Introducing CityStation: An AIoT Platform to Tackle Urban Pollution with Targeted Analytics

LinkedIn
April 14, 2022

At SmartCow, we are dedicated to solving real problems that impact people all over the world through smart city solutions powered by advanced machine learning and video analytics. Today, we’re excited to announce a new solution for tackling one of the most prevalent problems city-dwellers face across the globe – air pollution.

Currently, 86% of people living in urban cities worldwide, approximately 2.5 billion people, are exposed to rising air pollution levels, creating a need for the next innovation that will help combat climate change, improve quality of life for civilians in urban areas, and tackle the growing concerns of urban pollution more urgently. That is why we developed CityStation –– an AIoT platform for data acquisition and control systems with a complete sensor package in a box developed to tackle the problem of urban pollution with proven solutions and targeted analytics.

Before delving into CityStation's technical components and capabilities, we would like to share a special story behind its design. Jimmy, our mechanical engineer, wanted to do something to honor our Taiwan office, which opened in August 2020. After careful consideration, Jimmy decided to design the unit to include elements of sky lanterns. In Taiwan, people celebrate the Sky Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first month in the lunisolar calendar; when hundreds of brilliantly illuminated lanterns soar to the skies carrying notes of hopes and wishes for the new year. These lanterns are released to pray, send happiness, and bless everyone.

Sky lanterns hold special wishes and thoughts that are unique to the person who distributes that particular lantern, which is similar to how we designed the CityStation – the information held inside the CityStation will be completely unique to every customer and we don't need to know what is within it to know its purpose is to bring hope and goodwill for the future. Jimmy hopes the element of the sky lantern design in our CityStation means SmartCow helps each smart city to create better, smarter, and more generous spaces for living.

SmartCow CityStation took the sky lantern elements on its design.

The complete sensor package in-a-box, includes a video and analytics processor, can run powerful AI models on live video streams fed in by 5MP cameras. CityStation also features an ambient weather station for measuring local weather and atmospheric conditions, allowing governments, policymakers, and the private sector to improve the air quality and transportation status of their properties, as well as the overall quality of living standards in their communities. CityStation can collect real-time data from current urban conditions, which is then transferred to NVIDIA's Omniverse, where Digital Twins can then be used to simulate a variety of potential solutions without requiring the resources to test in the physical world. After a proper solution is identified, CityStation can deploy these new tactics in the physical world to instigate positive change through effective resource allocation.

CityStation eases the hardware and software integration for customers and shortens the development period for customizing customers’ location and city. Compared to other innovations in the market, our all-in-one solution eliminates concerns about the complexities of device integration, allowing customers to enjoy a ready solution and user-friendly experience. Benefits include:

  • Data detection of air-conditions and transportation to accurately track air pollutants and put forward corresponding policies to effectively reduce vehicle pollution
  • Correlation of the traffic load with PM concentration to serve the needs of governments as rapid urbanization becomes the single most significant health risk due to pollution
  • Real-time relevant reports that suggest actionable insights derived from the ambient weather station
  • Mapping of vehicle types correlated with pollution produced to help governments measure the life cycle of vehicles with the concurrent aim of setting proper strategies for vehicle manufacturing
CityStation

CityStation Key Features

  • Covers most ambient weather conditions measurements by default: temperature, humidity, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, TVOC, Ozone, and GPS.
  • Associates ambient weather conditions with external conditions in traffic scenarios such as turn-counts for signal-time planning and anomaly detection
  • Map traffic volume based on pollution readings
  • Predict trends in real-time based on traffic inflow and outflow
  • Automated coverage of repetitive tasks
  • Flexible to customize to each individual smart city application’s specific needs

Hardware Features

  • Connectivity: Ethernet, 4G/5G options
  • Real-time sampling
  • Size: 400mm x 317mm x 596mm (LxWxH)
  • Ruggedised, no-maintenance closure for continuous outdoor use

Coming Up…

Look out for more upcoming news on CityStation and our NVIDIA Omniverse integration using digital twins, which shortens the early stages of project development and assists in overall stage maintenance – coming soon!

Learn more about SmartCow: https://www.smartcow.ai/

More information on CityStation, contact us by email: [email protected]