By 2050 the world’s urban population is expected to grow by 72%. This steep growth creates an unprecedented urge for understanding cities to enable planning for the future societal, economical and environmental well being of their citizens. The increasing deployments of Internet of Thing (IoT) technologies and the rise of so-called “Sensored Cities” are opening up new opportunities towards forming a profound understanding of the relationship of the citizens with their cities. Dr. Fahim Kawsar, the Director of the Internet of Things research at Bell Labs thinks that while silicon sensing helps us to know our cities quantitatively, it is also important to understand the city qualitatively by capturing the subjective metrics such as citizen well being, perception of safety, trust, cleanliness, friendliness, happiness, etc. In his talk he will explain how Bell labs’ research is addressing this aspect of urban landscape.

1. Fahim Kawsar
Bell Labs
@raswak
The Story of Happy Brussels

2. 72% The expected growth of World’s
Urban Population by 2050
Source : UN Department of Economics and Social Fare

3. The Era of Quantified City

4. But I am just another citizen!

5. Air Quality
Noise 9
G
- Few citizens actually care
- Limited spatio-temporal coverage
- Limited awareness
Existing Services have limited appeal to Ordinary Citizens

6. Can we measure the happiness of Brussels ?

7. Friendliness Maps
Friendliness Maps Safety and Trust Maps Happy and Smelly Maps
See Quercia’s Work

8. 2Propositions

9. 1Proposition

10. What if Mobile Workforce can be used as Human Sensors to gather
subjective Quality of Experience of Citizens using
Human Perception, Intuition and Experience

11. 15,000 Bpost workers travel over 700,000 KM
across Belgium on a daily basis
Leverage mobile work forces as Human Sensors to gather subjective data

12. Leverage Mobile Work Forces as Human Sensors for Gathering Cleanliness of the City
15,000 Bpost workers travel over 700,000 KM
across Belgium on a daily basis
Entrance to New Market
10M
Market

13. 2Proposition

14. Leverage Public Infrastructure as City Displays for Awareness Feedback

15. Thank You
Fahim Kawsar
@raswak
eMail: fahim.kawsar@bell-labs.com