sensors-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Developing “Smartness” in Emerging Environments and Applications with Focus on the Internet of Things (IoT)

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Internet of Things".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2021) | Viewed by 72227

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editors

1. BISITE Research Group, University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain
2. Air Institute, IoT Digital Innovation Hub, 37188 Salamanca, Spain
3. Department of Electronics, Information and Communication, Faculty of Engineering, Osaka Institute of Technology, Osaka 535-8585, Japan
Interests: artificial intelligence; smart cities; smart grids
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Architecture and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Interests: smart technologies, communities, cities and urbanism; knowledge-based development of cities and innovation districts; sustainable and resilient cities; communities and urban ecosystems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

“Smartness”, which underpins smart cities and societies, is defined by our ability to engage with our environments, analyse them, and make decisions, all in a timely manner. We are witnessing a rapid evolution, rather a transformation, of our societies. Novel solutions are being developed and adopted in work and life, benefitting from the growing ability to monitor and analyse our environments in near real time. A range of devices and technologies are being used for monitoring purposes including the Internet of Things (IoT), GPS, cameras, RFIDs, smartphones, smartwatches, other smart wearables, and social media. These devices produce diverse data that are analysed using artificial intelligence (AI) and other computational intelligence methods and used for decision-making purposes. While significant advances have been made in developing smart applications and technologies, a systematic effort to define and develop “smartness” is missing.  An investigation into the theoretical and technological foundations of this “smartness” can help systemise and mass-produce technologies for autonomous production and operations of smart environments. This particular Special Issue focusses on IoT with investigations into topics such as bringing “smartness” to the IoT layer using technologies including cloud, fog and edge computing, high-performance computing (HPC), big data, blockchain, and/or AI.   

Prof. Dr. Rashid Mehmood
Prof. Dr. Juan M. Corchado
Prof. Dr. Tan Yigitcanlar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Integration of IoT and big data for theoretical or practical developments of “smartness”
  • IoT and edge, fog, and cloud computing for developing “smartness”
  • IoT and high-performance computing for developing “smartness”
  • IoT and blockchain for developing “smartness”
  • IoT and cutting-edge artificial intelligence methods (deep learning, ensemble methods, reinforcement learning, etc.) for developing “smartness”
  • Social media-based development of “smartness”
  • IoT-based “smartness” in healthcare
  • IoT-based “smartness” in transportation
  • IoT-based “smartness” in various industries
  • Development of “smartness” for privacy and security

Published Papers (14 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Editorial

Jump to: Research, Other

6 pages, 607 KiB  
Editorial
Developing Smartness in Emerging Environments and Applications with a Focus on the Internet of Things
by Rashid Mehmood, Juan M. Corchado and Tan Yigitcanlar
Sensors 2022, 22(22), 8939; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22228939 - 18 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1252
Abstract
The smartness that underpins smart cities and societies is defined by our ability to engage with our environments, analyze them, and make decisions, all in a timely manner [...] Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Other

55 pages, 11751 KiB  
Article
LidSonic V2.0: A LiDAR and Deep-Learning-Based Green Assistive Edge Device to Enhance Mobility for the Visually Impaired
by Sahar Busaeed, Iyad Katib, Aiiad Albeshri, Juan M. Corchado, Tan Yigitcanlar and Rashid Mehmood
Sensors 2022, 22(19), 7435; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22197435 - 30 Sep 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3450
Abstract
Over a billion people around the world are disabled, among whom 253 million are visually impaired or blind, and this number is greatly increasing due to ageing, chronic diseases, and poor environments and health. Despite many proposals, the current devices and systems lack [...] Read more.
Over a billion people around the world are disabled, among whom 253 million are visually impaired or blind, and this number is greatly increasing due to ageing, chronic diseases, and poor environments and health. Despite many proposals, the current devices and systems lack maturity and do not completely fulfill user requirements and satisfaction. Increased research activity in this field is required in order to encourage the development, commercialization, and widespread acceptance of low-cost and affordable assistive technologies for visual impairment and other disabilities. This paper proposes a novel approach using a LiDAR with a servo motor and an ultrasonic sensor to collect data and predict objects using deep learning for environment perception and navigation. We adopted this approach using a pair of smart glasses, called LidSonic V2.0, to enable the identification of obstacles for the visually impaired. The LidSonic system consists of an Arduino Uno edge computing device integrated into the smart glasses and a smartphone app that transmits data via Bluetooth. Arduino gathers data, operates the sensors on the smart glasses, detects obstacles using simple data processing, and provides buzzer feedback to visually impaired users. The smartphone application collects data from Arduino, detects and classifies items in the spatial environment, and gives spoken feedback to the user on the detected objects. In comparison to image-processing-based glasses, LidSonic uses far less processing time and energy to classify obstacles using simple LiDAR data, according to several integer measurements. We comprehensively describe the proposed system’s hardware and software design, having constructed their prototype implementations and tested them in real-world environments. Using the open platforms, WEKA and TensorFlow, the entire LidSonic system is built with affordable off-the-shelf sensors and a microcontroller board costing less than USD 80. Essentially, we provide designs of an inexpensive, miniature green device that can be built into, or mounted on, any pair of glasses or even a wheelchair to help the visually impaired. Our approach enables faster inference and decision-making using relatively low energy with smaller data sizes, as well as faster communications for edge, fog, and cloud computing. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

41 pages, 11537 KiB  
Article
Imtidad: A Reference Architecture and a Case Study on Developing Distributed AI Services for Skin Disease Diagnosis over Cloud, Fog and Edge
by Nourah Janbi, Rashid Mehmood, Iyad Katib, Aiiad Albeshri, Juan M. Corchado and Tan Yigitcanlar
Sensors 2022, 22(5), 1854; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22051854 - 26 Feb 2022
Cited by 20 | Viewed by 3763
Abstract
Several factors are motivating the development of preventive, personalized, connected, virtual, and ubiquitous healthcare services. These factors include declining public health, increase in chronic diseases, an ageing population, rising healthcare costs, the need to bring intelligence near the user for privacy, security, performance, [...] Read more.
Several factors are motivating the development of preventive, personalized, connected, virtual, and ubiquitous healthcare services. These factors include declining public health, increase in chronic diseases, an ageing population, rising healthcare costs, the need to bring intelligence near the user for privacy, security, performance, and costs reasons, as well as COVID-19. Motivated by these drivers, this paper proposes, implements, and evaluates a reference architecture called Imtidad that provides Distributed Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a Service (DAIaaS) over cloud, fog, and edge using a service catalog case study containing 22 AI skin disease diagnosis services. These services belong to four service classes that are distinguished based on software platforms (containerized gRPC, gRPC, Android, and Android Nearby) and are executed on a range of hardware platforms (Google Cloud, HP Pavilion Laptop, NVIDIA Jetson nano, Raspberry Pi Model B, Samsung Galaxy S9, and Samsung Galaxy Note 4) and four network types (Fiber, Cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth). The AI models for the diagnosis include two standard Deep Neural Networks and two Tiny AI deep models to enable their execution at the edge, trained and tested using 10,015 real-life dermatoscopic images. The services are evaluated using several benchmarks including model service value, response time, energy consumption, and network transfer time. A DL service on a local smartphone provides the best service in terms of both energy and speed, followed by a Raspberry Pi edge device and a laptop in fog. The services are designed to enable different use cases, such as patient diagnosis at home or sending diagnosis requests to travelling medical professionals through a fog device or cloud. This is the pioneering work that provides a reference architecture and such a detailed implementation and treatment of DAIaaS services, and is also expected to have an extensive impact on developing smart distributed service infrastructures for healthcare and other sectors. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 3043 KiB  
Article
A Three-Dimensional Microstructure Reconstruction Framework for Permeable Pavement Analysis Based on 3D-IWGAN with Enhanced Gradient Penalty
by Ludia Eka Feri, Jaehun Ahn, Shahrullohon Lutfillohonov and Joonho Kwon
Sensors 2021, 21(11), 3603; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21113603 - 21 May 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2275
Abstract
Owing to the increasing use of permeable pavement, there is a growing need for studies that can improve its design and durability. One of the most important factors that can reduce the functionality of permeable pavement is the clogging issue. Field experiments for [...] Read more.
Owing to the increasing use of permeable pavement, there is a growing need for studies that can improve its design and durability. One of the most important factors that can reduce the functionality of permeable pavement is the clogging issue. Field experiments for investigating the clogging potential are relatively expensive owing to the high-cost testing equipment and materials. Moreover, a lot of time is required for conducting real physical experiments to obtain physical properties for permeable pavement. In this paper, to overcome these limitations, we propose a three-dimensional microstructure reconstruction framework based on 3D-IDWGAN with an enhanced gradient penalty, which is an image-based computational system for clogging analysis in permeable pavement. Our proposed system first takes a two-dimensional image as an input and extracts latent features from the 2D image. Then, it generates a 3D microstructure image through the generative adversarial network part of our model with the enhanced gradient penalty. For checking the effectiveness of our system, we utilize the reconstructed 3D image combined with the numerical method for pavement microstructure analysis. Our results show improvements in the three-dimensional image generation of the microstructure, compared with other generative adversarial network methods, and the values of physical properties extracted from our model are similar to those obtained via real pavement samples. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

33 pages, 4884 KiB  
Article
Iktishaf+: A Big Data Tool with Automatic Labeling for Road Traffic Social Sensing and Event Detection Using Distributed Machine Learning
by Ebtesam Alomari, Iyad Katib, Aiiad Albeshri, Tan Yigitcanlar and Rashid Mehmood
Sensors 2021, 21(9), 2993; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21092993 - 24 Apr 2021
Cited by 43 | Viewed by 4392
Abstract
Digital societies could be characterized by their increasing desire to express themselves and interact with others. This is being realized through digital platforms such as social media that have increasingly become convenient and inexpensive sensors compared to physical sensors in many sectors of [...] Read more.
Digital societies could be characterized by their increasing desire to express themselves and interact with others. This is being realized through digital platforms such as social media that have increasingly become convenient and inexpensive sensors compared to physical sensors in many sectors of smart societies. One such major sector is road transportation, which is the backbone of modern economies and costs globally 1.25 million deaths and 50 million human injuries annually. The cutting-edge on big data-enabled social media analytics for transportation-related studies is limited. This paper brings a range of technologies together to detect road traffic-related events using big data and distributed machine learning. The most specific contribution of this research is an automatic labelling method for machine learning-based traffic-related event detection from Twitter data in the Arabic language. The proposed method has been implemented in a software tool called Iktishaf+ (an Arabic word meaning discovery) that is able to detect traffic events automatically from tweets in the Arabic language using distributed machine learning over Apache Spark. The tool is built using nine components and a range of technologies including Apache Spark, Parquet, and MongoDB. Iktishaf+ uses a light stemmer for the Arabic language developed by us. We also use in this work a location extractor developed by us that allows us to extract and visualize spatio-temporal information about the detected events. The specific data used in this work comprises 33.5 million tweets collected from Saudi Arabia using the Twitter API. Using support vector machines, naïve Bayes, and logistic regression-based classifiers, we are able to detect and validate several real events in Saudi Arabia without prior knowledge, including a fire in Jeddah, rains in Makkah, and an accident in Riyadh. The findings show the effectiveness of Twitter media in detecting important events with no prior knowledge about them. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 4360 KiB  
Article
Performance Analysis of IoT and Long-Range Radio-Based Sensor Node and Gateway Architecture for Solid Waste Management
by Shaik Vaseem Akram, Rajesh Singh, Mohammed A. AlZain, Anita Gehlot, Mamoon Rashid, Osama S. Faragallah, Walid El-Shafai and Deepak Prashar
Sensors 2021, 21(8), 2774; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21082774 - 14 Apr 2021
Cited by 43 | Viewed by 4003
Abstract
Long-range radio (LoRa) communication is a widespread communication protocol that offers long range transmission and low data rates with minimum power consumption. In the context of solid waste management, only a low amount of data needs to be sent to the remote server. [...] Read more.
Long-range radio (LoRa) communication is a widespread communication protocol that offers long range transmission and low data rates with minimum power consumption. In the context of solid waste management, only a low amount of data needs to be sent to the remote server. With this advantage, we proposed architecture for designing and developing a customized sensor node and gateway based on LoRa technology for realizing the filling level of the bins with minimal energy consumption. We evaluated the energy consumption of the proposed architecture by simulating it on the Framework for LoRa (FLoRa) simulation by varying distinct fundamental parameters of LoRa communication. This paper also provides the distinct evaluation metrics of the the long-range data rate, time on-air (ToA), LoRa sensitivity, link budget, and battery life of sensor node. Finally, the paper concludes with a real-time experimental setup, where we can receive the sensor data on the cloud server with a customized sensor node and gateway. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

34 pages, 459 KiB  
Article
From Data to Actions in Intelligent Transportation Systems: A Prescription of Functional Requirements for Model Actionability
by Ibai Laña, Javier J. Sanchez-Medina, Eleni I. Vlahogianni and Javier Del Ser
Sensors 2021, 21(4), 1121; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21041121 - 05 Feb 2021
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4379
Abstract
Advances in Data Science permeate every field of Transportation Science and Engineering, resulting in developments in the transportation sector that are data-driven. Nowadays, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) could be arguably approached as a “story” intensively producing and consuming large amounts of data. A [...] Read more.
Advances in Data Science permeate every field of Transportation Science and Engineering, resulting in developments in the transportation sector that are data-driven. Nowadays, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) could be arguably approached as a “story” intensively producing and consuming large amounts of data. A diversity of sensing devices densely spread over the infrastructure, vehicles or the travelers’ personal devices act as sources of data flows that are eventually fed into software running on automatic devices, actuators or control systems producing, in turn, complex information flows among users, traffic managers, data analysts, traffic modeling scientists, etc. These information flows provide enormous opportunities to improve model development and decision-making. This work aims to describe how data, coming from diverse ITS sources, can be used to learn and adapt data-driven models for efficiently operating ITS assets, systems and processes; in other words, for data-based models to fully become actionable. Grounded in this described data modeling pipeline for ITS, we define the characteristics, engineering requisites and challenges intrinsic to its three compounding stages, namely, data fusion, adaptive learning and model evaluation. We deliberately generalize model learning to be adaptive, since, in the core of our paper is the firm conviction that most learners will have to adapt to the ever-changing phenomenon scenario underlying the majority of ITS applications. Finally, we provide a prospect of current research lines within Data Science that can bring notable advances to data-based ITS modeling, which will eventually bridge the gap towards the practicality and actionability of such models. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 3056 KiB  
Article
Temporal Changes in Air Quality According to Land-Use Using Real Time Big Data from Smart Sensors in Korea
by Sung Su Jo, Sang Ho Lee and Yountaik Leem
Sensors 2020, 20(21), 6374; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20216374 - 09 Nov 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2475
Abstract
This study analyzed the changes in particulate matter concentrations according to land-use over time and the spatial characteristics of the distribution of particulate matter concentrations using big data of particulate matter in Daejeon, Korea, measured by Private Air Quality Monitoring Smart Sensors (PAQMSSs). [...] Read more.
This study analyzed the changes in particulate matter concentrations according to land-use over time and the spatial characteristics of the distribution of particulate matter concentrations using big data of particulate matter in Daejeon, Korea, measured by Private Air Quality Monitoring Smart Sensors (PAQMSSs). Land-uses were classified into residential, commercial, industrial, and green groups according to the primary land-use around the 650-m sensor radius. Data on particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter <10 µm (PM10) and <2.5 µm (PM2.5) were captured by PAQMSSs from September‒October (i.e., fall) in 2019. Differences and variation characteristics of particulate matter concentrations between time periods and land-uses were analyzed and spatial mobility characteristics of the particulate matter concentrations over time were analyzed. The results indicate that the particulate matter concentrations in Daejeon decreased in the order of industrial, housing, commercial and green groups overall; however, the concentrations of the commercial group were higher than those of the residential group during 21:00–23:00, which reflected the vital nighttime lifestyle in the commercial group in Korea. Second, the green group showed the lowest particulate matter concentration and the industrial group showed the highest concentration. Third, the highest particulate matter concentrations were in urban areas where commercial and business functions were centered and in the vicinity of industrial complexes. Finally, over time, the PM10 concentrations were clearly high at noon and low at night, whereas the PM2.5 concentrations were similar at certain areas. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 24510 KiB  
Article
Cloud-Based Monitoring of Thermal Anomalies in Industrial Environments Using AI and the Internet of Robotic Things
by Mohammed Ghazal, Tasnim Basmaji, Maha Yaghi, Mohammad Alkhedher, Mohamed Mahmoud and Ayman S. El-Baz
Sensors 2020, 20(21), 6348; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20216348 - 07 Nov 2020
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3174
Abstract
Recent advancements in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things (IoT) create new opportunities for autonomous industrial environments monitoring. Nevertheless, detecting anomalies in harsh industrial settings remains challenging. This paper proposes an edge-fog-cloud architecture with mobile IoT edge nodes carried on [...] Read more.
Recent advancements in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things (IoT) create new opportunities for autonomous industrial environments monitoring. Nevertheless, detecting anomalies in harsh industrial settings remains challenging. This paper proposes an edge-fog-cloud architecture with mobile IoT edge nodes carried on autonomous robots for thermal anomalies detection in aluminum factories. We use companion drones as fog nodes to deliver first response services and a cloud back-end for thermal anomalies analysis. We also propose a self-driving deep learning architecture and a thermal anomalies detection and visualization algorithm. Our results show our robot surveyors are low-cost, deliver reduced response time, and more accurately detect anomalies compared to human surveyors or fixed IoT nodes monitoring the same industrial area. Our self-driving architecture has a root mean square error of 0.19 comparable to VGG-19 with a significantly reduced complexity and three times the frame rate at 60 frames per second. Our thermal to visual registration algorithm maximizes mutual information in the image-gradient domain while adapting to different resolutions and camera frame rates. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

27 pages, 1710 KiB  
Article
Smart Helmet 5.0 for Industrial Internet of Things Using Artificial Intelligence
by Israel Campero-Jurado, Sergio Márquez-Sánchez, Juan Quintanar-Gómez, Sara Rodríguez and Juan M. Corchado
Sensors 2020, 20(21), 6241; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20216241 - 01 Nov 2020
Cited by 49 | Viewed by 15890
Abstract
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have contributed to advances in Occupational Health and Safety, improving the security of workers. The use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) based on ICTs reduces the risk of accidents in the workplace, thanks to the capacity of the [...] Read more.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have contributed to advances in Occupational Health and Safety, improving the security of workers. The use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) based on ICTs reduces the risk of accidents in the workplace, thanks to the capacity of the equipment to make decisions on the basis of environmental factors. Paradigms such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) make it possible to generate PPE models feasibly and create devices with more advanced characteristics such as monitoring, sensing the environment and risk detection between others. The working environment is monitored continuously by these models and they notify the employees and their supervisors of any anomalies and threats. This paper presents a smart helmet prototype that monitors the conditions in the workers’ environment and performs a near real-time evaluation of risks. The data collected by sensors is sent to an AI-driven platform for analysis. The training dataset consisted of 11,755 samples and 12 different scenarios. As part of this research, a comparative study of the state-of-the-art models of supervised learning is carried out. Moreover, the use of a Deep Convolutional Neural Network (ConvNet/CNN) is proposed for the detection of possible occupational risks. The data are processed to make them suitable for the CNN and the results are compared against a Static Neural Network (NN), Naive Bayes Classifier (NB) and Support Vector Machine (SVM), where the CNN had an accuracy of 92.05% in cross-validation. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

28 pages, 6037 KiB  
Article
Distributed Artificial Intelligence-as-a-Service (DAIaaS) for Smarter IoE and 6G Environments
by Nourah Janbi, Iyad Katib, Aiiad Albeshri and Rashid Mehmood
Sensors 2020, 20(20), 5796; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20205796 - 13 Oct 2020
Cited by 57 | Viewed by 5790
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken us by storm, helping us to make decisions in everything we do, even in finding our “true love” and the “significant other”. While 5G promises us high-speed mobile internet, 6G pledges to support ubiquitous AI services through next-generation [...] Read more.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken us by storm, helping us to make decisions in everything we do, even in finding our “true love” and the “significant other”. While 5G promises us high-speed mobile internet, 6G pledges to support ubiquitous AI services through next-generation softwarization, heterogeneity, and configurability of networks. The work on 6G is in its infancy and requires the community to conceptualize and develop its design, implementation, deployment, and use cases. Towards this end, this paper proposes a framework for Distributed AI as a Service (DAIaaS) provisioning for Internet of Everything (IoE) and 6G environments. The AI service is “distributed” because the actual training and inference computations are divided into smaller, concurrent, computations suited to the level and capacity of resources available with cloud, fog, and edge layers. Multiple DAIaaS provisioning configurations for distributed training and inference are proposed to investigate the design choices and performance bottlenecks of DAIaaS. Specifically, we have developed three case studies (e.g., smart airport) with eight scenarios (e.g., federated learning) comprising nine applications and AI delivery models (smart surveillance, etc.) and 50 distinct sensor and software modules (e.g., object tracker). The evaluation of the case studies and the DAIaaS framework is reported in terms of end-to-end delay, network usage, energy consumption, and financial savings with recommendations to achieve higher performance. DAIaaS will facilitate standardization of distributed AI provisioning, allow developers to focus on the domain-specific details without worrying about distributed training and inference, and help systemize the mass-production of technologies for smarter environments. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

17 pages, 4961 KiB  
Article
How Does the Location of Transfer Affect Travellers and Their Choice of Travel Mode?—A Smart Spatial Analysis Approach
by Jason Chia, Jinwoo (Brian) Lee and Hoon Han
Sensors 2020, 20(16), 4418; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20164418 - 07 Aug 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2518
Abstract
This study explores the relationship between the spatial distribution of relative transfer location (i.e., the location of the transfer point in relation to the trip origin and destination points) and the attractiveness of the transit service using smart card data. Transfer is an [...] Read more.
This study explores the relationship between the spatial distribution of relative transfer location (i.e., the location of the transfer point in relation to the trip origin and destination points) and the attractiveness of the transit service using smart card data. Transfer is an essential component of the transit trip that allows people to reach more destinations, but it is also the main factor that deters the smartness of the public transit. The literature quantifies the inconvenience of transfer in terms of extra travel time or cost incurred during transfer. Unlike this conventional approach, the new “transfer location” variable is formulated by mapping the spatial distribution of relative transfer locations on a homogeneous geocoordinate system. The clustering of transfer points is then quantified using grid-based hierarchical clustering. The transfer location factor is formulated as a new explanatory variable for mode choice modelling. This new variable is found to be statistically significant, and no correlation is observed with other explanatory variables, including transit travel time. These results imply that smart transit users may perceive the travel direction (to transfer) as important, in addition to the travel time factor, which would influence their mode choice. Travellers may disfavour even adjacent transfer locations depending on their relative location. The findings of this study will contribute to improving the understanding of transit user behaviour and impact of the smartness of transfer, assist smart transport planning and designing of new transit routes and services to enhance the transfer performance. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 6057 KiB  
Article
Understanding Sensor Cities: Insights from Technology Giant Company Driven Smart Urbanism Practices
by Gaspare D’Amico, Pasqua L’Abbate, Wenjie Liao, Tan Yigitcanlar and Giuseppe Ioppolo
Sensors 2020, 20(16), 4391; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20164391 - 06 Aug 2020
Cited by 49 | Viewed by 7130
Abstract
The data-driven approach to sustainable urban development is becoming increasingly popular among the cities across the world. This is due to cities’ attention in supporting smart and sustainable urbanism practices. In an era of digitalization of urban services and processes, which is upon [...] Read more.
The data-driven approach to sustainable urban development is becoming increasingly popular among the cities across the world. This is due to cities’ attention in supporting smart and sustainable urbanism practices. In an era of digitalization of urban services and processes, which is upon us, platform urbanism is becoming a fundamental tool to support smart urban governance, and helping in the formation of a new version of cities—i.e., City 4.0. This new version utilizes urban dashboards and platforms in its operations and management tasks of its complex urban metabolism. These intelligent systems help in maintaining the robustness of our cities, integrating various sensors (e.g., internet-of-things) and big data analysis technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence) with the aim of optimizing urban infrastructures and services (e.g., water, waste, energy), and turning the urban system into a smart one. The study generates insights from the sensor city best practices by placing some of renowned projects, implemented by Huawei, Cisco, Google, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Alibaba, under the microscope. The investigation findings reveal that the sensor city approach: (a) Has the potential to increase the smartness and sustainability level of cities; (b) Manages to engage citizens and companies in the process of planning, monitoring and analyzing urban processes; (c) Raises awareness on the local environmental, social and economic issues, and; (d) Provides a novel city blueprint for urban administrators, managers and planners. Nonetheless, the use of advanced technologies—e.g., real-time monitoring stations, cloud computing, surveillance cameras—poses a multitude of challenges related to: (a) Quality of the data used; (b) Level of protection of traditional and cybernetic urban security; (c) Necessary integration between the various urban infrastructure, and; (d) Ability to transform feedback from stakeholders into innovative urban policies. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Other

Jump to: Editorial, Research

20 pages, 5795 KiB  
Viewpoint
Can Building “Artificially Intelligent Cities” Safeguard Humanity from Natural Disasters, Pandemics, and Other Catastrophes? An Urban Scholar’s Perspective
by Tan Yigitcanlar, Luke Butler, Emily Windle, Kevin C. Desouza, Rashid Mehmood and Juan M. Corchado
Sensors 2020, 20(10), 2988; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20102988 - 25 May 2020
Cited by 118 | Viewed by 9382
Abstract
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has started to manifest itself at an unprecedented pace. With highly sophisticated capabilities, AI has the potential to dramatically change our cities and societies. Despite its growing importance, the urban and social implications of AI are still [...] Read more.
In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has started to manifest itself at an unprecedented pace. With highly sophisticated capabilities, AI has the potential to dramatically change our cities and societies. Despite its growing importance, the urban and social implications of AI are still an understudied area. In order to contribute to the ongoing efforts to address this research gap, this paper introduces the notion of an artificially intelligent city as the potential successor of the popular smart city brand—where the smartness of a city has come to be strongly associated with the use of viable technological solutions, including AI. The study explores whether building artificially intelligent cities can safeguard humanity from natural disasters, pandemics, and other catastrophes. All of the statements in this viewpoint are based on a thorough review of the current status of AI literature, research, developments, trends, and applications. This paper generates insights and identifies prospective research questions by charting the evolution of AI and the potential impacts of the systematic adoption of AI in cities and societies. The generated insights inform urban policymakers, managers, and planners on how to ensure the correct uptake of AI in our cities, and the identified critical questions offer scholars directions for prospective research and development. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop