IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May/June 2021 - 4

From the Editor's Desk
Low-Cost Consumer Technology Can
Help to Build Sustainable Smart Villages
Saraju P. Mohanty
University of North Texas
& I WELCOME THE readers to the third issue of
year 2021, the May 2021 issue, of the IEEE CONSUMER
ELECTRONICS MAGAZINE (MCE).
CONSUMER TECHNOLOGIES FOR
SUSTAINABLE SMART VILLAGES
The current issue of the IEEE MCE is dedicated
to smart villages. MCE has covered smart
cities theme in multiple past issues, including
July 2016, March 2018. MCE also covered various
technologies applicable smart cities. While covering
smart cities, an obvious question arises,
what about smart villages? This gives rise to various
related questions including: Are smart cities
and smart villages same? Can the same technology
be used for both smart cities and smart
villages? Does not Internet-of-Things (IoT) deployment
make both smart cities and smart villages?
How Cyber-Physical-Systems (CPS) differ
in smart cities and smart villages? How underneath
consume technologies, such as sensors
and communications technology, differ in smart
cities and smart villages? These questions
needed addressing which motivated for the current
issue theme of smart villages.
Smart villages can be defined as a village
that uses information and communication technologies
for advancing economic and social
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MCE.2021.3065555
Date ofcurrent version 13 April 2021.
development to make villages sustainable. Smart
cities have similar definitions. However, low cost
and sustainability are key differences of smart villagesascomparedtothe
smartcities. Urban
migration of the population is one of the major
motivations. This is not a problem of smart
villages, then what is the motivation for smart villages.
Smart villages technology can be motivated
by the following: 1) efficient usage of limited
resources, 2) sustainability at low cost, and 3)
reverse of urban migration of population. The
number, types, and complexity of CPS deployed in
smart villages can be smaller than that of the
smart cities. For example, smart agriculture can
be more useful in smart villages than smart cities.
Smart noise monitoring and smart parking are
more relevant for smart cities. Smart villages technology
has to overcome various obstacles including:
1) low design and operation cost, 2) lack of
continuous electricity, 3) lack of quality communications,
and 4) lack of computation resources.
Low-cost consumer technologies can come handy
to overcome these obstacles.
FEATURE ARTICLES
Internet-of-Things-enabled Smart Villages-
Recent Advances and Challenges: This article
presents an overview of the sensors and communications
technology needed for design and
operation of smart villages.
Energy Perspectives in IoT Driven Smart Villages
and Smart Cities: This article presents the
4
2162-2248 ß 2021 IEEE
Published by the IEEE Consumer Technology Society
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May/June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May/June 2021
