9 Technologies That Power New York City
From space exploration robotics to subway subsystems, New York has technology to cover everything. Check out some cool examples near the Javits Center, home to Interop New York -- and beyond.
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Ah, New York City. If a technology can make it there, it can make it anywhere.
There will be plenty of technologies vying for your attention at Interop New York, our parent company's conference coming up Sept. 29 to Oct. 3. But suppose you step outside the Jacob Javits Convention Center. What technologies will you find powering the city and aiding its citizens and visitors?
New York is a city of big challenges and inventive solutions. Silicon Alley may not quite be on the level of Silicon Valley, but as one of the world's greatest -- who are we kidding? -- the greatest arts, entertainment, and advertising hub, New York has a big say in our digital future -- and the city says it loudly.
New York's technological contributions aren't limited to digital razzle dazzle, however. From robotics and space exploration to 3D printers, New York companies are pioneers.
Technology is also at work on a more down-to-earth level in city government and even under the earth in its legendary subway system. The app stores are bursting with mobile tools to help you get around town by subway, taxi, or private car.
New York is home to excellent institutions of higher education, including technology education, like Cornell Tech, currently building a showcase new campus (pictured above) on Roosevelt Island.
In the following pages, we cover free WiFi to keep you connected, wireless cameras to keep you safe (or perhaps to keep an eye on you), and much more.
Since we're offering this as an Interop preview, we spent a little extra attention on technological wonders related to the area around the convention center. So put on your walking shoes and follow us to the next page. Then register to join us at Interop.
(Source: nyc.com)
We know you've got to have your WiFi, so even though you may not have used a payphone since 1999, you'll be glad to see one at the end of the block if it is broadcasting glorious wireless bandwidth.
The City of New York has begun taking advantage of its payphone infrastructure to provide free WiFi across the five boroughs at no cost to taxpayers. It's currently available at only about 20 locations, but many more are on the way thanks to a partnership with big tech players like Google who want to help keep you connected. The payphone project serves to repurpose obsolete payphones and bolster the city's wireless corridors initiative, which aims to spread public WiFi access throughout the city.
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Wireless security cameras have been proliferating across the city as part of law enforcement surveillance efforts prompted in part by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
New York City police officials say their centralized monitoring operation, the Domain Awareness System, pulls in thousands of camera feeds while collecting and analyzing databases stocked by other monitoring systems from around the city. Microsoft helped the city build the system and is offering it for sale elsewhere.
In addition to helping predict and prevent problems, the monitoring system gives police a record of any crime committed within view.
Big Brother is watching you, but he says it's for your own good.
Though the city can't prevent every crime, at least it can tell you where it's happening.
The city's crime map shows the locations associated with seven major types of felonies, so you know which areas to avoid and which ones are relatively safe. (Of course, as they say down on Wall Street, past performance is no guarantee of future success.)
The crime map allows you to zoom in on a specific area, such as the area around the Javits -- and it's just one of many mapping applications provided by the city.
New York City government has been using computer mapping since the 1970s, but more recently the city's geographic information systems group has created what the city calls "a robust and versatile city basemap, with geo-referenced dated and associated tools, called NYCmap."
Tired of standing at the curb and flapping your arms like a crazy person until a cab stops? There's an app for that. Uber New York says the discount UberX version of its on-demand car service is now cheaper than a New York City taxi. But if you prefer a traditional cab, you can hail one of those, too, using an app like Hailo. The New York Taxi and Limousine Commission has also approved Ridecharge and Mobile Knowledge Systems Inc. as participants in its e-hailing pilot.
According to the commission's research, 55% of riders say they would like the option of using their phone to locate taxicabs, and 54% say they would pay for their rides with their phone if they could.
Getting around town on New York's subway system can be cheaper and faster than using a cab, but how is an out-of-town visitor to make sense of the schedule? The MTA Subway Time app lets you know when the next train is coming into a given station.
At some locations, particularly major hubs like Grand Central Station, you can get digital guidance without even pulling out your phone by using large touchscreen information kiosks. Like oversized iPhones, they let you touch and swipe to access the information you need.
(Source: MTA)
Riding the subway could be a little more adventure than you bargained for if your train jumps the tracks. Ensuring that doesn't happen is the job of the New York City Transit's track geometry car, a specially instrumented subway car that patrols the city's 673 miles of track, looking for anything out of whack. This Gizmodo story describes what it's like to ride along on the "wonder car," as it's known to admirers.
NYCT's two track geometry cars are self-propelled track-measuring and inspection vehicles, each consisting of two units, according to the MTA. One power car unit houses the engines and an Ultrasonic Rail Flaw Measuring System, and one towed measuring car holds all the other testing and measuring tools. The cars are capable of detecting and recording track defects with incredibly high precision. In addition to ultrasonic measurements, the system uses video inspection, a high-speed rotating laser, and thermal imaging. They feed an onboard computer network that allows recoding and storage of the data, as well as real-time evaluation and analysis at measuring speeds up to 50 mph, according to the MTA.
(Source: MakerBot)
One reason to get out of the convention center is to visit the MakerBot retail store, located at 298 Mulberry Street. A pioneer in bringing 3D printing to the masses, MakerBot is headquartered in New York City.
"Come visit one of our retail locations to get the full MakerBot experience," the company website reads. "You can watch MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printers make new objects; see the MakerBot Digitizer Desktop 3D Scanner turn objects into 3D models; attend fascinating classes and workshops; buy cool 3D printed gifts; and even purchase a MakerBot Replicator 3D Printer on the spot!"
Won't the family be surprised when you bring that home?
(Source: Honeybee Robotics)
You probably won't be bringing any Honeybee Robotics products home -- in fact, most of us won't get anywhere near the most exotic locations where its technology operates, such as the surface of Mars.
Founded in 1983 above a piano shop on the Lower East Side, Honeybee started out as an integrator of robotic systems before graduating to the design of new robots -- with particular bragging rights of components for NASA's planetary exploration missions.
Honeybee also has offices in Longmont, Colo., and Pasadena, Calif., but its headquarters is 460 West 34th Street, in what used to be known as the Master Printers Building. Now the printing presses have been replaced by robotics for spacecraft as well as defense, medical, mining, oil, and gas applications.
Having developed particular expertise in robotic arms for drilling and geologic sampling, Honeybee created multiple components for the most recent Mars rover missions.
One forward-looking project is Honeybee's Asteroid Water Extractor (above), designed to extract water from icy asteroids. The idea is to potentially give future human space explorers the means to "live off the land," since, in addition to its life-sustaining properties, water can be used to make rocket fuel and other valuable compounds.
"The system could be used as a pre-mining surveying technology or as a mining platform on its own," reads the Honeybee website. "We designed the Asteroid Water Extractor to be resilient, with multiple systems integrated into spacecraft lander legs [to] provide higher processing volume and system redundancy. The system provides a combination of low mass and strength to drill into tough icy and mineral composites that can be as hard as concrete."
(Source: Honeybee Robotics)
You probably won't be bringing any Honeybee Robotics products home -- in fact, most of us won't get anywhere near the most exotic locations where its technology operates, such as the surface of Mars.
Founded in 1983 above a piano shop on the Lower East Side, Honeybee started out as an integrator of robotic systems before graduating to the design of new robots -- with particular bragging rights of components for NASA's planetary exploration missions.
Honeybee also has offices in Longmont, Colo., and Pasadena, Calif., but its headquarters is 460 West 34th Street, in what used to be known as the Master Printers Building. Now the printing presses have been replaced by robotics for spacecraft as well as defense, medical, mining, oil, and gas applications.
Having developed particular expertise in robotic arms for drilling and geologic sampling, Honeybee created multiple components for the most recent Mars rover missions.
One forward-looking project is Honeybee's Asteroid Water Extractor (above), designed to extract water from icy asteroids. The idea is to potentially give future human space explorers the means to "live off the land," since, in addition to its life-sustaining properties, water can be used to make rocket fuel and other valuable compounds.
"The system could be used as a pre-mining surveying technology or as a mining platform on its own," reads the Honeybee website. "We designed the Asteroid Water Extractor to be resilient, with multiple systems integrated into spacecraft lander legs [to] provide higher processing volume and system redundancy. The system provides a combination of low mass and strength to drill into tough icy and mineral composites that can be as hard as concrete."
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