Million Girls Moonshot
Could Smart Cities Become Ideal Places to Go for a Run?
Author: David Allison, Writer, Teacher, Tech Enthusiast, and Coach
In this blog, I take a look at Intel’s latest technology announcements from Intel ON, and how these technological innovations could in the near future play a role in our lives, and what it would mean to have thousands of devices at our immediate disposal and by the end of this decade, there will be the potential for every human to have 1 petaflop of compute and 1 petabyte of data, less than 1 millisecond away.¹
Now, let us take a hypothetical stroll, or a run, or a bike ride across a smart city of the near future powered by intel innovations.
The great outdoors — filled with the likes of breath-taking vistas, quiet tree-canopied trails, and babbling brooks, which give you the sense you are one with nature on your daily exercise jog.
Urban living — congested traffic, pedestrian-filled sidewalks you navigate through as if in a labyrinth, jackhammers torturing seemingly every other avenue corner. Although you are piping in thumping beats through your Bluetooth earbuds to give you a sense of isolation on your daily run, this illusion is short-lived when you are aggressively accosted by the blaring horn of the fist-waving bus driver who is taking a sharp turn on the street you were just about to cross.
And while running in nature can have its drawbacks (where the heck do you find a bathroom in the middle of the woods when you have to go number 2?), and urban running can have its upsides (always great people watching), more runners would instead traverse in an area a bit less congested with fresh pine air than trying to get their 5-mile run in by jostling through crowded city streets with the waft of carbon monoxide emanating from the throngs of cars, trucks, and busses all around.
5G, Cloud, Edge Computing, AI, and IoT and Smart Cities
But that feeling by endurance enthusiasts may change in the not-too-distant future as smart cities become more of the norm. Companies like Intel are focusing on creating vibrant, clean, and connected cities. Intel is at the forefront of steering Network Transformation and enabling Edge Compute essential for 5G to thrive. Add to that how massively influential the cloud is to a 5G network. Because as data exponentially grows due to 5G connectivity, the cloud is needed to reduce latency and lessen the demand on network bandwidth for more exhaustive technological systems. This reduction in latency and decrease in network bandwidth will be accomplished by the cloud connecting to the edge of the network via edge computing. Moreover, AI and IoT will be other vital components for the growth and success of smart cities.
But what does this all mean when it comes to runners? How will smart cities make running a more fulfilling, safer, and cleaner exercise experience in these maniacal metropolises?
How it would be running in an optimal smart city
You are in a new city on business for a week and unfortunately, you do not know anyone there or your way around at all. But you have your running shoes, your smartwatch, and are excited because you have heard that this metropolitan area has been transformed into a smart city in the last 3 years.
Setting up your run
You step out of your hotel and immediately your GPS is synced onto your smartwatch. You have already downloaded a local 4.5-mile run route from a site like Strava onto your watch and are all set. This city has information and communication technology (ICT), which has allowed you to find out if there are any areas where you are running that have a high crime rate, emergency situations, or traffic accidents going on presently. Just before you’re about to head out you notice on your watch that the temperature is going to drop by 10 degrees in the next fifteen minutes, so you quickly go back up to your hotel room and grab a long sleeve wicking shirt instead of the tank top you have on.
What you see, hear, smell on your run
As you start out on your run, you are pleasantly surprised that this city is not as loud as other cities you have been in before. You wonder why and then realize that the majority of the cars on the road are electric, as well as busses and trams; plus, there are seemingly hundreds and hundreds of people riding on bikes. The honking of horns seems almost non-existent because what you can see is traffic lights, because of GPS devices on cars, bicycles, and pedestrians, which sense when they are approaching and change accordingly.
As it nears dusk, you make a left turn onto what seems to be a dimly lit street at first but as you run closer and reach each streetlight it turns on sensing your presence via a motion sensor or the GPS technology on your watch.
The streets are very clean. You see very little trash piled up on corners or in trash bins because all the trash bins in the city have AI waste collection. Meaning, instead of trash collection happening on certain days in certain parts of the city, trash collection simply occurs when bins are full regardless of location. Drivers are given daily routes to run based on where trash needs to be picked up that day.
The lower emissions of CO, due to all the electric vehicles and the AI bin waste collection, makes breathing during your run a lot more manageable than it has been in previous cities you have visited and run. As you continue on your run you start getting thirsty and realize you forgot to fill up your small water bottle before leaving the hotel. You wonder where you could get some water. When you arrived in the city you did seem to notice a lot of people carrying metal water bottles. You run past what looks like a beer tap with a single spout. It says “water” but there is no way to really get your mouth under there. You take out your small water bottle and put it under the spout and clean water comes out. You learn later on that water is a pivotal part of this smart city’s plan.
First, the city is trying to eliminate single-use water bottles and thus have installed fresh clean water fountains all around the city to lessen the number of plastic bottles being used and thrown away. Second, IoT has made it possible for the city to conserve much more water by allowing the water utility company to get granular data and insights in real-time and at exact locations for emergency leaks, which can be fixed in a much shorter period of time than ever before.
You are a little less than 2 miles from your hotel when you twist your ankle coming off a curb. You are alright but the ankle is a bit tender, and you need to be back soon for a dinner meeting. You figure out from your watch that a tram stop is just around the corner from where you are. You get to the stop and the tram arrives 5 minutes later. All you have is your smartwatch, but you are still able to pay using a debit card by holding it over the reader.
You arrive back at your hotel safe and sound. You grab some ice for your ankle and with the hotel keycard right on your smartwatch, you are able to open up the door without issue. Your lights automatically come on in your room and you sit down, and you tell the smart thermostat to “turn up to 75 degrees.” You then ice your ankle for 15 minutes and later tell the smart shower to “turn on” as you undress and jump in to get ready for your 7 PM meeting.
Your first day in this smart city was a great experience. The ease of planning and navigating your run, the safety of the city, the cleanliness of the city, the lower noise pollution, easy access to clean water, accessible public transportation, and seamless entrance back into your hotel room, are just a sampling of what cities like this have to offer endurance athletes like yourself. While it may still be better to go out on the trails for a run, it is nice to know that city running may not have to be so daunting anymore when you’re in the technological confines of smart city walls.
Notices and Disclaimers:
This article was Sponsored by Intel
Source(s):
© Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
