Governments and communities are already hard at work developing smarter cities for their citizens. But the challenges of integrating new technologies into old systems can still be a lengthy, challenging process. Wireless power over air is changing all that.
What makes a smart city so smart, anyway? A smart city is a city that uses information and communication technologies to:
- Improve the efficiency of urban operations and services and
- Connect and empower its citizens.1
How? By collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing data about how we move, live, and behave in our surroundings, urban planners and other professionals can optimize the world we live in. Over the last few decades, technology has been instrumental in this process, and more recently, AI has been applied to gather insights and apply new solutions even more rapidly.
For example, AI is being used to:
Decrease our carbon footprint, such as identifying high energy consumption and suggest ways to reduce energy use2
- Improve public safety, such as detecting suspicious activity or identify objects that could be used in a crime3 4
- Reduce travel time by recommending real-time best transportation routes5
- Optimize city engineering, by predicting traffic congestion and suggesting alternatives based on real-world data6
- Improve air quality by monitoring and identifying pollution sources7
How do we improve the efficiency of urban operations and services—smartly and sustainably—when our city systems are growing so rapidly?
Part of the problem — and the solution — lies in choosing the right source for power. Consider all the cameras, sensors, trackers, and other electronic devices, including personal devices such as mobile phones, that are collecting and sending data all the time, all over the world. Most of them are either hardwired, need to be regularly connected to or near a plugged-in charger, or rely on batteries.
These traditional energy sources are enormous obstacles to rapid growth of smart cities. They take a whole lot of planning and people and environmental resources to execute, and continued on-the-ground maintenance to keep them reliably running.
One smart city infrastructure solution: Real Wireless Power
But there is an alternative: Real Wireless Power. Real Wireless Power is power over air, at a distance, without the need for charging, wires, or batteries. It can be used in motion and from out of sight. Plus it can automatically and reliably keep electronics and sensors powered up even in the remotest of locations, like on top of towers, inside the bowels of equipment and factories, deep in a forest or desert, or inside a moving train. If WiFi is available, it’s more than likely that wireless power can be, too.
Are there other obstacles of smart city infrastructure expansion? Absolutely. But reliably and continuously getting power to the technology that is collecting and sending data for AI to leverage is likely top of the list.
Before we dive into the myriad of benefits, let’s jump to the other part of what makes a smart city smart: connecting and empowering its citizens. Can wireless power over air help there, too? You betcha.
How do we leverage wireless power over air to better connect and empower our cities’ citizens?
We’ve covered how Real Wireless Power will help improve the efficiency of urban operations and services. But what about connecting and empowering the people?
This may happen as a natural default to transitioning communities to wireless power.
People are already more and more comfortable providing explicit permission for organizations to collect (often anonymous) data from their smartphones8 in order to provide a more valuable experience. As one example, mobile phones are one source of traffic and transportation time estimates that are provided to the public.
Downtime (or devices not connected due to lack of power) of personal devices collectively results in millions of minutes of lost data. That’s data that cannot be fed into the AI, and insights that get missed. From a citizen’s perspective, a low or no power phone means no alerts that can impact their transportation, safety, and security, such as severe weather, emergency evacuations, tripped fire and security systems, and Amber/Ebony/Silver alerts.
As consumer mobile phones switch from plugging in to charge up to being always on via wireless power over air, data will become even more consistent and reliable.
The benefits of Real Wireless Power to smart city infrastructure building are so monumental … it’s almost unethical to not leverage it.
Why bother introducing wireless power to smart city planning? Once you understand the benefits, it could be considered unethical to society and our planet not to consider it.
- Wireless power is scalable. No additional wiring needs to be installed as new devices are introduced and connected with AI systems. That’s millions of dollars of taxpayer money saved in city development each year.
- Wireless power is safer. Without wires to malfunction and without sending people to locations to regularly change batteries, our city employees and our citizens are safer.
- Wireless power is sustainable. Leveraging a wireless solution means decreasing a city’s reliance on global resources, such as copper, to maintain and grow smart AI systems, which is good for our plant and our independence.
- Wireless power is connectivity. Real wireless power not only provides a more reliable source of sustainable power to devices, it also enables a level of connectivity not previously possible.
We could name many other benefits, and at this point, you’re probably thinking of some, too. Just note that optimizing infrastructure and enabling rapid smart city growth is only one facet of how Real Wireless Power will impact smart city development.
Other elements that make a smart city can include smart smart economy, governance, living, environment, and mobility, among others. AI plus Real Wireless Power is clearly a symbiotic force for smart city innovation across all of these areas.
Have questions about creating a Real Wireless Power infrastructure for your environment? We’re here to help.
Related sources that help answer the question: “Should governments leverage wireless power over air for smart city planning?”
- Get Smart
- Benefits of Real Wireless Power in Smart Cities
- The Future of Intelligent Buildings: Sustainable, Smart, and Securely Interconnected - Wireless Power Is the Common Denominator for the Future of Intelligent Buildings
- The Smart City Dream Team Trio: AI, IoT, and Wireless Power
- The Power Revolution Is Coming: Is Your Business Prepared?
1 https://www.techtarget.com/iotagenda/definition/smart-city
2 https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/13/5210
3 https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-model-predicts-crime-us-nine-times-out-of-ten-2022-7
4 https://www.wired.com/story/plainfield-geolitica-crime-predictions/
5https://www.lta.gov.sg/content/ltagov/en/getting_around/driving_in_singapore/intelligent_transport_systems.html
6 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1807.01628.pdf
7 https://www.smartcitiesworld.net/air-quality/air-quality/barcelona-reduces-air-pollution-by-more-than-30-per-cent-8500
