Nokia Brings IoT and AI to Bear on Vehicle-Based Noise Pollution in Genk Smart City Trial Program
Following the announcement of a waste-management trial in Melbourne, Genk is to get Scene Analytics to crack down on vehicle noise.
Nokia has announced a trial smart city program designed to combat vehicle-based noise pollution in the Belgian city of Genk — by analyzing audio and video using its machine learning analytics platform.
"The city of Genk embraces technology that improves the lives of its residents and visitors. The data collected by Nokia’s AI-powered platform will automatically analyze patterns of noise and traffic allowing us to understand with quantifiable results the concerns of residents and visitors," claims Wim Dries, the mayor of Genk, of the partnership.
"This will help us put plans in place to address the issues of loud vehicles in the city and make it a safer and more peaceful place for everyone within the city limits."
The proof-of-concept trial captures data from roadside microphones and cameras, and automatically analyses the volume level: Should an approaching vehicle exceed a preset volume threshold, a recording is captured and tagged using automated number plate recognition (ANPR) — with everything then being packaged up and sent to authorities.
"The Nokia Scene Analytics platform is paving the way in sustainable, cross-domain sensor data analytics," claims Nokia's Suparno Banarjee. "By integrating it alongside third-party solutions and additional IoT sensors, it offers smart cities and connected industries an open, flexible and scalable solution which they can use to address a variety of challenges."
It's not the first time Nokia has looked to artificial intelligence for smart city solutions: Back in August the company announced another Scene Analytics trial for analyzing waste disposal behavior as a means of improving the cleanliness of the City of Melbourne.
"This is a great example of using new technology to help remove illegal waste more quickly, make our city cleaner and protect the environment," Sally Capp, Lord Mayor of Melbourne, claimed at the time. "Our partnership with Nokia is another way we are gathering data to make Melbourne a safer, smarter and more sustainable city. This innovative project will help to avoid hazards and make our streets even cleaner by allowing our waste services to better understand behavior trends related to the illegal and dangerous dumping of waste."
Neither Nokia nor Genk's authorities have released full details of the trial, but more information on the Scene Analytics platform can be found on the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud website.