Building more sustainable and equitable smart cities

Such a vision ultimately aims at improving traffic flow, enabling further applications for renewable energy, avoiding natural disasters and disease outbreaks, and providing automation for energy efficient products, among others. These actions, according to Singh, would significantly reduce costs.

However, a number of challenges, which include power management, multi-modal sensing, Human-machine Interface (HMI), and connectivity, need to be taken into consideration.

One of the biggest challenges, for instance, is the disparity between supply and demand of batteries for sensors. Singh, then, proposes the use of low power or nano-power alternatives. The constant improvement of sensors calls for extra-long battery life as well as the capability of running complex algorithms locally. 

According to Singh, it is fundamental to investigate the demands of smart building sensors in terms of their ultimate applications, such as people detection and counting; fire control; fine motion (smart lighting); and implementation in healthcare.

One of the alternatives presented by Singh is mmWave sensing equipment, which significantly provides for smarter and safer cities, businesses, and industry. The technology can be used in a wide range of applications, from traffic monitoring to factory and building automation.

What was striking about Singh's talk is the possibility of a more sustainable and ethical use of power when developing or improving smart cities. Furthermore, a global company such as Texas Instruments is able to meet specific needs from smart cities around the world, improving the quality of life in both developed and developing countries.