Smart Citizen By: Eloise Loen

HCDE 231 I
February 1, 2016

Introduction
Smart Citizen is a platform for connecting data, people, and knowledge
with the goal of directly involving citizens in their environment and their
cities [1]. The Smart Citizen Kit consists of a sensor board and a digital
platform [1]. It offers citizens an opportunity to actively collect and
analyze data relating to their urban surroundings. Figure 1, below,
shows how users are able to interact with collected data on the online
Smart Citizen platform. This poster will provide a short background on
how and where Smart Citizen is being used, summarize the hardware
and sensors of the device, explain how collected data can be analyzed Figure 3: Smart Citizen device, consisting of a data processing
on an open platform, and outline potential uses for this product, board, sensors, a battery, and an enclosure [1].

Open Platform
Sensors instantaneously stream information to an open source
platform where users can visualize the results of their collected data
[1]. Figure 4 shows a sample user interface with a map depicting how
many Smart Citizens devices are active in different geographical
areas.

Figure 1: Smart Citizen allows users to interact with data relevant to

their own city [6].

Background
By being able to instantly collect, share, and compare levels of air
pollution, noise pollution, and humidity in a city, Smart Citizen users
are able to directly engage with environmental quality [2]. Considering
that 80% of the worlds population is expected to live in cities by 2050,
and our world is constantly becoming more connected (see Figure 2
below), the goal of the Smart Citizen initiative is to build Smart Cities
by engaging its Smart Citizens. So far, this initiative has been launched
in only a few major cities including Barcelona and Amsterdam [3].

Figure 4: A map of active Smart Citizen devices, available on

the open platform [1].

Potential Uses
Smart Citizen itself is a data-collection tool, but the information
gathered is relevant to several fields [4].
Researchers can use Smart Citizen to capture data in
technology deployments or social experiments.
Figure 2: People are constantly connected to the Internet. Smart
Schools can use Smart Citizen to teach computer science
Citizen aims to encourage sustainability by engaging people
and environmentalism in the classroom and engage students
with their surroundings [5].
in a sustainability discussion.
Hardware and Sensors Communities can use Smart Citizen to launch
The Smart Citizen device, pictured in Figure 3 in the upper right hand neighborhood initiatives about air quality or sound problems.
corner, encompasses several sensors that acquire useful data about Cities can use the data gathered by Smart Citizen to make
urban environments [1]. These sensors are able to measure: educated decisions about new infrastructure and
Temperature technologies.
Humidity Developers can build on top of the Smart Citizen open
source platform and create their own solutions.
Air composition (CO and NO2)
Light References
Sound [1] Smart Citizen. Available: https://smartcitizen.me/about.
[2] Morosi, S., Sclaunich, G. (22 January 2016). Smart City, but in Italy they work? Italia Digitale.
The device is built on an Arduino data-processing board and also [3] Hemment, D. (31 March 2014). Smart Citizen: Manchester Launch. Future Everything.
[4] Smart Citizen Involves People in the Construction of their Cities. Available: https://eu-
contains low power consumption battery [1]. smartcities.eu/content/smart-citizen-involves-people-construction-their-cities.

Images
[5] DeAngelis, S. (15 April 2015). Smart Cities and the Citizen Sensor. Enterra Solutions.
[6] Smart Re-Use Network Smart Citizen Future Applications. (6 February 2013). IAAC Blog.