Medialab Prado

In this presentation I will give an overview of the current studies on sentient cities led at the MIT SENSEable City Lab. After laying out the visions that drive our research I will illustrate how the increasing deployment of sensors and mobile produce new types of urban data that people generate by passively and actively interacting these technologies. The analyis and visualization of these data gives us the ability to show previously invisible urban processes resulting in opportunities to inform the urban design and planning processes. Moreover, the increasing embedment of these technologies into the fabrics of our lives could create responsive cities in which authorities and citizens can monitor urban process and react to events in real-time. While the deployment of urban demos reveal these possible to the public, I will also highlight the issues, challenges and pittfalls, researchers, designers and practitioners face to integrate urban informatics into people’s daily life.