Two new smart kiosks were installed Monday morning in downtown Kansas City.
The kiosks will give neighbors and tourists hyper-local information like dining specials and history revolving around Kansas City. The first two kiosks are located in the 1300 block of Grand Blvd. There will be a total of 25 kiosks throughout downtown. All of the kiosks are expected to be up and running for the launch of the KC Streetcar.
But what does being a "Smart City" even mean?
If you’re picturing Tron landscapes and Minority Report sequences when you hear mentions of “Smart City” technology, you might not be too far off.
Across the globe, cities are chirping with new digital technologies, whether it be a 6-foot-tall touchscreen to navigate New York City’s subway maze or Barcelona’s city-wide Wi-Fi.
The exact end-goal for Kansas City is only limited by the city’s and the company’s imagination, but for reference, other communities around the world have seen a wide array of upgrades, including:
- Digital home access to up-to-the-minute utility information for homeowners
- Leak sensors to help city pinpoint problems faster
- “Smart Kiosks” to look up nearby points of interest, events, parks, transit, etc.
- 311 smartphone integration for submitting requests and community problem solving
- Hundreds of wireless access points to a city-wide Wi-Fi network
- Wireless sensors around town relay temperature, air quality and more straight to citizens
- Pedestrian traffic mapped with Wi-Fi pings helps city make better development decisions
- Smart parking: Sensors in parking spots relay to a mobile app map, making finding parking more efficient.
- Optimized trash collection routes based on sensors that detect fullness of larger dumpsters
- Eco-friendly street lighting sensors maximize safety and keeps lights off during the day to save on energy.
What other cities are doing this?
The main company behind these smart cities is Cisco. Cisco is also working with Chicago, New York, Dallas, and San Jose.
Cisco’s website indicates Russia, China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and India are working to start their own city-based tech improvement projects, too.
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Alyson Bruner can be reached at alyson.bruner@kshb.com.
You can also follow her on Twitter.
