Computer Vision helps make Helsingborg a smarter city

February 4, 2022

The smart and sustainable city was in focus as a pioneering new data acquisition system was deployed in the south of Sweden, early 2021. Helsingborg, a city at the forefront of Smart City innovation, joined forces with Univrses, a world-leading company within Smart City technology. The goal of the collaboration was to improve city operations and deliver better services to the city’s population. The tool that was used to reach this goal is called 3DAI™ City, a ground-breaking computer vision system developed by Univrses for tracking and monitoring urban environments. For the last couple of months, Univrses has carried out a deployment demonstrating the capabilities of their system on the streets of Helsingborg.

Although the unique technology behind the 3DAI™ City is advanced, the practical implementation of the platform is quite simple. Camera units equipped with Univrses’ Computer Vision software are deployed onto the windshield of waste management vehicles operating on different routes in Helsingborg. As these vehicles have been given sensing capabilities, they will harvest the city for relevant, actionable and anonymized urban data while carrying out their everyday services. A constant stream of real-time data on features such as road damage, traffic flows, road works and pedestrian density will be accessed by the Helsingborg municipality.

Read more about the Univrses / Helsingborg partnership 

Univrses and The City of Helsingborg had a close collaboration throughout the project. As soon as the deployment of 3DAI™ City started, the urban data that was gathered was presented to the municipality through a simple and intuitive web-based dashboard. This instantly enabled the people in charge to make fast, data-driven decisions – improving the services that are offered to the citizens of Helsingborg. The vehicles that harvest the data are provided by NSR, the organization in charge of waste management in the northwestern part of Skåne.

The deployment in Helsingborg has only been running for a couple of months, but is already yielding positive results. For example, thanks to the delivery of timely and actionable road quality data, the City’s road maintenance process is being updated. This means resources can be deployed more efficiently resulting in significant time and cost savings. Henrik Rosdahl, Road Engineer at The City of Helsingborg, says that 3DAI™ City can reduce the time his department spends on road maintenance by as much as 50%.

Jonathan Selbie, CEO of the Stockholm-based tech company, says: “Our collaboration with Helsingborg and NSR is a perfect example of what Smart City development is all about: Cities working together with organizations delivering cutting edge technology – all to solve real-world problems in society. We are very excited about our ongoing partnership with these two innovative organizations, and we’re happy to demonstrate the benefits of 3DAI™ City to the world.”

Andréas Hall, Development Engineer at The City of Helsingborg, is excited about the collaboration: “We are very happy to be working with Univrses to gather timely, actionable urban data in Helsingborg. The data can be used to improve city operations in so many different ways. It is becoming a fundamental part of our mission to create a world class urban environment that best serves our residents’ needs.”

H22 City Expo

In the summer of 2022, The City of Helsingborg hosts H22 City Expo, an international event exploring innovation and sustainability in smart cities. During the 35 day-long event, which runs from May 30 to July 3, Helsingborg will become an innovation arena for cities, businesses, academia, associations and residents. Univrses will have the privilige of being partner to The City of Helsingborg during this great event. Visitors to the H22 City Expo will be able to see the cutting-edge technology behind 3DAI^TM City first-hand as well as enjoy demonstrations of other exciting innovations for the smart, sustainable cities of the future.

Read more about H22 City Expo

3DAI™ City – Univrses’ Smart City platform

The unique technology that enables this collaboration is called 3DAI^TM City. By deploying a mobile camera unit onto a moving vehicle, large amounts of timely, relevant and actionable city data can be captured. The data is accessible through Univrses’ web-based dashboard. As Univrses’ team of scientists and expert engineers continue to develop The Company’s proprietary algorithms, new areas of use will be explored for 3DAI^TM City. The technology introduces a new paradigm in Smart City monitoring and management, and it has the potential to change urban society as we know it.

For the latest news updates on Univrses and their technologies, visit www.univrses.com and follow The Company on social media.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/univrses

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/univrses

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/univrses_com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/univrses/

About Univrses:

Univrses is a Stockholm-based Computer Vision and Machine Learning company. 

The technical focus is in areas like 3D Positioning, 3D Mapping, 3D Localization, Spatial Deep Learning and Sensor Fusion. Univrses has collaborated with several leading Swedish companies including Zenseact, ABB and Husqvarna. 

Read more at www.univrses.com

About The City of Helsingborg

Helsingborg is Sweden’s eighth biggest municipality, located in the southern parts of the country with a population of close to 150 000 inhabitants.  The municipality is one of the best in Sweden when it comes to investing in technological innovation. The H22 initiative demonstrates the innovative willpower in The City of Helsingborg.

Read more at https://helsingborg.se

About NSR

NSR (Nordvästra Skånes Renhållnings AB) is responsible for waste management and recycling in the north-western part of Skåne, Sweden. The organization is owned by six different municipalities, and their mission is to contribute to clean and long-term sustainable societies in the area.

Read more at https://nsr.se

###

Media Contact:

Jonathan Selbie

Univrses, jonathan.selbie@univrses.com