Cities could soon be looking after their citizens all by themselves thanks to an operating system(OS) designed for the metropolis. The Urban OS works just like a PC operating system but keeps buildings 9 traffic and services running smoothly. The software takes in data from sensors dotted around the city to keep an eye on what is happening. In the event of a fire the Urban OS might manage traffic lights so fire engines can reach the blaze swiftly. The idea is for the Urban OS to gather data from sensors buried in buildings and many other places to keep an eye on what is happening in an urban area. The sensors monitor everything from large scale events such as traffic flows across the entire city down to more local phenomena such as temperature sensors inside individual rooms. The OS completely bypasses humans to manage communication between sensors and devices such as traffic lights, air conditioning or water pumps that influence the quality of city life. Channeling all the data coming from these sensors and services into a over-arching control system had lots of benefits, said Steve Lewis, head of Living Plan FT-the company behind Urban OS.The system can help with monitoring patients at hospitals. Urban OS should mean buildings get managed better and gathering the data from lots of sources gives a broader view of key city services such as traffic flows, energy use and water levels. " If you were using an anatomy analogy, the city has a network like the nervous system, talking to a whole bunch of sensors gathering the data and causing actions," said Mr.Lewis. " We distribute that nervous system into the parts of the body--the buildings, the streets and other things. Having one platform managing the entire urban landscape of a city means significant cost savings, implementation consistency, quality and manageability, he added. "And it' s got local computing capacity to allow a building or an automotive platform to interact with people where they are, managing the energy, water, waste, transportation, logistics and human interaction in those areas." That' s dealt with by the building itself, with the devices very locally talking to each other to figure out what' s the best solution for the current dilemma. What's the possible similarities between Urban OS and PC operating system?
The network with cameras connected with the world. The service to help police control the traffic. The ability to deal with information. The devices dotted around the city.