Eunpyeong-gu Wins Grand Prize for 'Knowledge Innovation Smart City' Award

Smart City Integrated Platform Construction for Resident Safety Protection

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Eunpyeong-gu (Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) is being re-recognized as a smart city following its receipt of the Grand Prize at the ‘2020 Korea Knowledge Innovation Smart City Awards.’

Sponsored by Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH Corporation), the '2020 Korea Knowledge Innovation Smart City Awards' selected six winning local governments nationwide after preliminary screening of submitted cases, with Eunpyeong-gu receiving the top prize among them.

This achievement is largely attributed to the establishment of the Eunpyeong-gu Smart City Integrated Platform in May. The Smart City Integrated Platform provides real-time CCTV footage stored at the Integrated Control Center to police and fire departments during 112·119 disaster safety emergencies and urgent situations involving socially vulnerable individuals, thereby protecting the lives and property of residents.

In fact, the Smart City Integrated Control Center has protected residents’ safety by successfully rescuing suspects of sexual harassment, theft suspects, and individuals attempting suicide.

A control officer monitoring the security CCTV at the Eunpyeong-gu Smart City Integrated Control Center notices a signal indicating danger to a woman on her way home. Shortly after, when the officer answers the control center’s phone, a woman’s frightened voice is heard on the other end. The control center requested dispatch of a patrol car working near the crime scene. The urgently dispatched patrol car tracked and apprehended the fleeing suspect.

An important tool in apprehending the late-night offender targeting women was the ‘24-hour Women’s Safety App.’ The ‘Safety App,’ available to all residents, provides ‘Safe Return Monitoring’ and ‘Emergency Reporting’ services to assist users in safely returning home.

Eunpyeong Smart City is also developing AI (Artificial Intelligence)-based solutions. To expand video recognition and search capabilities handled by control officers amid the increasing number of CCTV installations each year, the ‘Smart Deep Learning Selective Control Solution Construction Project’ is underway. Deep learning is an algorithm that processes information similarly to the human brain and recognizes object systems. AI manages CCTV footage to interpret unusual objects. Thanks to this, the number of CCTV units managed per control officer in real-time monitoring has increased from 48 to approximately 300 through AI selective control.

AI is also applied in the medical imaging field. The ‘Private Cloud-Based AI Medical Imaging Analysis Support Service Project’ applies AI and cloud technologies?key technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution?to medical imaging analysis at public health centers, which serve as hubs for regional public medical institutions.

X-ray images taken by Eunpyeong-gu public health doctors, previously sent to external specialized institutions for diagnosis of suspected lung diseases with a turnaround time of one day, can now be analyzed by the AI system in 20 seconds, aiding rapid diagnosis by public health doctors.

Smart systems also operate in the non-face-to-face health and welfare sector. While conducting COVID-19 specimen testing, Eunpyeong developed the Eunpyeong-style Walk-Through Glove Wall System for swift and proactive response. Medical staff can insert only their arms through a transparent window to collect specimens, enabling spatial separation between patients and medical staff and allowing basic epidemiological investigations and specimen collection.

Additionally, the ‘Eunpyeong-gu Healthy City Master Plan’ based on big data has been established to develop scientific, customized policies and implement smart health administration.

Eunpyeong-gu aims to be a smart city that supports socially vulnerable groups. In practice, it has established a smart operating system considerate of these groups, including an IoT (Internet of Things) sensor-based risk facility data analysis model, an AI-based bulky waste collection system to resolve daily inconveniences, an IoT-based eco-friendly Hyangrim rainwater circulation village, traffic safety consulting for children’s smart school zones, emergency call taxi services for pregnant women, and a parking sharing service that brings happiness to the elderly.

These diverse smart city systems and operations have led to numerous awards in various contests and competitions. In the 2020 Smart City Service Planning Consulting Contest, the ‘Children’s Smart School Zone Traffic Safety Consulting’ project received 160 million KRW in city funds. In the 2019 Public Service Innovation Best Practice Competition hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the ‘AI Public Health Center Public Service Innovation’ won the Presidential Award.

Furthermore, in the 2020 Smart City Service Development Support Project, the ‘IoT Sensor-Based Risk Facility Data Analysis Model’ received 120 million KRW in national funding, among many other smart city-related awards.

Kim Mi-kyung, Mayor of Eunpyeong-gu, stated, “Eunpyeong’s smart city orientation is based on ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and aims to be a smart city for socially vulnerable groups. We will implement smart policies that provide practical help to residents, such as the ‘Children’s Smart School Zone’ that contributes to preventing child traffic accidents.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.