Category Award A New Society in the Age of Society 5.0 Infrastructure Category
Super City/ Smart City Category Award

Grand Prix

The Smart Cities NEC Aims To Create: Super Cities

NEC Corporation

Exhibit Area:General Exhibit Area

Outline

The NEC Urban OS links assets that include FIWARE infrastructure software – used as a data collaboration platform for super cities and smart cities – and NEC’s proprietary AI and biometric authentication technologies. By combining multiple services that efficiently coordinate data, such as information held by local governments, with the administrative services provided to residents, Urban OS will contribute to the evolution of cities where people can enjoy active daily lives and peace of mind.

Assessment

The Urban OS was conceived as a cloud service that supports the communal functions required to provide the sort of advanced services envisioned for super cities and smart cities. To enhance the efficiency of administrative services spanning multiple fields – such as tourism, medical care and welfare, and disaster prevention – the NEC Urban OS is based on FIWARE, a curated framework of open source platform components already employed in Europe. In addition, it features data analysis using NEC’s AI system called “NEC the WISE”, identity verification using face recognition and other biometric authentication features, and ID linkage management functions. All of this contributes to lowering development costs and speeding up implementation. This award recognizes NEC’s track record (providing support for several local governments) and its comprehensive capabilities, including the ability to craft systems tailored to regional characteristics and needs, such as inter-regional cooperation and communal management.

Semi Grand Prix

SoftBank’s “Smart City Platform”

SoftBank Corporation

Exhibit Area:General Exhibit Area

Outline

Based in Takeshiba, Tokyo, Softbank is working with Tokyu Land Corporation to build a smart city. The company has developed a "Smart City Platform" for collecting and utilizing building and city data in real time. Utilizing various data inside and outside of buildings and verifying cutting-edge technologies across a wide range of areas such as mobility, VR, 5G and robotics, the company will build a model case for a smart city and expand it to other areas in the future.

Assessment

The Smart City Platform is being operated as a verification experiment in Smart City Takeshiba and is a project that aims to promote digitalization in towns to solve problems. Through the use of AI and IoT, the platform will utilize more than 1,400 sensors to support users in making behavioral decisions such as avoiding congestion. For building managers and tenants, the system will provide information such as visitor numbers and thus holds promise for greater efficiency through optimal deployment of staff enabled by optimizing flows of people by guiding them to the shortest route to the floors they want to visit through face recognition and measures such as issuing signage and coupons for visitors. Although the system presently only works with buildings, it was appraised for its future potential as there are plans to expand it to surrounding facilities and entire towns.

CEATEC AWARD 2021: Award categories and judging criteria

The awards will be selected from projects that promote the co-creation of technologies and services, such as innovative services, data collaboration and utilization in all aspects of the community and daily life, which encourage local governments and industries to work together to propose and develop super cities & smart cities at the forefront of societies in the age of the “New Normal”. Candidates will also be judged on criteria such as their potential contributions to future society well as their feasibility and innovation.