IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2016 - 67

ICTs, cloud computing, smartphone apps, and advanced
data analysis techniques. The patient data can be made
available in real time at various offices in a smart hospital
or even various smart hospitals in different cities or the
same city. Medical technicians, nurses, and doctors can
have access to the test data without loss of any time in
transferring the same information physically from one
office to another. Similarly, different doctors can see the
information to make judgments on a patient's condition,
resulting in possible real-time decisions on patient health
conditions and corresponding medication.
Telemedicine is a specific example of smart health care.
Telemedicine can also be a subset of smart health care. Telemedicine uses ICTs for providing clinical health care at a long
distance or in remote locations. This approach is particularly
useful for remote places in which health-care services are not
easily accessible; telemedicine eliminates the distance barriers
and improves access to medical care. Telemedicine is envisioned to provide critical care in emergency situations and can
save lives in such critical situations.
Another example in which smart health care can have a significant impact is in assisted living for elders. In assisted living, seniors have as much independence as possible in their
daily activities with minimal need for skilled nursing care.
Smart health care can further add to the quality of life in assisted living for seniors where a doctor, a nurse, and a health
report are easily available for them around the clock.

SMART TECHNOLOGY
Smart technology is key for the design, implementation, and
operation of smart cities. A variety of selected technologies used
in smart cities is presented in Figure 7. A diversity of components, including infrastructure, buildings, physical structures,
electrical infrastructure, electronics, communication infrastructure, information technology infrastructure, and software, makes
smart cities happen. A design and operation challenge is to have
a good mix of smart technologies so that the smart cities are not

oversmart but rather sufficiently smart to be sustainable for
years. It is important that the cost of deploying such smart technology is not a serious overhead for tax revenue of the citizens
of the smart cities. However, as science and technology make
progress, smart technology can become cheaper, and smart cities
may become an economically viable option.
Green or renewable energy resources, such as solar power
and wind power, are examples of smart technology that is
essential for smart cities. Green buildings and green neighborhood development communities are also important for
smart cities. Green buildings and the corresponding communities using them are categorized by rigorous standards programs like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) in the United States and Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM)
in the United Kingdom. The LEED program is a green building certification program that identifies the best-in-class
building strategies and practices. To achieve LEED
certification, the building projects must satisfy prerequisites
and earn scores to obtain different levels of certification. For
example, LEED v4, which is the most recent version of certification, includes important aspects like materials of the
building, indoor environmental quality, smart grid, and water
efficiency. Similarly, BREEAM includes several categories
for assessment, such as management, energy, pollution,
materials, waste, water usage, and health care.
A sustainable transport system is an important technology
for smart cities. Sustainable and smart transport systems (for
example, mass rapid transit systems) can transport large numbers of people from one destination to another. This can
reduce traffic congestion and is helpful in reducing greenhouse emissions that have a negative impact on global warming. Smart communication technology and ICT are important
and include fiber optics to homes, citywide Wi-Fi, near-field
communication (NFC), and Bluetooth. Citywide Wi-Fi can
make use of basic services, such as calling a taxi, easier. NFC
can revolutionize the way credit cards are used; the day may

Smart Technology

Green
(or Clean)
and
Renewable
Energy
Resource

Sustainable
Transport
System

Sustainable
Resource
Management

Communication
Infrastructure

Global
ICT
Infrastructure

Social
Network
and CPS

State-of-the-Art
Technology

FIGURE 7. Some possibilities of smart technologies.

JULY 2016

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July 2016