was unwieldy before search engines figured out how to deliver the information people wanted, today’s Internet of Everything is likewise relatively inhospitable. Someday, all these disparate elements — the cars, the objects, the roads, the lights, the buildings, the people — will be highly connected.
This evolution epitomizes the spirit of the FutureStructure model — technology combining with traditional hard infrastructure and soft assets to make our communities increasingly vibrant and robust, and good places for people to live.
An earlier version of this story appeared as The New Net in May 2012 print edition of Government Technology magazine.
