Building the City of the Future

Some of the world’s greatest thinkers are uniting with government leaders in Dubai to dive into creating the next wave of “smart cities.” Two years ago, Dubai launched its “Smart City of the Future” initiative, with the goal of using rapidly advancing technology to improve lives.

Our planet’s population is growing: The UN expects we will reach 9.6 billion people by 2050, with 67 percent of people living in urban areas. Our cities will have to get smarter even as we consume more water and energy.

Here are just some of the 3M technologies being discussed today through Tuesday at the “Internet of Things World Forum 2015” in Dubai.

Bringing the sun inside

One of the best sources of energy is right outside our windows. What if you could harvest the sun’s light and bring it inside?

That’s exactly what Daylight Redirecting Film does. The thin 3M film utilizes microreplication to bring natural light further inside. Its made of micro-structured prisms, which redirect more than 80 percent of the daylight upward and diffuse light to be more evenly distributed.

Now everybody gets a window seat.

Keeping data cool

In our data-driven future, we’ll need ever more computing power. Servers throw off a lot of heat. How to keep them cool? An innovative solution is 3M Novec Engineered Fluid, which servers can be dropped into, cooling them without harm.

As the hardware heats up in the tank, it boils the Novec fluid, and this change in state pulls the heat away. The Novec fluid becomes a vapor. It rises, condenses on a water-cooled condenser coil, then falls back into the tank without the use of pumps.

How efficient is it? One data center in Hong Kong using Novec fluid improved energy efficiency 4,000 times over its traditional data-center cooling approach.

Signs of the times

With our ever-growing global population, people will be moving around cities like never before. Smart cities will use transportation infrastructure and smart mobility in new ways.

To protect us as we zip about on our bikes and in our cars, properly marked roadways will be essential. Signs need to be readable at a distance and at night.

3M tackles that problem with retroreflectivity – which happens when light is returned back to the original source instead of being scattered. Research shows that use of higher-performing reflective sheeting helps reduce crashes.

3M has long been the technology leader, ever since developing the core technology of retroreflective sheeting more than 70 years ago.

Your passport: protected

In a global economy, we are constantly on the go, traveling to far-flung places. The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates that the travel sector will account for 284 million jobs in 2015 – and 357 million by 2025.

To keep pace with our international lifestyle, we’ll need high-tech secure passports. A 3M invention allows unique security graphics to appear to “float” or “sink” beneath the document’s surface.

It’s called Color Floating Image Security Laminate – and it’s something counterfeiters can’t fake in Photoshop. It features kinetic microtext embedded within the floating image and retroreflectivity to provide enhanced security.

Australia has embraced the technology, using it to add “dancing kangaroos” on passports.

License plate recognition

Of course, the bad actors aren’t always after your passport. Sometimes, they’re already driving around your city. Luckily, all cars carry a unique identifying letter and number sequence: the license plate.

The problem is, even the fastest human eye can’t keep up with the kind of packed highways we see as cities grow. That’s why 3M makes an Automatic License Plate Recognition system. High-performance cameras and software are used for toll collection, intelligent policing, airports, universities, labs, businesses and law enforcement.

The technology helped officers in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, track down a man suspected of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl – and return ther home safe to her family.

Smart cities today

At “The Internet of Things World Forum,” business, industry, government and academia unite to find new and better ways to create “smart cities.”

That means smart passports. Smart fingerprinting. Smart energy transmission. Smart streets. Even smart water infrastructure.

“There are tough challenges ahead, but we see them as opportunities to use our strengths of technology and domain knowledge of diverse markets to improve the lives of people as the world is getting urbanized,” says Ashish Khandpur, 3M senior vice president, research and development and chief technology officer. “‘Smart cities’ are one of the ways we will be able to apply 3M science to life around the world.”