The Smart City App for Expo 2015 was previewed today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Attended by Telecom Italia COO Marco Patuano and Expo 2015 CEO Giuseppe Sala, the event showed the latest advances in the partnership between the two companies as they pursue the objective of realizing the Digital Smart City Expo 2015: a new model for the city of the future combining groundbreaking technological services with environmental sustainability.
The Smart City App has been designed as a reference tool to provide information, services and entertainment on Expo 2015, on participating nations, on the city and nation, on partners and all of the players involved. The purpose of the App is to ensure an ongoing relationship with visitors, including via next-generation LTE mobile connectivity networks and the most advanced devices that offer increasingly involving and complete experiences.
The initial prototype of the Smart City App has been built in partnership with specialist companies Telecom Design and Click’n’Tap. It already incorporates a number of groundbreaking technologies such as Augmented Reality and Visual Search to offer a surprising experience of Milan today and, in the future, Expo 2015, combining real views with animation and multimedia content to enhance citizens’ and tourists’ experience. The application makes it possible to experience greater social interactivity using a visual communications approach (urban painting) and create shared paths with friends and with people who have shared the same experience or intend to do so (personal assistant).
Marco Patuano, COO of Telecom Italia, says: “We are particularly proud to be previewing the prototype of the Smart City App at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. This groundbreaking solution is enhancing the wide range of services we are developing for Expo 2015. Mobile access to technologically advanced content associated with the event and the city of Milan is one of the special features of the forthcoming universal exposition, a new way of accessing content within the urban and exposition space as part of an articulated and intelligent system of digital services that is revolutionizing and enhancing the way citizens and visitors relate to the surrounding environment.”
Giuseppe Sala, CEO of Expo 2015 S.p.A., says: “We are very pleased to have built the application with Telecom Italia that we are presenting here today. The Smart City App demonstrates the highly technological approach to the Universal Exposition we are organizing. But that’s just part of the story: it provides a voice, a way of thinking and getting in touch with different cultures and experiences, which we will be conveying to the 20 million expected visitors. This technology will not condition visitors’ lives; it will be at their service. This is why I believe that this product is a tangible example of the benefits Expo 2015 will produce and indeed is already producing for the people of Milan, leaving a major legacy for the city’s future.”
The leading-edge solutions that are undergoing testing during this initial phase will help in the development of a rich set of high technological value services and content for mobile access, supporting the various cultural, commercial and tourism-related end purposes, and capable of offering an experience under the banner of digitalization while transforming Expo 2015 into a smart city.
Barcelona, 26 February 2013
