The University of Leeds will become the first UK university to deploy urban data mining technology – a step towards smart city development.
The partnership between Nexus, the University of Leeds’ innovation hub and Terminus Technologies will create a commercially viable dataset, which the University said would transform academic research.
“This collaboration is about looking ahead – envisioning what urban life will look like in 20 years and building the data infrastructure to support smarter, more responsive cities,” said Joshua Ward, CEO & Co-Founder of Terminus Technologies.
“By creating this commercially viable dataset at the University of Leeds, we’re contributing to next-generation urban insights that will benefit communities across the UK and beyond.”
Terminus will install multi-spectral cameras across Nexus, which will operate 24/7 and build a comprehensive dataset to “revolutionise how cities understand and respond to urban environments.”
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It will then use a full-stack solution to extract “unprecedented” insights from video footage, delivering approximately 20 times as many data points as competing technologies.
The cameras, with “an advanced perception layer”, can identify and report events within 100 milliseconds.
Rather than CCTV systems, which require human review, Terminus has developed a system which allows users to directly interrogate footage with specific data requests, receiving instant, actionable insights.
The aim is to provide local authorities with the tools they need to make more informed, data-driven decisions about urban planning and resource allocation.
In addition, the data will be available for academic researchers at the University of Leeds, so academics can access real-world datasets previously unavailable for urban studies. This resource will enable research into urban behaviour, city planning, and infrastructure optimisation.
