For now, though, the smart money is on energy savings--meaning smart buildings and hybrids.
Its wireless networks of chips, sensors and cameras turn ordinary structures into smart buildings that use less energy and are easier to maintain.
The Smart Garage -- smart cars hooked through smart buildings to a smart grid -- will soon be swapping electricity and information for mutual advantage.
As companies rethink their offices, many are looking into "smart buildings, " wired with technologies that show workers' location in real time and suggest meetings with colleagues nearby.
Such networks are already revolutionizing inventory control and fleet management, and are set to play a growing role in key social sectors like healthcare, through e-health applications, education, through remote learning and teacher training, and environmental management through applications like smart grids, monitoring systems and smart buildings.
With the smart grid, buildings can become batteries, and industries can dramatically cut costs and achieve the same output.
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The partnership is a smart solution for buildings that have limited space on-site but want to broaden their potential resident pool, said Spot owner and founder Mitch Marrow.
That means someone installing the smart wiring in the walls of buildings, the network firm providing the platform connecting the smart devices, the gadget-makers that provide an Apple-like user experience for every fixture, and the next-generation utility offering new forms or methods of energy delivery.
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It could also expand the business of HID Global which up to now has focused on the delivery of secure identity, such as smart cards, for access to buildings and offices.
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As much as federal officials would like to do more, it may well be that dramatically improving lousy schools is simply beyond the purview of folks sitting in DC office buildings, no matter how smart and well-intentioned.
Saskia Sassen, co-chair on the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University and a leading expert on smart cities, draws parallels with the office buildings of the sixties, which she describes as "low-ceiling places now standing sad and empty as advanced technologies render them useless".
The unprecedented proliferation of smart sensors and control systems over the last decade are now being used in buildings to detect or sense various conditions and emit alerts or responses.
More investment is flowing to technologies such as upgraded power grids with smart meters that allow users to better manage their consumption of electricity, and energy-efficient buildings that reduce the cost of operations and improve human health through better air quality.
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