State of Art

Once the general direction of the project was established, it was necessary to investigate the general panorama of questions and uncertainties regarding the technology used, patents in the market, and related articles to focus on the development of the concept Living Cities.

Such investigation helped in the technical development of the project to give us a better understanding of the design needed in technical aspects. Hence different environmental monitoring systems were analyzed, which in specific consisted of measurement devices of pollution levels in a specific zone, such as the MACAM system implemented in the city of Santiago in Chile since 1988. The possibility of other devices were analyzed that unlike the MACAM system, work as independent devices that are not connected in a network.

After this phase of investigation, it was clear that an important decision was had to be made on the main concept of Living Cities. The possibility of developing a micro-system that functions independently and its general effect can contribute to the well being of the society was what the team focused on from this point on.

Specifically various types of sensors and detectors of gas and contamination were studied at a theoretical level. This phase of the project was fundamentally carried out from the analysis of different patents whose structure and functionality could be applied and be integrated to the project. The work carried out by David Uhen which consists of an apparatus that does periodic measurements of the CO2 content in the breathing was valuable to the technical development. Although the approach of Uhen was a medical solution, the concept was nevertheless applicable in Living Cities. Also the work of David D. Nelson, J. Barry McManus, Mark Zahniser, Charles E. Kolb on the differentiatation between gases emitted by a vehicle is through laser technology, constitutes an area of opportunity that team feels that can be used like expand the development of the technology that Living Cities demands.

Finally, due to the natural concept of Living Cities, various methods of generating energy through the natural process were examined. The research introduced the work of Christopher J. Love, Shuguang Zhang, Andreas Mershin of the Center for Biomedical Engineering, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. Their studies are aimed at obtaining electrical energy from the pH difference that exists between the tree leafs and the soil.

On the commercial side, the company Voltre Power has developed a system of sensors of fire detection which obtains their energy from the photosynthetic processes of the trees. This self power system, although a step in the right direction, still can not be used as a replacement of traditional light emitting urban devices due its limited capacity in terms of generating energy.

On the basis of the previous investigations, Living Cities it has entered to a stage where the objective is initially to take advantage of the technology available and in parallel initiating research studies on the development of specialized technology that allows to translate the main concepts of the project more efficiently and that promotes the development of social intelligence as it progresses.