August 16, 2011

1 min read

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The Smartest Cities Will Use People as Their Sensors [Video]

By networking individuals and their gadgets, urban apps will tell inhabitants what is happening all around them, in real time

By Mark Fischetti

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Several projects coordinated by MIT's Senseable City lab have revealed the powerful urban insights that can occur when people are linked via networks of sensors. Video and animations about a selection of such projects can be seen below. 

LIVE Singapore uses real-time data recorded by myriad communications devices, microcontrollers and sensors to analyze the pulse of the city, telling residents how they can reach their homes fastest, reduce their neighborhood’s energy consumption and find a taxi when a rainstorm hits.

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Trash Track reveals how garbage flows through and out of Seattle's waste-management system. Some items traveled across the U.S. to legal and illegal dumps. The results could uncover ways to improve compliance and to minimize carbon dioxide emissions by transporting waste more efficiently.

Real-Time Copenhagen generates data about constantly shifting traffic and pollution patterns, as well as where nightlife is unfolding.

Mark Fischetti was a senior editor at Scientific American for nearly 20 years and covered sustainability issues, including climate, environment, energy, and more. He assigned and edited feature articles and news by journalists and scientists and also wrote in those formats. He was founding managing editor of two spin-off magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 article “Drowning New Orleans” predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. Fischetti has written as a freelancer for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian and many other outlets. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti has a physics degree and has twice served as Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union’s Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism. He has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many radio stations.

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