The trial involved leveraging an existing network of installed cameras as the internet of things (IoT) sensors to monitor a compactor
Aerial view of the Melbourne skyline. (Credit: David Wallace/Wikipedia)
Nokia and the City of Melbourne have conducted an artificial intelligence (AI) technology trial to improve the cleanliness and safety of city streets.
As part of the trial, Nokia Scene Analytics AI solution was deployed to gain an improved understanding of waste disposal behaviour.
The trial has been undertaken to enable the city to address the issue of waste dumping.
Residents and businesses in Melbourne were provided with subscription-based access to the large-capacity compactor facilities to reduce the frequency of waste contractor visits to busy areas.
Later, the council wanted to assess the utilisation of the new service and explore ways to mitigate illegal waste dumping.
To monitor one of the compactors, the City of Melbourne partnered with Nokia under its emerging technology testbed initiative.
The partnership involved leveraging an existing network of installed cameras as the internet of things (IoT) sensors to monitor the compactor.
City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said: “This is a great example of using new technology to help remove illegal waste more quickly, make our city cleaner and protect the environment.
“Our partnership with Nokia is another way we are gathering data to make Melbourne a safer, smarter and more sustainable city.
“This innovative project will help to avoid hazards and make our streets even cleaner by allowing our waste services to better understand behaviour trends related to the illegal and dangerous dumping of waste.”
By deploying an AI-powered algorithm, the Nokia Scene Analytics solution was able to filter and collate data from the cameras, apart from combining other data sources to create real-time alerts and produce reports.
Nokia said that the initial results from the trial showed that the Scene Analytics solution can support the City’s efforts to reduce maintenance and downtime costs for waste management services.
The trial enabled real-time monitoring and detection of activity in the vicinity of the compactor with a virtual tripwire.
The reports generated by Nokia’s AI technology are expected to allow the City of Melbourne to gain an enhanced understanding of the correlation between illegal waste-dumping activities and compactor downtime.