Monthly Archives - March 2017

Many faults that occur on city assets such as traffic lights, streetlights, rarely get timely attention. Using smart IOT strategies, this information can be gathered timely through a decentralized approach that empowers all city dwellers to act.

Most of the major cities in Uganda and Africa at large are faced with security and safety challenges. Several cases of loss of property have been reported with little follow up by security enforcement agencies. This is mainly due to lack of information (surveillance data). This challenge can be solved by increasing the number of surveillance camera installations all around major cities in the country. Live data from these cameras can be used to track and apprehend criminals with credible evidence. This can be achieved using facial recognition software.

One of the most pressing challenges in cities is City parking that normally arises due to poor location of free parking slots. This in the end leads to traffic jam as drivers spend much more time trying to locate viable parking slots.
This uneasy situation can be improved by the installation of sensors all through out parking spaces in the city. City drivers can access real time data (using a web /mobile application) about the available free slots relative to the driver’s current location.

Most major cities in Uganda and Africa at large are affected by poor waste collection schemes. The available urban litter collection methods rely on dumb rubbish cans that normally overflow and take long to be attended to. Further more, the cans cannot easily be located on time and are easily vandalized. IOT strategies can be used to improve the rubbish collection methods in these cities by employing appropriate sensor technology to report when these cans are full and need emptying. Better still using these rubbish cans as Wifi repeater points to further improve free Internet access in the cities can incentivize the entire rubbish collection process by city dwellers. The more rubbish gets collected, the better data rates are offered to the city dwellers. The entire smart rubbish collection kit installation is energy sustaining using solar panels. With a sufficient installation of the rubbish kits, additional services such as to collect surveillance data and thereby improving security in the city. The kits can never be vandalized because each is tracked in real time.

It is no secret that the air and the water we use in the major cities in Uganda is contaminated and toxic. This is mainly as a consequence of industrial activity and the poor damping of waste into the atmosphere.
The most unfortunate bit is that most Ugandans pay less attention to the severity of the effects of environmental pollution as this is normally gradual and takes longer periods of time to manifest.
The effects of environmental degradation can be clearly studied over time using a distributed cluster of sensor nodes around out cities. These sensors collect data such as noise, water pollutants (along the different points in the water distribution plant), carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and acidic rain. This data is collected in real time on a central server infrastructure can be readily accessed on a standard web browser through a reliable Internet connection. Real time graphical representations are generated and can be printed out by any interested party. This application serves to raise awareness about environmental pollution in our cities and this can be used as a motivation for corrective action and hence mitigating the effects of long-term climatic change.