Principal Investigator Carlo Ratti
Co-investigators Rex Britter , Anthony Vanky , Jackie Dufault , Newsha Ghaeli , Katja Schechtner
Project Website http://senseabledb.mit.edu/
Project Start Date May 2006
Real Time Rome, a pioneering MIT project initiated by the SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT, promises to usher in a new era of urban mapmaking. The project will have its worldwide debut at the Venice Biennale, the prestigious biannual exhibition of contemporary art, from September 10 to November 19, 2006.
Following the Venice Biennale, the SENSEable City Laboratory will launch the SENSEable City Consortium, a major research initiative aimed at bringing together city and public administrators, network operators, electronic hardware and software producers and urban hardware manufacturers in MIT's unique research environment.
Real Time Rome is described as a new kind of mapmaking. Along with other powerful interactive maps, such as Google Earth, Real Time Rome is backed up by huge databases that will ultimately make it possible to conduct highly customized searches and view displays in real time.
The real-time city is now real! The increasing deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years is allowing a new approach to the study of the built environment. The way we describe and understand cities is being radically transformed -- alongside the tools we use to design them and impact on their physical structure. Studying these changes from a critical point of view and anticipating them is the goal of the SENSEable City Laboratory, a new research initiative at the MIT.
Meanwhile, the SENSEable City Consortium brings together MIT researchers and external partners to jointly share a vision, develop technologies, and deploy projects. Working primarily with cities, non-profits organizations, and companies that are at the forefront of servicing cities with digital technologies and information.
The consortium is a critical component of the process, serving as a platform for creating partnerships, exchanging knowledge, and raising funds. Partner cities in the consortium offer test cases, industry provides technical expertise, and the lab unites public and private sectors behind an umbrella vision of a shared future.