Italy's 'City of Water' Gets Smarter with IBM

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Using a new free wi-fi network provided byVenice throughout the city, visitors with a wi-fi enabled mobile device can download an application called TagMyLagoon.

Passive sensors have been placed on select locations around the city, by the Association of Tourist Guides ofVenice, denoting points of interest. Users simply take a picture of these places of interest with their mobile phone, automatically enabling the system to provide contextual information and prompts to the visitor.

TagMyLagoon is a project that embodies the IBM Smarter Planet vision. Users can interact with sensors and devices that put them in connection with people, physical locations, and information, using the Internet and wi-fi network in entirely new ways.

"With more than 20 million visitors a year, one of the world's most famous cities is also facing increasing pollution, mounting pressure on a fragile ecosystem and an urgent need to manage the flow of visitors," said Michele Vianello, Vice Mayor ofVenice. "Working with IBM, we hope that the TagMyLagoon project will help to address some of the challenges we are facing and make the city smarter and more efficient by using existing infrastructure to optimize our resources."

Elsewhere, IBM is working with many other authorities on smarter systems. The cities ofSingapore,Brisbane andStockholm are all working to reduce both congestion and pollution through intelligent transport solutions. These solutions and many more are making a real impact today, the first step towards creating a true smart city.

"It is vital for the future that we transform our cities into accessible, dynamic, thriving communities," said Luciano Martucci, President of IBM Italy. "In cities likeVenice, a world heritage site, technology can make the local systems and existing infrastructure smarter and create benefits directly related to improving the quality of life for all its citizens and promote the historical and cultural heritage, in a cost-effective way".

The project runs for three months, from July 3 to October 3, 2009. Once the pilot is completed, IBM and theCity of Venice will use the project results to evaluate extending the solution.

For additional resources for press on today's news, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/press/smartercities.

For more information about IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com

    CONTACTS:
    Vineeta Durani                      Alessandro Ferrari
    IBM Media Relations, Worldwide      IBM Media Relations, Italy
    917 472 3694                        39 348 455 4535
    vineeta.durani@us.ibm.com           alessandro_ferrari@it.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM Corporation

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