Open source software is a key element in many of the Smart City projects developed by a group of IT specialists and researchers for the Italian region of Emilia Romagna. Lucia Mazzoni, an IT project manager involved the region's smart city projects: "We prefer to use open source modules. This type of software allows scalable and easy to configure combinations."
The group is building applications monitoring atmospheric conditions and air quality, that collect and present data on surface waters. They are also working on IT solutions to increase energy efficiency and are building software that monitors the conditions of and helps to conserve cultural heritages.
Mazzoni presented the region's smart city research projects 'SmartER', at the Smart City Exhibition, taking place in Bologna between 29 and 31 October.
One of the concrete examples is 'Smart Catcher'. It is a location-aware application built for smart phones running the open source Android system. "It allows users to locate useful urban objects around him, including book stores, gas stations, hospitals, restaurants and hotels."
They're also involved in building middleware software that can be used for vehicle to vehicle communication. Here, the idea is to create smart vehicles, that can use the information to plan their routes more efficiently. Other projects work on using smart sensors, video camera's and personal sensors.
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Smart City Exchibition