Friday 29 Mar 2024
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HANGZHOU (Sept 19): China's cloud computing services provider Alibaba Cloud has upped the ante for its City Brain initiative, which is known for its smart traffic observation system in urban cities, with its Hangzhou City Brain 2.0 pilot programme.

The upgraded City Brain programme, said Alibaba Cloud president Simon Hu, will extend from existing visual cues and Big Data analytics and provide greater in-depth information about a city through data-sharing across multiple departments and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, among others.

"An urban city is the biggest producer of data, but it [also experiences] the largest wastage of data because [most administrations] do not process these data for management [purposes]," said Hu at Alibaba group's Cloud Computing Conference 2018 here earlier today.

"Within the Alibaba Group, Alibaba Cloud is a top priority… as a cloud [computing]-related company, our objective is to [improve the] welfare of the people," he added.

Alibaba Cloud debuted City Brain 2.0 in Alibaba's home turf in Hangzhou at the conference by demonstrating a use-case scenario in the form of a fire incident in the city.

Through the utilisation of cloud computing, Alibaba Cloud said the system can help reduce reaction time for such incidents through numerous methods.

This includes controlling traffic signals to allow uninterrupted travel for fire fighters, and the provision of crucial information about the area surrounding the incident site — such as position of fire hydrants, water pressure, and key components to look out for, such as gas pipelines.

"The adoption of Alibaba Cloud City Brain 2.0 will help us protect, manage and make our city better and smarter," said Hu.

Meanwhile, Hu indicated that the company intends to extend the function in the long run in other participating cities such as Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, although he did not provide a timeline for the pilot programme in the city of Hangzhou.

Kuala Lumpur, which is the first city outside of China to adopt the City Brain system, has made "good progress in traffic management" since its introduction in January this year, he added.

A spokesperson for a company with knowledge of Kuala Lumpur City Brain programme told reporters that an announcement specifically for Kuala Lumpur is planned for October, but details were scarce.

Kuala Lumpur City Brain system is provided by Alibaba Cloud as the platform provider, whereas Malaysian Digital Economy Corp (MDEC) is leading the data analytics and project management while Kuala Lumpur City Council (DBKL) provides access to camera live feeds, traffic light and events information, according to MDEC's official website.

The first phase of the Kuala Lumpur City Brain system — primarily for traffic-related solutions — is an open platform, said MDEC, giving organisations and individuals the opportunity to access and leverage on related artificial intelligence (AI) tools "and ultimately drive further innovations".

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