Above Clematis Street in Downtown West Palm Beach, sensors mounted on black poles are recording and tracking the movement of pedestrians, drivers and pests like raccoons. Posters with QR codes alongside the sensors direct residents to a website with information about a new project that could improve mobility, traffic efficiency and public safety. It builds on an existing data collection program implemented in , which deployed sensors to collect strength information from Wi-Fi signals. This next phase would include cameras taking video recordings and the use of artificial intelligence to generate digital representations of streets β the video recordings gives even Jason Hallstrom pause.
That makes me feel nervous And I think that many residents and many visitors feel the same way," said Hallstrom, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Florida Atlantic University. Hallstrom is also deputy director and chief research officer of the Engineering Research Center for Smart Streetscapes, or CS3 β the center behind this new project. It's helpful to understand the neighborhoods where the patterns of raccoon activity lie.
The population in downtown West Palm Beach has doubled to 10, people over the last five years, making it a prime location for the mobility project. But city officials and others overseeing the project say a critical step in implementing the plan is to seek public input from the community, learning more about residents' concerns related to privacy, data security and their Constitutional rights.
It could be used, for example, to make bus routes more efficient or provide high-speed internet hotspots. The Mobility Intelligence Project MIP , unanimously approved by the city commission in , studies traffic patterns and tracks people β their cellphones, Apple watches β who stop at various locations and helps businesses market to those people. The MIP, part of a partnership with FAU, the Knight Foundation and the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties, currently uses 54 advanced sensors and machine learning technology to measure the strength of wireless mobile device signals and determine the position of the people and objects without capturing personal data, Hallstrom said.
Data from sensors that exist now are actually part of the WPB Department's real-time crime center. But for this CS3 program, Hallstrom told WLRN the West Palm Beach police will not have privileged access to this new data, the program will not store raw video, and that data will be immediately available to the public in real-time. Hallstrom said it's not yet clear all the ways the technology will be used, because public input is required before those decisions can be made.
