A novel solution—better than GPS—to navigate a smart city

Smart Address Plate (SAP)

A new device has been developed that works more acurately than GPS to help you navigate your way through a smart city without getting lost, and it may prove to be a gamechanger for the management of a smart city, believes the scientist who helped create it.

This novel solution, called Smart Address Plate (SAP), has been developed by Professor Anthony Yeh Gar-On and his team of researchers at the University of Hong Kong. It is a sensing device which when installed in front of buildings, shops or offices, can help users within its proximity to know their own locations through a mobile application (App).

SAP stores a unique geo-coded Smart Address ID of a location or structure associated with it. When users are within the confidence range of the structure, they would know its exact location to reach it by following the App.

Professor Yeh believes that it could be gamechanger for smart cities as like all citizens having a unique ID number, the most important infrastructures of a smart city can also have a unique smart address ID using this device.

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“The invention provides an innovative and effective way in making sure that every building in a city will have a unique and easy to remember address code that is linked up with the shops and offices in a building for reliable and convenient navigation in a city, shopping mall or office building,” says Professor Yeh.

“Hong Kong can be the first city to use such an innovative and sophisticated Smart Address Plate System that combines navigation and management, and set a new standard for smart cities in the world,” he added.

The possible applications of the device include enabling delivery persons, firemen, and ambulance assistants to find the location of your address more quickly and accurately, saving time and lives.

Furthermore, it can also be used in conjunction with other devices to automatically open doors for persons with disability, help you find your parking space, inform and guide you to the latest boarding gate or train platform that has just been changed, as well as to prepare for future driverless cars and robots in a smart city.