IEEE Electrification - September 2019 - 12

Radiation Detection
Radiation monitors detect and alert a city to nuclear radiation in real time. Some monitors, often called radiation portal monitors (RPMs), can detect radiation on moving
sources, such as people and vehicles. RPMs are especially
valuable at ports of entry and private facilities where the
detection of radiation could minimize or eliminate the
risk of injury or loss.

Public Wi-Fi
Public Wi-Fi refers to the availability of wireless service
made freely available within a specific location. Many cities provide free Wi-Fi in specific sites within the city to
anyone within range of a Wi-Fi hub.

Gas-Leak Detection

The Contribution of AI

Gas-leak detection systems are used to detect the presence
of noxious gases. As with other smart city systems or applications, gas-leak detection technology relies on sensors,
often connected wirelessly, to pinpoint the source of leaks.

A hallmark of the second-generation smart city is technology that enables urban planners, administrators, and
incident-response teams to see or anticipate events or
spot patterns that presage events, thereby leaving time to
mitigate issues or prevent situations that could be dangerous or disastrous. AI is already on the cusp of shaping
decisions related to what-if scenarios. That's because
today's planners are more adept than ever at gathering
real-time data and combining those data with the capabilities of AI. They can gain rich insights into what they
can do to improve the city-whether to choose from
potential options or to make a "go, no-go" decision before
expending capital budgets and work on options that
would likely prove in the end to be unwise or impractical.
Many technologies used in the smart city ecosystem,
such as networks, sensors, and the IoT itself, are maturing
fast. But AI and its counterpart, machine learning, are just
now being adopted to improve the sophistication of services that create smart cities.
As an example, AI can be applied to predict, based on
what happened today, what is likely to happen in a similar circumstance later on if, for example, people drive or
take rapid transit from the suburbs to attend a sporting
event. City planners can then use that foresight to better
channel traffic, set speed limits, manage parking, create
additional temporary parking, or find another solution.
But, today, we are just touching the surface of what AI
will bring in the second generation of the smart city.
Many industry watchers are signaling caution in the
deployment of AI as it matures. Panelists at a Brookings
Institution event in February 2019 agreed that planners
must roll out AI in "a secure and responsible manner" rather
than striving to create "the first tech adopters on the block."
Hence, adopters of AI must take a studied approach to AI
rollouts, due in part to the evolutionary state of AI. The same
cannot be said about the infrastructures or applications in
which to deploy AI; those are plentiful, and they can only
gain and deliver a huge ROI once they become "AI-infused."
The first phases-building networks, developing sensors, determining where to place those sensors, and
generating data from them-are complete. In that sense,
nothing is holding back AI. It's ready for prime time. The
second phase is to collect data to feed AI algorithms.
The many potential applications across the smart city
underscore the need to accelerate the adoption of AI. For example, consider the use of cameras. According to research by

Intrusion Detection
An intrusion-detection system (IDS) is a security system
that works in tandem with IoT devices or applications
mainly in the network layer of an IoT system. An IDS can
analyze packets of data and respond in real time.
To guard against distributed denial of service and botnet attacks, city IT departments should also deploy network-monitoring and intrusion-detection measures that
can determine when botnets are attempting to connect
with known command-and-control servers. An IDS can
detect whether compromised workstations are scanning
the network for vulnerabilities, for example.

Digital Services
Digital services are those that connect, inform, and alert
citizens about available city services as well as explain
how they can take advantage of them (Figure 8). Applications include digital kiosks and public Wi-Fi.

Digital Kiosks
A digital kiosk is essentially a computer system with a display and specialized hardware and software that provides
access to information and applications related to shopping, entertainment, education, public services, personal
safety, and emergency services.
Digital kiosks, typically placed in city centers or any
location where crowds gather, give passersby easy access

Figure 8. An illustration symbolizing digital services offered in smart
cities.

to information (Figure 9). A kiosk can also serve as a concierge and a gathering place.

I E E E E l e c t r i f i cati o n M agaz ine / SEPTEMBER 2019

IEEE Electrification - September 2019

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