Monash helping guide Melbourne's smart city push

The City of Melbourne and Monash University’s Emerging Technology Research Lab have published a report exploring how Melbourne’s real-time public data can be gathered and used to enable improved smart city applications.

The City Sensing Data Futures Project report builds on research collected during live data-gathering activations in Melbourne’s Argyle Square from February to June last year.

It seeks to evaluate how technologies such as AI, IoT and 5G can be combined with public data to contribute to improving quality of life for city residents.

It sets out 10 suggested approaches for cities to collect and use public data, including developing and implementing public data sensing models and encouraging two-way communication between the city and the public through models such as QR codes. Other possibilities include creating opportunities for the public to receive self-care information through city data alerts like wearing sunscreen on sunny days.

A team of researchers from Monash’s ETLab, part of the Faculty of Information Technology and the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, have also put together a design proposal for cities which physically incorporates the suggested approaches towards the collection and use of data.

ETLab Director Professor Sarah Pink said the aim with the research was to present a tangible and realistic way to implement public engagement with city data. “The actual designs and structures created for Argyle Square drew on our in-depth research with people who use the square,” she said.

“We used bold colours and created a ‘family’ of characters to encourage playful engagement with the installation. People could access the city data through QR codes using their smartphones or learn about how the city collects data through the printed explanatory labels, which were aimed at people without digital devices.”

City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the project forms part of the local government’s commitment to improving the accessibility and usability of public data.

“Melbourne is a smart city and we want to work with the community to design, develop and test new ways to share data and knowledge for the benefit of all. This research from ETLab will build on our open data approach so that we can share our use of technology and collection of data with the community in new and exciting ways,” she said.

Image credit: iStock.com/nickeverett