Hull , England, is one of the smart cities that has started using its own operating system to collect all its data and manage its resources more efficiently.
By using Internet of Things (IoT) sensors distributed around the city to provide real-time data, Hull City Council says it will be able to better control street lighting, waste collection, parking and traffic congestion, at reduced cost.
The council partnered with a local telecommunications service provider, Connexin, which relied on Cisco's Cinetic Cities for Cities platform, a software that allows city operators to view and manage data from multiple sensors and from a single dashboard.
Furqan Alamgir, founder of Connexi n, said that smart cities wanted to create a central operating system to avoid having multiple management systems.
The platform, called CityOS, pulls and gathers information from a range of different IoT sensors, then forwards it to the city's operators. This means that the data is easier to see and can be used for better resource management.
Consultant Daren Hale said that the system gathers information that allows the entire city to manage public resources in real time.
This does not mean that the City Council will be entirely dependent on technology and that the traffic lights or waste collection will collapse if one day CityOS encounters a problem.
The sensors that are installed inside the containers monitor the waste levels and the data are used to determine the optimal waste collection times or more efficient collection routes.
Alamgir said that it is nice to see the United Kingdom innovating.
