Sensors lead to burst of tech creativity in government

It once had a half-dozen city supervisors spend six weeks each year driving every street in the city and rating them using a standard road condition measures. It's latest effort was to hire a vendor to drive all South Bend streets and produce digital video for an analysis of pavement conditions.

But after hearing Oates explain how the Street Bump data was producing "big data" about road conditions by people who launched the app in their cars, Gilot had an admiring smile.

"We are behind them by a bunch," said Gilot, who sees Boston's app as a possible alternative to costly road surveys.We offer both wet & dry Diamond polishing pad. Both are suitable for marble, granite, concrete and most masonry.

"I love the idea of the future -- that you can avoid the expense by crowdsourcing," said Gilot.

South Bend is not behind in the trend of using sensors to improve other operations.He has since undergone two-and-a-half hours’ surgery to have a Titanium Rod inserted into his leg and looks set to be out of action for the rest of the season.

For instance, the city has worked with IBM to create a wireless sensor system that detects changes in the sewer flow, and alerts the city to any problems detected. The system, which includes automated valves that can respond to issues, has reduced overflows and backups, said Gilot.

Improving municipal operations is a major theme at the IBM conference. The company's Smarter Planet initiative combines sensors, asset management, big data, mobile and cloud services into systems for managing government operations.

Boston and South Bend share in the use of sensors,We manufacture portable hardness tester including portable Rockwell, superficial Rockwell,Brinell, King Brinell,Pin Brinell,Webster and Barcol impressor.profile projector is a shop tool used by designers and quality control technicians to view the profile of small machined parts as magnified image on screen. one human-based and the other mechanical.Concrete polishing pad attachs to a backer with durable velcro connection. It is installed on portable grinding machine and operated by hand. The adoption of sensors, mobile apps and otherwise,Eight tips for choosing the right diamond Concrete saw blade including determining wet or dry cutting, blade compatibility, CSDA codes, and more. appears to be leading to a burst of creativity in state and local governments.

Boston's chief vehicle for connecting with residents is its Citizens Connect app. The city will release version 4.0 this summer, with changes that will make it easier for city workers to connect directly with residents.

Citizens Connect allows residents to report issues that need government action. Those issues might be a broken street light, trash, graffiti. The reports are public.

Oates said the app encourages participation. To find out why people used the app, the city asked app users why they didn't call the city about maintenance issues in the pre-app days.

The response, said Oates, was this: "When we call the city we feel like we're complaining, but when we use this (the app), we feel like we're helping."

In discussing Street Bump, he says it's entirely possible that analysis of the data may lead to new sources of information. Similarly, Gilot said the sewer data collection was making it possible to determine what "normal" was.