Research Center for Data Analysis and Protection - Phase II

Publications

Smart Life and Smart City: Developing Innovations to Simplify Life

Pavel Tuček, Patrik Břečka – Asseco Centra Europe, a.s.

How will Slovak cities look like in the future? Services will be smart and automatically optimized based on real-time street conditions. Thanks to unique sensor networks that are constantly improving and evolving, this future is becoming a reality.

As part of Asseco's extensive services portfolio, this international company is showcasing its unique expertise again within the Smart Life project. In cooperation with its subsidiary Exe, the Public SK division is implementing a business project focused on Smart City technology in the Michalovce city. Additionally, Asseco is expanding its research activities in R&D, exploring the potential of video technology and neural networks in Svätý Jur in collaboration with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.

Business Project: Smart City in Michalovce

Potholes or inadequate public areas? We know about them, or they have already been repaired, benches at bus stops are fixed, grass is freshly cut, and trash bins have been emptied. Cities of the future don't need to be a fairy tale or science fiction when it comes to public services. Asseco has been delivering a system in Michalovce that integrates selected domains, viewing citizen services from a completely new perspective.

Optimized Management and Maintenance

The transformation begins where most people's attention ends—waste management. Monitoring of waste collection across the city provides a massive opportunity to gather data, enabling automatic complaint handling and service improvement. This leads to time savings and resource optimization for municipalities. An additional benefit is the personalized information available to citizens, which is digitalized and accessible in real-time through mobile phones.

Data collected by mobile cameras mounted on garbage trucks are processed using neural networks and interpreted to provide useful insights. Such trucks cover the entire city, enabling data analytics for road conditions, public space cleanliness, and bus stop maintenance. If overgrown greenery or unrepaired potholes are detected, the system sends notifications to the responsible department. This functionality provides automated remote monitoring and management of infrastructure and public areas. For cities, this represents a potential budget-saving opportunity and improves the quality of life through timely maintenance.

R&D Project: Smart Life

Artificial Intelligence for Image Recognition

In Svätý Jur, the pilot city, Asseco's research team is exploring new possibilities for video technology through AI-driven image recognition. The goal is to train neural networks to create new insights solely from image data or in combination with data from other detection technologies. For example, focusing on video technology to enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety in traffic. Working with video data also involves exploring data security boundaries and finding compromises between maximizing data use and privacy protection.

Unique Organic Thin Layers

The Smart Life research project includes a team of scientists from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, which is a project partner. They have been developing unique sensor layers based on inorganic electronics using flexible organic structures. These new thin layers possess unique electronic and mechanical functional properties at the molecular level and are used in the design of next-generation environmental stations for air and meteorological monitoring. The aim is to make these environmental devices more affordable.

The developed devices are being increasingly deployed in urban environments. Broad distribution of these air monitoring devices is being implemented in Bratislava and Svätý Jur. The collected data holds a great potential for our cities, significantly contributing to the planning of new developments, especially in the climate change context.

The microclimate will be mapped at various locations and assessed how it is perceived by residents, how it affects quality of life, and even how it impacts the real estate market. Cities will gain insights into the hottest areas and the factors influencing temperature. All it takes is intelligent monitoring of selected indicators.

Newly developed cost-effective sensors have been deployed to an ever-increasing extent. Comprehensive coverage and data processing from these sensors will provide crucial insights into the microclimate impacts on urban areas.

This publication was made possible with the support of the Operational Program Integrated Infrastructure for the project: Research Centre for Data Analysis and Protection - Phase II, Project Code 313021W479, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.