Rome, Italy will start conducting three smart city trials this month with the aim of reducing transportation pollution, optimizing public transport, and eliminating accidents at pedestrian crossings. The trials will be run by Envision, using Sony’s IMX500 AI-enhanced image sensors.
A smart parking system will be evaluated, where drivers will be alerted via a smartphone app regarding the location of available free parking spaces. It is hoped that this will reduce pollution and gridlock from those driving around looking for a parking space. Public transportation will be assessed with the goal of optimising capacity and increasing usage of the network by installing smart bus shelters and counting passengers on each bus to identify overloading. Pedestrian crossings will have systems that will alert drivers when pedestrians are crossing, along with low-latency smart lighting to increase visibility. This pedestrian alert system will provide a quantitative analysis of the average distance between pedestrians and vehicles as a key metric used to measure pedestrian safety.
The IMX500 is the first image sensor to integrate an AI processing functionality. Having the AI function embedded in the image sensor will reduce the bandwidth required, allow them to be scaled into existing networks, and will also reduce power and communication costs. No images are stored, or sent by the sensor, in compliance with residents’ privacy concerns.
“This is a clear and concrete example where Sony’s smart vision solution can serve our customer’s purpose while respecting people’s privacy,” said Antonio Avitabile, Managing Director of Corporate Alliance and Investment at Sony.“ We have a vision of achieving more sustainable and liveable cities, and through the IMX500 scalable platform we can substantially accelerate this process.”