RAIN was a part of a project coordinated by Forum Virium in 2019. A 5G test environment and an innovation platform were built in the project with new technologies to observe urban locations. We talked with RAIN’s CEO Henri Kivioja about how the cooperation affected RAIN’s platform development.
During 2018 – 2020 a project called UrbanSense 5G was carried out in two parts that closely followed each other.
The first part concentrated on 5G network technology research and development, and on collecting and transferring real-time data regarding air quality. The other part focused on development of platforms based on 5G technology. These platforms are open to use for the different businesses based here in Helsinki, Finland. The project was endorsed by the City of Helsinki Innovation fund.
The project enabled an internationally interesting and unique 5G testing environment in urban locales, in which data was collected and studied together from a variety of resources and many sectors.
“The pilot was very successful and we got the results we actually expected from it”
Henri Kivioja, RAIN
Successful recognition of traffic lights with computer vision
Data was collected from traffic lights at intersections with the help of smart phones located in cars as a part of the test concept. It was very cost effective. The traffic lights were recognized in the image by machine vision. Picked up data and locations were matched on the map. The test was a great success and the in-car traffic lights recognition is one of the ways forward in building smarter cities.
“5G platform possibilities were tested in the area of digitalization. RAIN acted as the platform that was used for innovation by others”, explains Mr. Kivioja.
The pilot and the cooperation show the RAIN platform as a well-working solution
RAIN implemented the Edge computing platform and interface. Together with Telia Inmics-Nebula’s virtual computers, they presented a solution by cooperation. The platform was offered for use for businesses during the testing period. The established services were expanded according to the use cases on hand.
“The pilot was very successful and we got the results we actually expected from it. RAIN proved to be a well working solution. The cooperation with other companies was rewarding. We learned quite a bit for future developing of the platform”, concludes Mr. Kivioja.
The Edge computing pilot also provided further learnings of the platform in urban environments together with 5G offerings, both centered and distributed. As a whole, the co-operation was very innovative and quite a number of companies piloted their own solutions.
The RAIN platform proves to be excellent in near real-time data processing. For example: live video, audio or text stream, IoT data and Virtual Reality/ Augmented Reality (VR/AR) data can be processed. According to Mr. Kivioja “The development of RAIN platform continues together with our clients and is also being used in-market at the very moment”.
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