This week’s Smart City roundup features new technology for turning steering wheels “smart,” a partnership to turn a U.S. city into a smart one, and a tech company provides the foundation for smarter cities.

Smart steering wheels for safer roads

Hoffmann + Krippner, Inc., in cooperation with Guttersberg Consulting GmbH, announced SensoFoil, a thin strip of technology that detects both pressure and position. The technology is intended to be embedded in steering wheels to detect whether the driver is dozing off or is in an emergency based on the pressure applied by their hands, as well as how they are handling the wheel.

When it senses that the driver is dozing off, it can send a buzz to wake the driver up. It will also be a significant upgrade for autonomous-driving vehicles, because when it senses an emergency, it can drive directly to the nearest hospital. Or if the driver is dozing off, the vehicle can pull over on the side of the road to prevent an accident.

The pressure control feature can be assigned various functions. For instance, placing hands on a certain spot can trigger emergency, entertainment or communications systems.

“Pressure Sensing SensoFoil cost-effectively provides extra features and capabilities to a diverse range of products,” said Jens Kautzor, CEO of Hoffmann + Krippner, Inc., in a statement. “In addition, this sensing technology requires very little external energy since power consumption is very low. The sensor system is insensitive to electromagnetic radiation and therefore ideal for the automotive, aerospace and medical sectors.”

SoZo and Huawei turn Dothan, AL into a smart city

SoZo Group Holdings Company, Ltd. announced a partnership with Huawei USA and Troy Cablevision that will turn turn the Alabama city of Dothan into a 100-gigabit city. The announcement was made at the Dothan Opera House, and the project will include ultra high-speed Internet, telemedicine, teleconference, smart stadium, smart office, smart industry, smart communities and smart homes.

“Imagine coming home and not worrying about turning on the lights or your air conditioner; it automatically comes on,” SoZo Chief Solutions Officer Wesley Riley said. “Or, being at a football game and ordering a hot dog and beer with your smartphone and in five minutes it’s delivered to you.”

Some of the businesses that will be impacted by the project include Freedom Business Technologies, LLC, Dothan Warehouse, Inc. and even hospitals in the Circle City. SoZo also announced that the project will be supporting the Wiregrass Children’s Home, Love in Action International Ministries, Wiregrass United Way 211 and the United Way Wiregrass Area Food Bank.

Cisco IoT System provides foundation to transform industries

Cisco Systems, Inc. estimates that by 2020, there will be 50 billion devices that are able to connect to the Internet. But, currently, a majority of “our things” are still not able to do so. Because of this, Cisco announced the Cisco IoT System, which aims to address the complexities associated with connecting things to the Internet.

The Cisco IoT System is comprised of six pillars or critical technology elements, namely network connectivity, Fog computing, security, data analytics, management and automation, and application enablement platform. The company also announced new products and services for IoT, which includes new routers, IP cameras, Fog director and Fog Data services, to name a few.

Image source: Hoffmann+Krippner