ABSTRACT

As a result of the unceasing adoption and adaptation of newer technologies in the information technology (IT) space, the most perplexing yet pioneering IT-enabled digital living is being prescribed for every individual that will be cognitively constructive and contribute to his or her personal as well as professional life. Increasingly, every common, casual, and even cheap object in our daily environments is being readied to become smart in its operations and offerings through a host of edge technologies. All kinds of everyday devices (consumer electronics, handhelds, mobiles, wearables, portables, implantables, gadgets, etc.) in our midst are systematically empowered to be intelligent in their actions and reactions through a bevy of smartness-filled instrumentation and interconnectivity processes and platforms. Enabling a seamless and spontaneous integration with remotely hosted software applications and data goes a long way in transforming all sorts of physical systems to be cognitive in their sensing, interpretation, knowledge extraction, decision making, and actuation capabilities. All the unique and universal innovations and improvisations in the information and communication technologies (ICTs) space collectively lead to a variety of smarter environments such as smarter homes, offices, manufacturing, hospitals, retail establishments, governments, and so on. Smart cities are the overarching concept of a number of the aforementioned smart environments. Establishing and sustaining intelligent cities is one prominent derivative of the praiseworthy advancements in the flourishing ICT space. In this chapter, we delve deeper and describe in detail the various insights associated with smart cities.