Moving toward an IoT city: Seoul's evolution

Clockwise from top left are a mobile app that provides real-time information on available parking spaces, an IoT smart trash can that monitors the amount of waste in real time from sensors in the bin, an IoT sensor attached next to an information plate which changes color when a car is parked and a street pole that has a sensor attached to count the number of pedestrians walking by. / Korea Times photos by Yun Suh-young, Seoul Metropolitan Government

By Yun Suh-young

As technology evolves, it is changing our society and the way we work.

The "fourth industrial revolution" has arrived, as coined by the World Economic Forum (WEF), earlier this year. We are engulfed in technology, communicating through various platforms, connecting to various mediums, and even talking to these devices.

Take my example.

I'm a digital nomad. I work anywhere and everywhere. This is possible because of my profession as a journalist. But my lifestyle had been confined to the digital realm, moving nowhere beyond the computer and mobile-oriented lifestyle until last year, when I started to heavily embrace the IoT (Internet of Things) in my life. That's because of the technology that has become available, along with my willingness to be assiduous in using them daily.

"One of the main bridges between the physical and digital applications enabled by the fourth industrial revolution is the internet of things (IoT). In its simplest form, it can be described as relationships between things and people that are made possible by connected technologies and various platforms," defines Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in his book "The Fourth Industrial Revolution."

My work and lifestyle has drastically changed over the past year or two, living and breathing the fourth industrial revolution.

When I wake up, I connect my mobile to my Bluetooth speaker to listen to music. Before leaving home, I put on my Samsung Gear S2 smart watch, through which I check my emails, messages and phone calls. It also tells me how much I have walked and how regular my heart beat is. I had used Fitbit before moving on to the smart watch, which had the two latter functions. Upon writing this article, I started using "Ttareungi," a public bike system offered by the city, to go to work. I check the bicycles available in the nearest location on the "Ttareungi" app, Seoul's newly launched bike-sharing system, on my mobile. I click on the number of the bicycle I want, and the lock automatically snaps, unlocking the bike. I ride the bike arriving at Starbucks to get my first cup of morning coffee. When I walk into Starbucks, my mobile app recognizes where I am and I make my order through the Siren Order which automatically sends the information to the counter, allowing me to pick up the drink without going through the line.

The IoT has penetrated many aspects of my life, making life easier and more efficient. According to a WEF survey, 89 percent of respondents expected 1 trillion sensors to be connected to the internet, with a tipping point of the Internet of Things (IoT) to occur by 2025. The tipping point refers to all things being "smart and connected to the internet, enabling greater communication and new data-driven services based on increased analytics capabilities."

City-wide usage

As much as my life as an individual is made easier through the IoT, the city is also evolving to use the technology to provide better services for the convenience of citizens. The "Ttareungi" is one example, but there's plenty more under development.

Seoul is experimenting with various IoT technologies in Bukchon, a traditional district in Jongno-gu, a popular tourist destination in Seoul. Starting in December last year, it became a test bed for IoT services which will be launched in other parts of the city once they see success in the district.

"We can count the number of visitors through the sensor attached to this pole. This trash bin can track the amount of waste in it and send it as data. We also have an IoT service for parking, allowing drivers to share parking spaces in this region," said Kim You-sik, official in charge of IoT policies at Seoul Metropolitan Government. He was introducing Seoul's latest IoT technologies applied to social services for foreign dignitaries who visited the city to attend the Future Innovation Forum (Oct. 18-20).

The services are available in areas of tourism, personal safety, disaster prevention, garbage solutions, and parking.

The location-based tour guide service using the IoT through an app automatically provides information on Bukchon's tour destinations depending on the location of the tourist.

Personal safety solutions include alarm services for children's safety and safety bands for the elderly living alone. The former functions through location tracking using GPS, Wi-Fi, beacon and base station information to ensure children's safe commutes to and from school. The latter provides guardians and social workers with information on health conditions of the elderly living alone through sensors on wearable devices and sent as data.

The disaster prevention technology transmits real-time alarms via mobile by collecting and analyzing video data from smart sensors detecting temperature, humidity, smoke, and human movement for usage in homes and in the cultural heritage area of Bukchon.

The smart fire prevention service predicts electrical causes of fire which accounts for most of the outbreaks of fire.

The IoT smart trash can monitors waste real-time from sensors in the bin so that garbage collectors receive data about how full the bin is so they can collect waste more efficiently. Solar power waste bins use solar energy to automatically charge batteries and compress the trash depending on the level of the loads.

Finally, IoT for parking is used in two ways_ to find an empty parking spot or to recognize license plates. The former is designed to share personal parking spaces through IoT technology, providing drivers with real-time information on available parking spaces through the app and the LED color of the IoT sensor in the parking lot. The latter is used for smart parking to check the status of the car's residency in the parking lot and applies differentiated fees to the cars according to their residential status.

"The interesting challenge with social innovation is what to do with car parks," said Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA), during the Future Innovation Forum.

"Many cities are adopting the smart parking system to show that their cities are innovative."

A couple of examples include Singapore and Barcelona which have already implemented data-driven services such as intelligent parking solutions, smart trash collection and intelligent lighting.

Other urban innovations imaginable in the future, other than autonomous vehicles, are digitally reprogrammable space, co-generation, co-heating and co-cooling, mobility on-demand and intelligent street poles, to name a few mentioned at WEF.

By 2025, "over 50 percent of internet traffic delivered to homes for appliances and devices (not for entertainment or communication) will include control lights, shades, ventilation, air conditioning, audio and video, security systems and home appliances," according to WEF research. Also by 2025, many cities will connect services, utilities and roads to the internet, managing energy, material flows, logistics and traffic. The first city with more than 50,000 inhabitants and no traffic lights will appear, it predicts.

"The speed and breadth by which cities absorb and deploy technology, supported by agile policy framework, will determine their ability to compete in attracting talent. Possessing a superfast broadband, putting into place digital technologies in transportation, energy consumption, waste recycling and so on help make a city a more efficient and livable, and therefore more attractive than other cities," says Schwab in his book "The Fourth Industrial Revolution."

"It is therefore critical that cities and countries around the world focus on ensuring access to and use of the information and communication technologies on which much of the fourth industrial revolution depends."

Regarding the proliferation of autonomous vehicles, Cha Doo-won, researcher specializing in autonomous vehicles at Korea Institute of Science & Technology Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP), said it will take at least 20 years for the vehicles to be commercialized.

"The future will be a super-connected society. In order for autonomous vehicles to be widely-used, the road for autonomous cars and human-driven cars will have to be separated. I expect this to take 20 years at least," he said, during a speech at the forum.

"In order for this to be available, social and individual acceptance is important _ how we embrace the system. If there's no acceptance from the society, no business can exist. We need a trial period to verify in college campuses and then bring it outside.

"We also need to think about various consequences such as the responsibilities that come from accidents. If the adoption of autonomous vehicles reduces accidents, it will be a considerable option at the governmental level."

However there are still infrastructural challenges that exist for the technology to be wide-spread and widely used at the regional and global level.

"Unfortunately, ICT infrastructures are neither as prevalent nor diffusing as fast as many people believe. Half of the world's population does not have mobile phones and 450 million people still live out of reach of a mobile signal. Some 90 percent of the population of low-income countries and over 60 percent globally are not online yet," said Schwab.

"Governments must therefore focus on bridging the digital divide in countries at all stages of development to ensure that cities and countries have the basic infrastructure required to create the economic opportunities and shared prosperity that is possible through new models of collaboration, efficiency and entrepreneurship."

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