CBC News reporter Laura DaSilva writes that MIT researchers have launched a project, called Treepedia, to measure the percentage of land covered by trees in urban areas. Using Google Street View, “the researchers measured the percentage of land covered by trees in 12 cities across the world.”
CSAIL researchers have found that ride-sharing taxis controlled by a citywide computer system could decrease the number of cars on the road in New York City, reports Clive Cookson for the Financial Times. The researchers found that “3,000 four-passenger cars could satisfy 98 per cent of the city’s demand.”
MIT researchers have developed a system to map streetlights, writes Linda Poon for The Atlantic CityLab. Using sensors mounted on top of vehicles, the system measures illumination levels, gathers data into a map, and distinguishes between background light and streetlights through machine learning, explains Poon.
A new book by Prof. Carlo Ratti and graduate student Matthew Claudel focuses on the impact technology has on cities, writes Kate Abbey-Lambertz for The Huffington Post. “Ratti and Claudel envision a potential future where new technology ― from individualized heating grids to neighborhood 3D-printing fabrication studios ― ‘weaves into a tapestry of citizen empowerment’.”
A new imaging technique developed by MIT researchers creates video simulations that people can interact with, writes Charles Choi for Scientific American. “In addition to fueling game development, these advances could help simulate how real bridges and buildings might respond to potentially disastrous situations,” Choi explains.
Joe Toohey of NBC’s Meet the Press visits MIT to learn about the CityScope project’s augmented reality platform for urban planning. Kent Larson, director of the City Science Initiative, explains that the platform allows non-experts to “explore different alternatives, experiment with them, in effect play, and get immediate feedback.”
Alyssa Newcomb writes for NBC News that MIT researchers have developed a system that allows users to interact with virtual objects. Newcomb explains that the “technology could be used to make movies or even by engineers wanting to find out how an old bridge may respond to inclement weather.”
CSAIL researchers have created a tool that allows people to interact with videos, writes Mary Beth Griggs for Popular Science. The technique could “make augmented reality animations integrate even more with the 'reality' part of augmented reality, help engineers model how structures will react when different forces are applied, or as a less expensive way to create special effects.”
In an article for The New Yorker, Frank Rose features “The City of Tomorrow”, a new book by Prof. Carlo Ratti and graduate student Matthew Claudel. Rose writes that the city Claudel and Ratti envision is “a hybrid of the digital and the physical, a ‘triumph of atoms and bits’ that yields a sort of augmented urban reality.”
Sophia Haigney writes for The Boston Globe that students in the URBANFRAME program, based out of MIT’s architecture department, are exploring design solutions for Cambridge’s Central Square, including sidewalk lanes to help smartphone users avoid collisions. Haigney notes that the program is aimed at designing “for under-represented groups in the community — people whom designers might typically ignore.”
CBC News reporter David Common writes that as part of a project called Underworlds, MIT researchers have developed robots that can sample human waste in sewers in an effort to better understand public health. "One of the holy grails of this project during its inception was to identify viral outbreaks," explains Jessica Snyder, an MIT postdoc.
Forbes contributor Pete Saunders highlights a new study by Prof. Mercedes Delgado that examines the relationship between industry clusters and employment growth in cities. Delgado found that “while inner city neighborhoods start with an economic disadvantage compared to central business districts, they do have competitive advantages.”
WBUR’s Bruce Gellerman speaks with Prof. Carlo Ratti and research scientist Bryan Reimer about the potential impact of driverless cars on everything from traffic to the economy. Reimer says using autonomous vehicles will change, “how we move. It changes how packages are moved. It changes how we behave. It changes the future of old age. It changes everything.”
WBUR reporter Jack Lepiarz speaks with Prof. Marta Gonzalez about her traffic study that found that if drivers switched routes during rush hour they could cut back on congestion. “We have enough space, in theory, but we are all filling up a few streets that get congested,” Gonzalez explains.
Prof. Carlo Ratti and graduate student Matthew Claudel write for Harvard Business Review about how technology is changing office environments. “Throughout history, buildings have been rigid and uncompromising, more like a corset than a T-shirt,” they write. “With better data on occupancy, we could design a built environment that adapts to humans, rather than the inverse.”