Sensopolis: A Connected Model City
A miniature smart city demonstration for Nokia and Korea Telecom, with a retro dashboard that brought live sensor data to life.
Sensopolis was a miniature connected city built by my three-person team in Nokia's research division. We built it for our partner, Korea Telecom, to show at Mobile World Congress. The point of the demo was to make the abstract idea of city wide IOT networks of sensors and services into something tangible that visitors could see in person. It showed what would happen in a physical model city and watch its digital counterpart respond. I also describe the demonstration in Being an Independent Researcher.
The whole demonstration
Our model city had temperature, water, and light sensors, along with a special pressure sensor for parking. A small but real, functioning cellular network carried data from the model to a “city hall” dashboard on another screen in the booth. The dashboard showed the status of the city and supported remote control. When a model car stayed parked too long in the parking spot of the city, the system could issue a ticket with a little animated police officer on the digital map.
My contribution
I worked on the data transmission and built the city hall dashboard. I gave the interface an 8-bit, pixel-art style, with a map mirroring the physical model and panels for information on the various sensors, so that it would be both playful and eye-catching. Getting people to come by your booth at a crowded conference is always difficult. Adding mario-like sound effects was key.
The browser-based dashboard used JavaScript and canvas graphics, and a WebSocket connection for realtime data. It also included a simulated-data mode for debugging and in case of network failure.
I wrote about the project and other Nokia research in Being an Independent Researcher.