MONICA – Management Of Networked IoT Wearables

The MONICA project is a 36 month Innovation Action (IA) co-funded by the European Commission through the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under the Large Scale Pilots objective Pilot 3: Wearables for smart ecosystems.

The project aims to provide a very large scale demonstration of multiple existing and new Internet of Things technologies for Smarter Living. MONICA demonstrates a large scale IoT ecosystem that uses innovative wearable and portable IoT sensors and actuators with closed-loop back-end services integrated into an interoperable, cloud-based platform capable of offering a multitude of simultaneous, targeted applications. It is one of the largest scale IoT platform demonstrations ever thanks to cheap wearables and legacy Smartphones. MONICA embraces a large number of IoT enablers aligned with AIOTI (Alliance of IoT Innovation) and IOT-A. It is demonstrated with a highly relevant IoT application in public safety at big events, where the cheap devices are needed because of the large masses of people. The demonstrators are aligned with Smart City noise, which is well known in many IoT demonstrators. The solution will be deployed in 6 major cities in Europe. All ecosystems will be demonstrated in the scope of large scale city events, but have general applicability for dynamically deploying Smart City applications in many fixed locations such as airports, main traffic arterials, and construction sites. Moreover, it is inherent in the MONICA approach to identify the official standardisation potential areas in all stages of the project.

Rationale
The MONICA approach aims to demonstrate an IoT platform in the context of multiple existing and novel Internet of Things technologies for Smarter Living and supporting an extremely large number of uses compared to existing demonstration projects. At the same time, the approach will demonstrate solutions in the context of real societal challenges related to security and safety of citizens in the public space, the right to express and pursue European cultural values, and the concern for environmental and safety issues associated with large events held in inner cities. In this sense, the MONICA pilots are autonomous and will be able to select those services and applications from the MONICA platform that suits their specific needs. The relevance of the MONICA approach can be expressed in these different contexts.

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The “European Culture” takes many forms and is expressed in millions of ways. Our project will focus on one of the key aspects of European Culture: the cultural performances in open-air settings, with special focus on musical expression. Music is one of the fundamental pillars of European Culture, in particular the open air performance of music. Open air musical events are not only cultural light-houses; they are also big business. The global Cultural and Creative Industries generate annual revenues of US$2,250b and provide 29.5 million jobs worldwide . The music industry in Europe alone had a turnover of $25,3b and employs 1,2m, a large part of which are between 15 and 29 years of age demonstrating that the cultural and creative sectors are highly attractive for young people. However, this arch-European cultural element is coming under pressure for the reason of safety (e.g. Lyon, Bonn, Leeds) or because of rising property costs in inner cities has made the neighbours less positive towards noise and congestion from open air concerts (e.g. Torino, Copenhagen, Hamburg).

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Pilot Features
Each of the six pilots will undertake demonstrations during at least four large events according to their own priorities. The planned pilot events constitute a realistic blend of one-off city events A total of 41 events are scheduled with a total of 108.000 participants and 35.000 neighbours. With 10% of the participants expected to participate in the validation activities, the platform will be evaluated and validated with 14.300 users; affected by the MONICA demonstrators in one way or the other. This is believed to be statistically significant for comprehensive impact analysis and conclusions with regard to user acceptability and sustainability.