Smart Cities, Smart Buildings, Smart Homes - Emerging Technologies
Introduction:
Urban life in the last decade is becoming more sophisticated with the invention of IOT - Internet of Things. The increasing sophistication has led to smart living with huge potential for savings opportunities in multiple areas & better living conditions.
With Increasing population, corporations and municipalities are not able provide facilities or public services with traditional methods. More specifically in the areas of Waste management and disposal, Centralized energy management, Public lighting, Security needs, Alternate energy sources, Traffic management are within the prism of Smart cities.
Most of these factors are also driving Smart buildings and Smart homes in urban lives. Average office hours in the cities and towns had increased phenomenally in the last 10-20 years. Therefore, there is a need for a better office environment and remote management of homes with sophisticated gadgets and devices. This had led to a revolution through IOT - Internet of things.
Metros & Urbans - Will it habitable with Smart cities?
Smart cities and driving forces:
There are many cities in the Americas, Europe and Asia pacific as part of the smart cities revolution. Seattle in USA, Helsinki in Finland, Barcelona in Spain are examples of smart cities.
India recently joined the bandwagon with the proposed development of 100 cities across India.
Good Sanitation facilities, potable water supplies, Waste disposal management, centralized energy management, Traveller friendly urban mobility, increasing use of Internet and IOT are the essential drivers for smart cities.
The objective is to improve the quality of life of people and to make it more liveable cities and urban centres. Also read the following related articles:
Smart Buildings:
Smart building has features like centralized building management/automation system, HV/AC, Security infra setups, eco friendly lighting, and access control through electronic devices.
The connectivity through internet and IOT are the key for the smart buildings.
SBC - Smart building certification is the certification or hallmark for buildings with intelligence and smartness.
LEED - Certification recognises the buildings under different certificate grades from silver to platinum based on achievements or milestones achieved over the years.
Energy Conservation, Water recycling - Smart Buildings
Are we going to live with Gadgets or Humans!!
Smart homes:
Home automation industry is also as Domotics coming from the word Domos - meaning home.
The central driver for home automation is nothing but, IOT - Internet of things. Networked environment enables home owners to monitor their houses from their offices or remote locations while on travel, control devices remotely including Televisions, Air conditioning, Home security, Air purifiers, Water management systems etc.,
Eventhough, smart homes makes our life dearer due to use of various gadgets, it saves energy, better security and improved quallty of lives.
The biggest irony in future is that, technology can also pose a major threat to our life while providing some conveniences!
Industry Value:
Smart cities:
There is a huge potential for each of the industries discussed above. For example world wide industry value of smart cities is about ~ $ 300 Billion as at 2020. Companies like Schneider Electric, Cisco and Siemens are leading the pack.
Smart Buildings:
As per recent statistics the industry is about ~ $ 50 Billion with large companies like IBM and Siemens are leading the initiatives.
Smart homes:
The Smart homes is about ~ $90 Billion worth with companies like Schneider, Savant, August home are leading. In india, there are several such companies in the metros and capitals of each of the states.
Will smart city be only a Title or a Reality to urban centres!!