Researchers have developed a low-power chip that promises to significantly reduce speech recognition energy demands, paving the way for further miniaturization of artificial intelligence (AI).

India’s Deccan Chronicle reports on a new chip developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that is specialized for AI speech recognition. The new microprocessor uses just 1% of the energy currently used by other software-based speech processors.

See also: MIT-led group uses machines to fix vocal problems

Current mainstream digital assistants are energy hogs due to the nature of their speech recognition functions. These speech recognition assistants require full-scale neural networks to be always powered on to detect vocal commands out of the fabric of background noise.

However, MIT’s chip acts almost as a pre-processor that uses much simpler voice detection. Only when this chip detects human speech does it then launch full speech recognition processors with their complex circuitry and more intense energy usage.

The MIT voice chips use just 0.2 to 10 milliwatts of electricity resulting in a 90 – 99% energy savings rate from the usual speech recognition processors.

Potential wearable use is wide

The huge power-saving potential of the MIT chip could enable increased miniaturization of wearables and installation of more advanced AI on smaller gadgets.

The low power chip could spark further integration of speech recognition into smart glasses, watches and earphones, creating more seamless interfaces between people and digital assistants.

“Speech input will become a natural interface for many wearable applications and intelligent devices,” says MIT professor Anantha Chandrakasan who helped develop the new microprocessor.

The MIT chip research was funded by a joint project involving Taiwan-based Quanta Computer. Meanwhile, the prototype of the low power microprocessor was developed through the University Shuttle Program backed by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.

MIT’s breakthrough chip comes as the competition to develop the dominant industry AI between technology giants. Apple is pushing its AI platform Siri, while IBM has Watson, Microsoft is developing Cortana, Google has Google Now and Amazon is furthering its Alexa platform.

Meanwhile, new players continue to enter the already competitive AI field. Nokia may be quietly working on its own digital personal assistant named Viki,  if it follows through with a new trademark application.

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While the manufacturing sector is increasingly using physical robots to improve industrial processes, the market for virtual bots or “chatbots” is also gaining serious traction in the space where humans and computers interact.

Bots are essentially software technologies that automate tasks and enable effective human-computer interactions. Bots are increasingly taking over customer service operations in businesses around the globe, while technology giants like Microsoft, Google and Facebook are getting in on the game with their own bot platforms.

And the bot market is starting to attract big bucks too. Recent figures indicate that 180 bot-related companies have attracted $24 billion in funding to date, with hundreds of other bot companies vying for investor dollars.

Chatbots are popping up in places where people already communicate, primarily messaging apps where they provide a user-friendly conversational interface. The actions that bots facilitate include work-related tasks like to-do lists, taxes and setting up meetings.

The technology is also used by businesses looking to automate customer service requests, such as ordering food remotely or handling reservations.

One of the main reasons that bots are growing in prevalence is the dramatic improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) software capabilities. The massive gains in AI power is allowing computers to process language better than ever before, enabling much improved conversations with humans.

And this increased language capability is not only attracting attention, but also serious investment funds.

Recent research has revealed several interesting new segments of the bot market that are attracting considerable investor funding.

The segment drawing the lion’s share of investment money to date has involved bot developer tools and service providers, which has attracted $20 billion in investment since 2010.

Other bot-related areas of opportunity that have attracted significant funding over the past six years include: messaging platforms ($2 billion); infrastructure/connectors/shared services ($1 billion); AI tools ($501 million); personal assistants  ($443 million); virtual agents/customer service ($187 million); bot discovery ($121 million); team communications/productivity ($52 million); and analytics ($2 million).

When looking at which firms are attracting the most bot-related funding, the top firms make an interesting mix. Of course, the clear 800-pound gorilla of the segment is Facebook, with a dominant $18.3 billion in funding.

Other firms follow far behind, with LINE the next best funded in the bot space with $1.3 billion. Continuing on down the list, the companies include those focused on messaging, customer service or business productivity.

The companies rounding out the top-ten firms attracting bot-related funding include: Slack ($540 million); Twilio ($484 million); Stripe ($440 million); MZ ($390 million); Foursquare ($207 million); Interactions ($135 million); Kik ($121 million); and Skype ($77 million).

A new prominence?

An example of how bots are growing in prominence and diversity can be seen through Kik Messenger which launched a bot store last year to cater to its 275 million registered users. Its platform includes a wide variety of bots that can assist with everything from sending people Vine videos to soliciting makeup suggestions from cosmetics store Sephora.

Another interesting case is MZ, which created the Game of War mobile game that has topped the charts. In a strange but true divergence, MZ constructed a bot platform that can run New Zealand’s entire transportation ecosystem.

The increasingly attractive bot space has sparked over 400 companies to target the market potential of this new technology, and accompanying investor interest. However, VentureBeat research analyst Jon Cifuentes predicts many of these bot startups will succumb to Darwin’s law, as the weak players are weeded out.

“But bots that matter — and therefore, are relevant and have a chance of sticking — are only as useful as the service they connect a user to,” says Cifuentes,

“The land grab for bot attention means launching a bot as quickly as you can,” he says. “But those crapbots won’t stick, and the tools popping up to service these junkbots won’t either.”

Though there is a rush of interest by companies looking to jump on the bot bandwagon, eventually quality bots will stand out above the field of the poorly designed junkbots. But it will take significant investment to build bots that significantly make our lives easier.

“It’s hard as hell to build a good bot — mostly because it must invoke a relevant and useful service to be any good,” said Cifuentes. “That takes a good idea, a good team, and most likely capital resources to accelerate it”

Despite the advances in AI technology, today’s bot systems are still not able demonstrate human-like understanding of open-ended language. But as bot technology continues to improve, he says there will be ongoing, healthy debates around designing conversational products that are useful and relevant, just as artificial intelligence gets better and better and at talking us through this madly evolving world.

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A recent Government Technology  white paper “Evolution of Smart Cities and Connected Communities.” The study was co-sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association and the United Parcel Service (UPS).

The paper focused on rise in worldwide smart city projects, which rose 38% to more than 235 initiatives in 2016 from 170 at the end of 2013. In terms of market value, smart cities jumped from $14.85 billion in 2015 to a predicted value of $34.35 billion by 2020, representing a compound annual growth rate of over 18%.

The paper found that a key driver of smart cities growth was the ongoing trend of global urbanization.

“With 70% of the world’s population forecast to live in cities by 2050, the need for sustainable, livable world cities is essential for a prosperous future,” said the report.

One of the more interesting findings of the research was that Asia, not America, is most likely to emerge as the region leading global smart city development.

Asia’s rosy smart city outlook is largely due to the three factors: pressing urban needs of its population centers; the tech readiness of these cities; and strong government support.

The paper noted that Asia is moving quickly into a leadership position with smart cities due to a steady stream of government investments.

India has a lot of action

India is developing an astonishing 100 new smart cities, while converting 500 other urban areas into smart cities. And China is well on the bandwagon as well, having launched 285 smart city related projects.

David Roegge, UPS’ director of high-tech segment marketing, said that he was not surprised that the report found smart cities were growing strongly in Asia.

He said that many Asian cities are building smart cities from scratch, compared to U.S. cities that are saddled with the costly chore of upgrading legacy infrastructure.

“In some of the Asian areas, India for example, they don’t necessarily need to overhaul their infrastructure, so that gives them an advantage on the speed side,” said Roegge.

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Smart city technology not only promises to improve city life for residents, but stands to make investors loads of money in the process.

ValueWalk sums up the upbeat findings of a new report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) on smart city investment.

The report, entitled “21st Century Cities: Global Smart Cities Primer Picks” identifies huge opportunities in “smart” technologies that is predicted to balloon to a market worth up to $1.6 trillion by 2020.

This follows a January report by Persistence Market Research that anticipates the worldwide smart cities market will grow to a phenomenal $3.48 trillion by 2026.

The BAML report sees this trend driven by the increasing dominance of smart cities in the global economy. While home to only 55% of the world’s population, smart cities nonetheless generate 85% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product.

This is largely due to the global trend toward urbanization that has been gaining speed over recent decades.  However, along with the huge numbers of people flocking to cities have come equally large challenges in infrastructure management, pollution and crime.

BAML identifies six key areas where huge investment opportunities are expected to be driven by smart cities and related smart technologies.

Infrastructure leads the way

Leading the pack is the global smart infrastructure market, which Technavio predicts will be worth an eye-watering $712 billion by 2020.

An area closely related to infrastructure is the smart energy space, which Navigant Research sees growing to $137 billion by 2024.

Cutting across all areas of future city tech is the smart safety and security market, which Homeland Security Research Corporation sees growing to a $226 billion addressable market by 2021.

In the realm of the built infrastructure Navigant sees smart buildings becoming a $101 billion market by 2021. And AT Kearney sees the smart housing market doing equally peachy, growing to $405 billion by 2030.

And smart mobility makes up the remainder of the market, which McKinsey sees growing into $1.5 billion segment by 2030.

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American technology giant Honeywell is boosting its focus on the growing smart cities segment in India.

The Times of India recently featured comments by Honeywell executives that highlighted India’s increasing role in the N.J.-based company’s future strategy.

Specifically, India is a prime target for Honeywell’s newly formed Home and Building Technologies (HBT) division.

The HBT wing manufactures connected devices for commercial, residential and industrial buildings. The devices perform an array of functions including tracking and controlling systems covering fire, air and security.

According to HBT’s CEO Terrence Hahn India is creating growth in two key related segments: digitization and smart cities. He says a key factor in the emergence of these two segments is the ongoing urbanization trend across the entire subcontinent.

“As a global company, we want to be supportive to driving growth,” said Hahn. “As the urban population continues to grow, we are excited about opportunities in India.”

Honeywell’s strategy involves boosting its existing presence in India, which generates $1 billion a year in domestic sales and exports. Honeywell’s revenues are produced by the 15,000 workers it employs in its seven manufacturing centers and five R&D labs around India.

“We are building the ability to develop solutions locally for local applications and then be able to grow,” said Hahn.

Honeywell has smart cities’ projects already

A recent showcase project for Honeywell in India was its 2016 installation of an IoT-enabled surveillance and emergency response system in Ujjain.

The crowd management and crime prevention capabilities of the local police were aided by the project’s automatic number plate readers and CCTV cameras.

Honeywell is also using its technology to address pollution issues for residential and commercial customers through an air purifier controlled by a mobile app.

Vikas Chadha, president, Honeywell India, said the air purifier system has been tweaked specifically for the Indian market, which suffers from air pollution levels much higher than the West.

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A telltale clue that you’re in a smart city is prominent LED lighting infrastructure, and five of the smartest global cities are absolutely festooned with futuristic lampposts.

Lux Review highlighted which cities are the global leaders when it comes to integrating advanced lighting and other smart technologies into the urban environment.

Lux crowned the Spanish metropolis of Barcelona as is top smart city, largely because of its lighting.

Connected technology fitted to lampposts allows city computers two measure traffic, crowds and pollution. And following a severe drought a few years back, Barcelona’s new streetlights were also rigged to serve as weather monitors.

The streetlight’s onboard sensors track irrigation levels and rainfall help the city more efficiently run municipal sprinkler systems.

Next up is San Francisco, which Lux noted has been a leading smart city for years, partially due to its proximity to Silicon Valley.

The city recently announced that it would replace 18.500 light-pressure sodium street light fixtures with smart LEDs. Wireless smart controllers will allow the city to use the new LED fixtures to remotely monitor light performance and warn the city when each light burns out, which will increase safety and save money.

And these lights will be the greenest street lighting in the state as they will be powered with 100% clean energy.

Copenhagen is another smart city that is leading by lighting, and aims to become carbon neutral by 2025.

Nearly half of the Danish city’s older street lights were recently replaced with LED versions which brighten when cars draw near, and dim after they pass.

These light fixtures also contain sensors that capture data to improve city services like municipal waste collection.

LA has seen big savings already

Next is Singapore which has launched an ambitious “smart nation” strategy that has seen the Asian city-state wired up with huge numbers of wireless sensors that track everything from garbage cans to traffic.

In the area of lighting, Singapore has partnered with Philips Lighting to develop a connected streetlight management system. And the government has also teamed up with Scottish visible light communication firm pureLiFi to bring this revolutionary technology to Singapore.

Lastly, Lux cited Los Angeles as a smart city light leader because of its plan to convert more than 200,000 old school streetlights into smart LED fixtures. With the project only 80% complete, LA has already saved $9 million and seen reductions in crime thanks to better lighting.

The new smart poles have wireless capability and improve phone reception. They also can monitor for lighting outages, parking availability and listen for car crashes, reporting this information back to the city.

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In a move that will beef up its distributed energy systems capabilities, U.K.-based Ovo Energy has acquired U.S. smart grid startup VCharge.

As reported by Smart Cities World, Ovo bought the Providence, R.I.-based VCharge for an undisclosed sum.

Ovo, based in Bristol, is one of England’s independent energy providers, buying and selling electricity and gas to supply domestic properties throughout the U.K.

The VCharge acquisition gives Ovo access to new energy technologies for distributed energy systems, as the market moves away from the centralized energy generation model.

Ovo says VCharge’s proprietary platform paves the way for the rapid switchover to renewable energy and energy storage. VCharge’s technology solves the problem of intermittent renewable power by providing energy storage buffers.

VCharge’s technology relies on advanced algorithms to balance individual energy user requirements with grid requirements.

This technology was used in trial applications in social housing units in London and Scotland. The results proved that the technology allowed for better heating management while helping address fuel poverty in local communities.

“VCharge’s vision is to help electricity grids around the world with the transition to becoming 100 per cent renewable, as the cost of renewable energy becomes more competitive with that of unsustainable fossil fuels,” said VCharge managing director Toby Ferenczi “Joining forces with OVO will dramatically accelerate how quickly we can achieve this goal, and will also enable us to address other important issues such as alleviating fuel poverty in the UK.”

Making power affordable?

Meanwhile, the firm sees the technology advantages from the VCharge acquisition as complimentary to the potential to address electricity affordability issues for many citizens.

“We believe this platform will harness the potential of energy storage in reducing dependency on fossil fuels, while helping to make energy more affordable for all,” said Ovo CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick.

In the partnership, VCharge said it plans to offer free heating control upgrades of electric storage heaters to 1.5 million Great Britain households.

The deal comes against the background of British efforts use smart grid technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by millions of tons per year.

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A new strategic document backed by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) aims to help smart cities structure their connectivity plans.

As reported by Smart Cities World, the first “Connected City Blueprint” was launched by the Connected City Advisory Board (CCAB). The board is an advisory committee under the aegis of the Singapore-based WBA.

The WBA board consists of such wireless industry heavy-hitters as: AT&T, BT, China Telecom, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Intel, KT Corporation, Liberty Global, NTT DOCOMO and Orange.

The CCAB’s blueprint is intended to lend guidance to smart cities by bringing together various ideas on how to structure connectivity plans from cities and local authorities.

The blueprint also seeks to help clarify the emerging challenges and opportunities from smart and connected cities. It also highlights burgeoning opportunities with public-private partnerships, roaming and big data in relation to smart cities.

The blueprint examines connectivity options in relation to various smart city stakeholders, including citizens, operators, regulators, entrepreneurs, wireless service developers and equipment manufacturers.

“Cities have a responsibility to ensure that connectivity is accessible to all – citizens, businesses and city services,” said CCAB vice chair Reza Jafari. “This means it is imperative for city managers and CIOs who’ve successfully implemented connectivity to share plans and highlight the benefits of connected cities in a way for all to understand.”

One-stop shopping for best practices?

Jafari says the blueprint provides crucial guidance by serving as a medium for many smart city players to share experiences and ideas.

“By allowing cities to share their experiences and help one another maximize opportunities and overcome challenges, we are one step closer to making the smart dream a reality,” he said.

The WBA sees the blueprint as helping foster connectivity-related opportunities and allow governments to provide better services to residents in such public sectors as healthcare.

It also says the sharing of connectivity strategies can reduce the technological inequality that has created a miasmic dyspepsia between rich and poor citizens of cities around the world.

“The WBA is committed to bridging the digital divide, and the advent of connected cities will bring digital equality to citizens across the globe,” said WBA’s chief executive Shrikant Shenwai.“The CCAB’s Blueprint will enable cities to grow partnerships, and share essential knowledge that will essentially help better the lives of millions.”

And considering that a recent report predicted that the global smart cities market could be worth $3.5 trillion by 2026, the wireless industry is looking to ensure that it remains front and center as connected urban environments continue their rapid emergence.

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With the proliferation of wearable technology, companies are increasingly finding motivation to encourage staff to don connected devices.

But on IDG’s CIO site tech writer Gary Eastwood delves into some of the worrisome privacy implications of wearbles in the workplace on employees.

Companies are increasingly pushing wearable devices on their workers. In 2013, 2,000 firms worldwide offered their employees fitness trackers, but by 2014 that number had jumped to 10,000 and continues to rise apace.

“Employees are too cavalier about the privacy implications of using corporate-provided wearables,” warns Eastwood. “Employees need to understand why this is a problem before readily accepting a company distributed wearable and whether it is a good idea.”

Companies like to hand out wearables to their workers for a number of reasons.

Health and safety is a prime motivation for getting workers geared up. Wearables at work can monitor the workplace environment to track any safety concerns.

Also employees with devices like Fitbit could be encouraged to follow healthier lifestyles, which results in lower insurance premiums for the corporation.

Do workers know they’re providing data?

However, Eastwood says that employees wearing company-provided wearables must be aware that they are providing personal data to their firms.

“The idea of the company monitoring things such as your heartbeat and location inside the workplace should be irritating, but wearables would also be monitoring what you do outside as well,” he says, potentially creating scenarios where workers are treated like high-performance workhorses. “If you are not working, then you should be exercising so your work will be better.”

Another issue for concern is the potential for where workers’ personal data might end up, with employers possibly reselling that data to other corporations.

And the fact that personal data from workers is being stored either by employers or by third parties, raises the perennial threat of security breaches and the malicious use of individual information.

“The more places your personal data is stored, the more likely that your data will be uncovered by hackers,” says Eastwood, who says personal data could be useful for corporate espionage “hackers could also obtain operational data about the corporation which would be on users’ wearables.”

He says the simplest solution to the dilemmas posed by workplace wearables may be for workers to simply refuse wearing connected technology.

However, if donning company-provided wearables is something that employees are considering, he recommends that staff find out what measures the firm is taking to limit privacy abuse both internally and from external third-parties and hackers.

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Smart cities looking to generate more data insights are using cutting edge video analytics to mine feeds from old security cameras.

In a recent commentary Hitachi Insight Group VP Mark Jules discussed how cities can generate data gold from trusty old school video cameras.

He says video analytics are the secret to amping up the value of video feeds from cameras already installed around our cities. This new technology uses computer vision and intelligence to transform those old video cameras into Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. These souped-up cameras then have the potential to generate a variety alerts and insights.

“A tried-and-true technology, video cameras already serve as vicarious eyes and ears in many locales, helping provide situational awareness to those who keep people and property safe,” says Jules.

By utilizing data from these existing cameras, video analytics can analyse the movement of humans and vehicles to help cities become more livable. And the new source of data insight can help smart cities bridge the gap that still exists in making our urban environments more responsive.

Jules gives an example of how added data insight from old video cameras can improve decision-making by businesses looking to understand shopper behavior.

“Analysing how shoppers navigate streets and sidewalks can help store owners make smarter decisions about where they situate their shops or advertisements, or how much rent property owners can command,” he says. “Individual retailers can maximize their investments in floor space and inventory by tracing the rate at which customers enter their store and which products or displays attract and hold their interest.”

Helping retailers figure out what you want

Such information really begins to shine when the information generated by video analytics is merged with point-of-sale data, and retailers can make smarter decisions to attract customers.

Another area where video analytics can mine old video cameras is at airports, which are not only for transportation but increasingly for shopping as well.

“As travelers spend more time preparing for flights, airports are becoming retail centers too, capitalizing on a captive audience of consumers by beefing up the food, beverage and shopping destinations they host in their terminals,” he says.

He says that video analytics can allow existing cameras to track the length of queues, optimize staff at security checkpoints and enhancing passport control processes so passengers can spend more time shopping and less time standing around.

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Not only is Kansas City on the cutting edge of urban technology improvements, but it’s now sharing its insights to help improve other smart cities around the world.

In a press release, Kansas City announced that it is now opening up the gates on its smart city data. In its first batch of data, it will share smart city insights with leaders from 18 cities, two countries and five federal agencies.

The city says sharing the information will enable big data analysis by its partners that will hopefully improve their smart city initiatives, and Kansas City’s as well.

Kansas City chose to publish the data while co-hosting a national workshop with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Think Big Partners. This follows a report which revealed that mid-sized U.S. cities are leading the charge for smart city projects over their mega-city brethren.

The data was generated by the city’s smart city initiative rolled out nine months ago. That $15 million initiative included 125 smart streetlights, free public Wi-Fi across 50 downtown blocks and interactive kiosks to engage citizens.

Better infrastructure through data

This connected infrastructure has been using sensors to collect real-time data to help the city operate more efficiently. Kansas City plans to use this smart city data for decision-making that enables more efficient repairs and maintenance of such infrastructure as streets and water lines.

“The smart city sensors and digital tools are cool, but understanding how to use these tools – and the data that they generate – bridges the gap between cool and smart,” said Sly James, Mayor of Kansas City.

This data will soon be migrated to the city’s open data catalog and will displayed via a platform operated by technology firm Xaqt.

The real-time visualization of the data is available for the public on a map that shows streetcars, pedestrian hotspots, available parking and traffic flow.

“We’ve been testing the quality of the data collected through our Smart City infrastructure,” said Bob Bennett, the city’s Chief Innovation Officer. “Now we will put it to work to benefit Kansas City residents.”

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While a dizzying array of connected gadgetry is vying for room on city leaders’ wish lists, industry experts advise less focus on the technology itself and more on industry partnerships that can build out smart cities.

At the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors held in Washington, D.C., Joanne Hovis, president of Maryland-based IT consultancy CTC Technology & Energy, said that expanding broadband internet access is vital for turbocharging a smart city’s capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship.

“There’s increasingly this understanding that the broadband internet is the platform over which our economy and our democracy ride,” she said. “And that is growing every single day.”

But she said local governments often face obstacles to building out these broadband networks, such as in Pennsylvania where state laws limit municipalities’ ability to take the lead on broadband.

Closer work with private sector needed?

Yet even when cities are hamstrung by regulations or budgetary restrictions, local governments can still move forward with new technology by working closer with private companies.

For example, Hovis says cash-strapped local governments can spur innovation by easing the permitting process to make it easier for private firms to make progress on building out broadband networks.

This U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge focused on cities forging new partnerships with the private sector and academic institutions.

Columbus, Ohio, which won the $50 million prize from the DOT competition, has platformed off that win to build partnerships and attract more than $500 million in private funding.

The prize money combined with the private funding is helping Columbus undertake a variety of smart city initiatives including installation of smart sensors to improve traffic flow and building out its transit system.

“The greatest challenge of the 21st century is to leverage innovation and technology to help people improve their own lives,” said Columbus mayor Andrew Ginther.

Columbus cites the smart transit improvements as directly improving its citizens’ quality of life by reconnecting isolated neighborhoods and allowing residents to better commute to jobs and health services.

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Ten American cities have been shortlisted for the Smart Cities Council Readiness Challenge Grant program, the winners of which will be announced next week.

The Smart Cities Council has released a short list of cities that will be competing for the grant program.

Winning cities have access to smart city-related offerings such as: professional services; best practices advice; expertise from leading smart cities technology providers; and a chance to learn from peer cities.

The five winning cities will also get readiness workshops tailored to their smart technology needs. The winning cities will be announced February 8.

“We’ve received tremendous interest from cities of all sizes across the United States and we’ve narrowed it down to an exceptional pool of ten finalists,” said Jesse Berst, Chairman of the Smart Cities Council. “Each finalist demonstrated a comprehensive approach to smart cities implementation that will significantly advance their livability, workability, sustainability and resilience.”

This competition follows the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge for $50 million which Columbus, Ohio won last summer.

Though the monetary stakes may not be as high this time, the competition for the Smart Cities Council grants has been no less fierce. The competition, which was open to U.S. cities with populations over 100,000, generated applications from a whopping 133 cities.

From coast to coast

Of these applications, the following ten municipalities were chosen as finalists after undergoing interviews to determine where each would focus their smart city projects.

Austin, Texas indicated that it would focus its smart city efforts on energy, telecommunications and transportation.

Birmingham, Ala. said its key focus would be on the built environment, energy and transportation.

The application of Chula Vista, Calif., launched in conjunction with San Diego, emphasized smart city projects that targeted energy, telecommunications and transportation.

Indianapolis stated it would highlight smart initiatives around energy, transportation, water and wastewater.

Jersey City, NJ partnered with Hoboken in a bid that targeted transportation, waste management, water and wastewater.

Miami focused its application on the built environment, telecommunications and public safety.

Newport News, Va. chose to emphasize a smart strategy that focused on transportation, public safety, water and wastewater.

Orlando, Fla. Teamed up with Orange County in a bid that centered on the built environment, transportation and public safety.

Philadelphia focused its application on the built environment, telecommunications, water and wastewater.

Lastly, Providence, RI chose to emphasize the built environment, transportation and basic public services in its bid.

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Faced with daunting costs for urban technology upgrades, the government of Thailand is actively fostering private smart city partnerships.

Singapore’s e27 News examined Thailand’s recent prioritization of private smart city partnerships.

Under a government plan to accelerate smart cities around the country, Thailand has called on private industry to launch ventures devoted to innovation, asset management and city development.

The initial phase of the plan is focused on the provinces of Phuket, Chiang Mai and Kon Kaen.

Thailand’s Digital Economy and Society Minister, Pichet Durongkaveroj, said the outreach to the private sector is to bridge the funding gap for developing smart cities.

“Smart cities cannot be developed by only the state, as their development requires massive funds,” said Pichet.

He added that the government is also pushing private-public collaborations because they offer better opportunities for long-term investment.

Thailand’s Digital Economy Promotion Agency is supervising the smart city initiative. Under the initiative, Phuket became the first city to feature a private-public partnership, with an $11 million project aimed at building the local digital economy.

Chang Mai is next?

Next up Chiang Mai is launching smart city partnerships this year with a budget of $1 million. Kon Kaen will follow next year with an initial budget of around half a million dollars.

As part of a long term government strategy Phuket and Chiang Mai are being highlighted as investment centers for technology. As part of this emphasis, the government hopes to develop these areas into “super clusters” for digital innovation in security, the environment, tourism, education and healthcare.

Eventually, the government hopes to expand such projects from these initial three locales to build smart cities across Thailand.

It was previously reported that Phuket is piloting smart city projects to help the police with enforcing traffic laws and improve the transportation system. Phuket is also building new centers of operation to monitor data and services.

The smart city projects in Phuket emerged out of a partnership agreement between the Thai city and the South Korean city of Busan.

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Chicago will be the site of another smart city initiative as CIVIQ Smartscapes announced plans to launch a new Wi-Fi powered pilot project.

Milford, Ma.-based CIVIQ will install interactive devices in downtown Chicago that offer high-speed public Wi-Fi.

On top of wireless connectivity, the Waypoint devices will also provide such digital services as wayfinding, safety alerts and interactive information about transportation services.

“Cities across the world are focused on transforming urban landscapes into hyper-connected smartscapes,” said CIVIQ Smartscapes Managing Director of Global Government Development & Innovation George Burciaga. “Connecting smart devices, services and people will allow cities to react to human occurrences in real time, while becoming more efficient and sustainable.”

The devices will also allow direct citizen engagement with the city of Chicago through CIVIQ’s Mobility Experience. This solution allows residents to connect with the city in order to enable municipal staff and elected officials to respond better to pressing issues.

“The City of Chicago and the Mayor are focused on building a safer and smarter Chicago, this technology improves the way residents communicate and is the first step of many within the City of Chicago,” said Alderman Daniel Solis.

Helping the Windy City save cash

The pilot project is part of Chicago’s focus as an AT&T spotlight city under its smart cities framework. The AT&T framework aims to leverage the company’s IoT expertise to help targeted cities save money, preserve natural resources and improve the quality of life for their citizens.

The CIVIQ project follows the recently announced news that AT&T and Chicago are deepening their smart city partnership with a pilot project for smart kiosks and bus shelters.

The telecoms giant announced this expansion of its smart cities work in Chicago at the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas.

As well, AT&T Smart Cities it also revealed it is expanding its presence at O’Hare International Airport beyond its digital displays that show real-time ground transport information.

The airport expansion involves a project that will capture passenger data as they move around the airport to improve customer service.

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Though many cities are rushing to launch smart city projects willy nilly, Seattle is taking a deeper look at how to implement new technology that doesn’t build more dumb silos.

Seattle is making a concerted effort to put new connected technology in place that is properly integrated horizontally instead of it building vertical silos.

See also: Mid-sized cities lead the smart city charge

For example, a dumb smart city project could include multiple weather sensors installed on municipal utility poles that send information to multiple data centers. This creates an un-smart city situation where the left device doesn’t know what the right device is doing.

“That’s what we want to avoid,” said Michael Mattmiller, Seattle’s Chief Technology Officer. “That is a dumb smart city.”

This attitude has led to a silo-busting crusade that Mattmiller has led since taking on his current role in 2014.

“We consolidated technology professionals last year into one department. We had 15 departments that were all trying to figure out technological solutions for themselves and focus on what was tried without thinking of these broader solutions,” he said. “In the past year, we’ve driven awareness about the need to eliminate silos and we’ve worked with all of our departments.”

Still full speed ahead despite the change?

The technology reorganization hasn’t stopped Seattle barreling ahead with new smart city initiatives like the ShotSpotter’s gunshot detection pilot. This project aims to help police officers determine from which locales gunshots were fired.

As well, the city is connecting 800 body video cameras for police officers in early 2017.

The city is also involved in various partnerships with the University of Washington such as the RainWatch smart city initiative.

In a city known for its high levels of annual rainfall, the RainWatch project monitors precipitation in real time so the city can send out flood-related safety warnings.

As well, the city has partnered on an adaptive transportation management system that enables traffic lights to adapt to road and weather conditions.

Seattle’s commitment to smart cities jives with recent research that found that mid-sized U.S. cities were filling the pipeline with more urban technology projects than the largest cities.

The research found that of the 335 smart city projects currently underway, 168 are in mid-sized cities, 98 in small cities and only 69 are ongoing in large cities.

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A charity is partnering with the World Council on City Data to build the capabilities of Indian cities to track city performance with data.

As reported in the Times of India, the data project is called the City Data India Initiative. It is being spearheaded by Tata Trusts, the charitable organisation that controls two-thirds equity of the parent company of the Tata Group conglomerate.

See also: India hopeful Trump will continue smart cities initiatives

Tata Trusts is partnering with the Toronto-based World Council on City Data (WCCD) which is an organization that provides a platform for standardized city data. The WCCD also provides certification for the international standard ISO 37120 Sustainable Development of Communities: Indicators for City Services and Quality of Life that allows benchmarking for progress and innovation.

Aimed at building Indian city data capabilities

The new initiative is focused on building the data capabilities of Indian cities to accurately measure their urban area’s environmental, social, economic and performance.

“It has become clear that we are now giving the cities true strength by working on data and recognising the importance of data,” said Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts. “The impact of this profound usage is huge. It will enable both the government and private sectors to set civic codes, evaluate outreach and finally assess the impact of policy and initiatives.”

The City Data India Initiative is aimed at supporting and enhancing the Indian governments various city development programmes. Specifically the new project will benefit government’s Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation.

“Realising the value of data, Tata Trusts have actively taken up the agenda of striving towards ‘Data-Driven Governance’ to inform, impact and improve policy formation with a view to facilitate holistic development of the nation,” stated Tata Trusts.

The new data program will begin with three urban areas: Jamshedpur, Surat and Pune.

This follows earlier news that U.S. networking hardware giant Cisco Systems is looking to transform 100 Indian metropolises into smart cities with connected technology.

Cisco announced in November that it would begin by wiring 14 Indian cities, and hoped to expand that number to 100 throughout the life of its partnership.

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Though the big American metropolises often hog the smart city headlines, a new study found that U.S. mid-sized cities are the true technology leaders.

A new study into U.S. smart city activity demonstrated that mid-sized cities were filling the pipeline with the most urban technology projects.

The survey of 54 American cities was produced by the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) in conjunction with IHS Markit.

The research found that of the 335 smart city projects currently underway, 168 are in mid-sized cities, 98 in small cities and only 69 are ongoing in large cities.

Meanwhile, the study found 459 smart city projects were planned for the future. Of those, 225 were slated for mid-size cities, 131 for small cities, and just 103 were planned for the big cities.

“This survey highlights that cities across the country are implementing smart city projects to improve efficiency and increase government response to citizens,” said Mick Cornett , Mayor of Oklahoma City and President of USCM. “We think this is a movement that will continue to grow,” he said.

Plain old governance ideas trump new fancy tech

And though fancy LED lights and connected kiosks seem to be the most frequent futuristic projects in the news, it is in fact governance projects that top functional smart city initiatives, with 86 projects implemented.

Governance is followed by mobility and transport, with 74 implemented projects and physical infrastructure with 59.

“As mayors we have a unique perspective on the challenges facing our communities and the role that technology can play in solving them,” said Ed Lee, Mayor of San Francisco. “We must continue to explore and harness the newest technologies to help make our cities smarter, safer and more efficient, and improve the quality of life for all our residents.”

And the importance of improving quality of life was reflected in the survey findings. The top priorities for smart city projects in America were increasing citizen satisfaction and improving government responsiveness.

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Last year’s headline-grabbing security breaches of Internet of Things (IoT) technology was the opening salvo in a new cyberwar where smart cities are firmly in the crosshairs.

Smart city security vulnerabilities were a recent topic of discussion with Paul Williams, SADC Country Manager with cyber security software firm Fortinet.

Williams says that 2016’s high profile IoT cyber-attacks exposed how vulnerable this new technology is to hackers.

“As was seen recently in a series of IoT-based denial of service attacks, IoT devices can be compromised and hijacked into a Shadownet and controlled by a command and control center run by hackers,” he says. “Alternatively, these devices and services may be attacked in order to deny services to legitimate users.”

And considering that global smart city strategies hinge on connecting massive numbers of IoT devices and sensors, this boosts the attack surfaces targeted by smart city hackers.

“The increase in the size of a smart city’s IoT device footprint corresponds to an increase in the size of its attack surface,” he warns.

In light of how quickly IoT technology is being integrated into vital systems of smart cities, considerable damage can be done by malicious hackers.

Some examples of possible smart city attacks could include: disrupting traffic by hijacking traffic lights or misdirecting vehicles; causing sewage system floods or disrupted access to drinking water; or remotely operating alarm systems and temperature control systems.

But rather than hitting the panic button, Williams recommends smart cities begin a systematic approach to tackling their IoT security threats.

“While it’s not possible to secure every possible security breach in a totally connected environment… it’s possible to take some key initial steps to strengthen the smart city’s security posture and architecture,” he says.

Using strong encryption

Among these initial steps would be the usual advice of using strong encryption, designing tamper-resistant systems and implementing strong system access control.

Beyond these steps he says that complex smart city networks need to implement segmentation to boost security. He suggests, for example, that smart transportation networks be logically segmented from other networks like user services or energy networks.

“This aids in isolating an attacks, and allows for the advanced detection of data and threats as attacks and malware move from one network zone to the other,” says Williams. “This also divides the smart city network into security zones, which aids in compliance, monitoring internal traffic and devices, and preventing unauthorized access to restricted data and resources.”

He also recommends that smart cities develop specific mitigation strategies to counter distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. These strategies could include overprovisioning the city’s bandwidth to withstand the overwhelming nature of DDoS attacks.

“This may be comprised of either an over provisioned appliance solution, or a hybrid solution consisting of appliances combined with a cloud based scrubbing center,” he says.

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TE Connectivity is partnering with a consortium of companies to launch a new Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) testbed for sensors connected to the cloud and smart factory machinery.

A recent Control Engineering Europe article discussed the new testbed with Daniel Walldorf and Michael Hilgner from TE Connectivity. TE, formerly Tyco Electronics, designs and manufactures connectivity and sensor solutions for a variety of industries.

See also: Is security the biggest threat to industrial IoT?

The new testbed seeks to allow the analysis of IIoT production data by connecting operational technology and IT systems.

“TE Connectivity and three partners have set out to implement a testbed that shows how existing sensors can be connected to the cloud and machines upgraded for smart applications under the umbrella of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC),”said Walldorf and Hilgner.

They highlighted the role IIC in the testbed initiative. The Needham, Ma.-based organization of over 250 members is focused on developing and testing IoT ecosystems for smart factories and in other environments.

“(The IIC) is creating experimental platforms (testbeds) that will be used to put future technologies, products and applications through their paces to find out whether they are feasible and what benefits they offer to users,” they said.

Infrastructure needs upgradeable solutions

In developing the new IIoT test bed for testing existing sensors to the cloud, TE partnered with SAP, the OPC Foundation and ifm. This testbed is being used to demonstrate how energy consumption can be reduced through intelligent solutions that involve optimized data capture, transport and processing.

“The IIC testbed demonstrates how smart connectivity technology helps connect data from existing sensors to the cloud and then analyze it in an IT system in order to increase process efficiency – in this case, monitoring energy consumption,” say Walldorf and Hilgner. “Existing infrastructures in particular need upgradable solutions that minimize downtime, save costs and increase productivity. Pilot projects at TE’s own factories have shown that this approach also works in practice.”

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