5G, here it comes!

News update – December 19th, 2018

In our weekly news filter ‘What We’re Clicking On’, we share our thoughts on the most interesting articles relating to the future of cities, buildings and interiors.

Last week a consortium of telecom companies from South Korea (SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus) introduced the world’s first commercial 5G network in Seoul. They plan to expand it to 24 major Korean cities.
Earlier this year KT already announced its focus areas when it comes to 5g: smart cities, smart factories, connected cars, 5G media and the 5G cloud. In reaching its aim to provide consumers with innovative services and solutions, KT partners up with companies such as Samsung, Hyundai, Posco, Intel, Ericsson, NVidia and Qualcomm.
As 5G achieves speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G and other previous generations of mobile technology and has a very low latency, it will lead to quick developments in the Internet of Things and smart home and smart city solutions, connecting people to objects as well as objects to objects. According to Park Jung-ho, CEO of SKT: “AI will become the brain that seeks optimized solutions”.
In The Netherlands there are several pilot programs in 5G, for example 5Groningen. In this field lab, companies and governments are working together with experts to test and develop 5G solutions.
Read more at Korea Herald and Smart Cities World.

Photo by Uriel Soberanes on Unsplash
Photo by Steven Roe on Unsplash

Researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology have mapped five million pedestrian interactions on NS-station in Eindhoven. Researchers Federico Toschi and Alessandro Corbetta used 4 state-of-the-art sensors over a period of 6 months to track the movements of five million pedestrians at the station. They studied pedestrian-pedestrian interactions and how pedestrians adapt their walking paths trying to preserve mutual comfort distances and to avoid collisions. Based on the movements, the researchers created models which can help to predict behavior. Municipalities and other policy makers can take these predictions into account in urban planning and design. Their research was recently published in Physical Review E.

 

Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash

We´ve been reading and writing a lot about co-living ideas and concepts these past months. Now Berlin-based Medici Living Group is taking co-living to a new level by raising $1.5bn to launch the world´s largest co-living venture: Quarters. The funding will be used to develop 35 co-living properties that will provide 6,000 units in several European cities as well as Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Los Angeles. The reasoning behind Quarters is that “urbanization, young people’s desire for community as well as the opportunity to live and work in different cities, are boosting demand for communal residential space.” Right now Quarters is already up and running in Berlin, New York and Chicago. Quarters provide residents with all the basics that come with living as well with an app to use smart home technologies and participate in the Quarters community.
Read more at The Urban Developer

Photo by Hillary Ungson on Unsplash