An alliance of IoT industry players, corporates and government have launched Hypercat Australia as a standard to support the development of smart cities. Hypercat is a UK-developed alliance and standard that enables free communication from any connected IoT sensor or device being used to monitor an environment.
Justine Anderson, founder and director of the Hypercat Alliance said, “The goal of Hypercat is to accelerate the global explosion of the Internet of Things – by enabling connected devices and data to work together to improve how cities work, and how people live.
“In just a few years, Hypercat has already been applied to multi-million dollar smart city projects including London and Bristol, attracted more than 1000 industry members such as KPMG, Cisco, BT, Symnatec, Flexeye and WSP, and gained support in 47 countries. We’re excited that Australia is coming on board as our first international alliance – and hope to use this as a launchpad for global expansion.”
British Consul General Nick McInnes has said the launch of Hypercat Australia represents an Anglo-Australian collaboration in smart cities and IoT.
The new Australian standard will be used to facilitate the nation’s ‘City Deals’ program (of which there is also a UK version). ‘City Deals’ will run projects in Townsville, Launceston and Western Sydney. The program aims to facilitate collaboration between local councils, the private sector and NGOs in order to solve local issues.
“We’ve got to solve real problems,” said Australia’s Assistant Minister for Digital Transformation and Cities, Angus Taylor.
“If we get a few quick wins, where we are solving problems that people struggle with in their everyday lives, those people will look at that project and want more where that came from.”
Taylor’s office is in charge of the City Deals program, with the broader aim being the creation of a portfolio of successful small local projects that could be applied to the rest of Australia.
Piers Hogarth-Scott, national IoT leader of KPMG Australia said, “We believe the formula for establishing a world-leading smart, IoT-enabled Australian economy that drives growth and prosperity involves industry and Government working together in focused sectors including smart cities. The launch of Hypercat in Australia aims to unlock the benefits of smart cities by creating an interoperable IoT ecosystem that gives confidence to cities and local government.
“More importantly, if we can play a role in fostering a global standard we can unlock the power of the Internet of Things for everybody.”
The introduction of the new standard follows the establishment of a free IoT network in Sydney’s Barangaroo precinct earlier this week.