Smart Cities, Smart Living

From Evolution to Revolution

Observing the context in which humanity finds itself currently through Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, it is very simple to identify a "crescendo" in terms of capabilities of improving our lives on this planet. From microscopical organisms to homo sapiens-sapiens, chemically and biologically, we evolved. Eating meat for the first time has forever transformed our brain and this major "upgrade" has taken us from natively curious beings to creative/innovative ones. The wheel, the speech and language formation, the metallurgic era - we evolved. We created tools and systems to cover our needs.

Our eco-system on the other hand, has remained almost the same for billions of years. When we identified that this was not the perfect match for the human race anymore, we started "upgrading" it too. Because we could. Or simply, the way we prefer to usually lament ourselves, because we needed or we had to.

Electricity, computers, Internet, technology, human body extensions - we revolutionised the way we live and the way we behave - we revolved. Life on Earth has changed us, now humans, not only are capable of changing the way they live, but also to change the world they live in. What once was a difficult to cross ocean, has now become a map of extraction platforms, a night sky full of stars has turned into a ceiling of artificial satellites and a dry hot desert into a smart city filled with ubiquitous systems.

Barcelona, Dubai, Tokyo, New York, to name a few, are no longer simple holiday destinations. On a local administrative level, they received the "upgrade" and nowadays the usual sightseeing activity of a tourist is experienced differently and generally for a whole new purpose: "The tourism possibilities offered by Smart Cities are unprecedented. These are a series of unique experiences originating from the values fostered by smart cities. We are referring to the advantages of technologies designed to manage large crowds effectively, sustainability management through mobility, or highly-valued services for tourists such as instant translation devices and virtual reality."(https://www.smartcitylab.com/blog/urban-environment/smart-city-holidays-what-will-tourism-be-like-in-the-future/)

The Internet Of Things and data sharing are without any doubts the engine sustaining the smart adjective of a city. With interconnected features and functionalities of systems within a city, it automatically becomes a "better place to live in": more comfortable, more accessible, more sustainable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1izWUmahtE0

Leaving on a side the privacy aspect of life in a smart city (as this should be treated separately as a complex issue, still on debate), scientist around the world have raised a lot of other concerns regarding power consumption, climate change and last but not least, our debilitation from the natural human behaviour.

"We’re on the path to treating cities like living entities with biosignatures waiting to be decoded and leveraged. A city is indeed organic in the sense that it was invented by us, some unusually smart monkeys who reside on a chunk of rock circling a nuclear furnace. If the city is natural, the smart city will seem supernatural." (Hatem Zeine - The problems with smart cities - https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/06/19/the-problems-with-smart-cities/#34e8d7f76067)
Hatem Zeine mentions in his article the issue of the sensory overload, which he also explains it further, but then a question raises: what about our own sensorial overload? Are we able to adapt like we always did? Is our brain, our own computer, "upgraded" enough to keep up with the big world's computer of network systems? Have we started a little too soon a new way of living, beyond our capabilities? We have definitely adapted to our natural eco-system, we overtook it and we created an artificial one to fit our needs. An intelligent enough one to learn how to adapt around humans and yet, we have put ourselves in the position of having to adapt again..

City mApp

The Smart mApp for Smart Tourists! City mApp is an offline functional Augmented Reality mApp which can be used while travelling by plane or helicopter, at high altitudes. The mobile application is scanning the Earth Surfaces and shows you above which city you are flying with the option to zoom in and see the present landmarks of that city with image and voice presentations of each site. Ideal for travel agents who organise helicopter sightseeing experiences! Thanks to IOT, the app user can also register by clicking on the site icon to buy visitor tickets for the rest of their stay for specific sites.