This week’s Smart City roundup features San Jose joining the connected city trend, a company that has transformed recycling and waste management in the U.K., and device interconnectivity and data security that’s driving innovation for the next generation of smart buildings.

San Jose gets savvy, runs free smart city tests

San Jose is joining the Internet of Things revolution as it enlists startup company anyCOMM to help connect integral parts of the city to the Internet to help improve the metropolis.

The project will entail the deployment of WiFi on 148 sensors on streetlights in the center of the city, with 18 more around the perimeter of the Mineta San Jose Airport, if the United States Federal Aviation Administration approves it.

The sensors will connect to the photocell receptacle of the streetlights and will collect data on traffic, movement on the streets, detect ground shifts and send earthquake warnings, serve as WiFi hotspots, turn off streetlights when sidewalks and roads are empty, and can even record audio and video.

Surprisingly anyCOMM was chosen for this project despite there being larger service providers offering smart city products, but one notable perk is that San Jose will be able to test anyCOMM products for free. That makes the San Jose project a prime opportunity for anyCOMM, too.

“This pilot is about testing a precommercial technology,” San Jose spokesperson David Vossbrink stated. “The city’s demonstration policy creates the opportunity to companies with precommercial technology to demonstrate their technologies on a nonexclusive, limited-scope basis.”

U.K. benefits from Bigbelly smart bins

Numerous areas in the U.K are now benefitting from the installation of smart trash bins from Bigbelly Inc.

The smart, cloud-connected bins from Bigbelly collect, consolidate and analyze data from connected waste and recycling units to come up with a complete waste management solution that helps keep streets clean. The bins send texts and email notifications to the proper authorities when they’re near capacity. This helps the council make smart and informed decisions with regards to waste collection and route scheduling.

The smart bins also has a built-in compaction feature, which is solar powered and can hold eight times more waste compared to non-smart bins. By holding more waste, garbage collection is done fewer times which translates to fuel savings.

Islington is one of London’s boroughs testing the pilot program by placing 30 of the smart bins at busy litter hotspots.

Driving innovation for next-gen smart buildings

According to a report from Frost & Sullivan, Inc., the Internet of Things is driving innovation for next generation smart buildings as participants in this field are now looking into putting in place solutions that offer not only energy efficiency but also flexible, secure and cost-effective cloud-based apps that convert building data into a decision-making platform.

The report also stated that partnership between building technology (BT) providers and communication leaders are being forged to be able to come up with better smart building solutions.

“Establishing partnerships and alliances with consortiums and IoT providers will enhance the opportunity to bring in innovation to IoT-enabled devices and software frameworks,” said Frost & Sullivan Energy and Environmental Research Analyst Anirudh Bhaskaran. “Collaboration between large BT and IoT providers will also be the key to developing cloud-based analytics and drawing out the full potential of IoT.”

The smart building market is projected to be worth $36,398.7 Million by 2020 as energy costs are expected to increase by 40 percent between 2010 and 2040.

Photo by Gerhard Kemme