A SMART CITY IS ONLY MADE WITH GREAT CARE, PLANNING, MANAGEMENT CAPACITY, AND TECHNOLOGY.
For over 25 years, the Institute of Smart Cities (ICI), a social organization located in Curitiba, has been involved in developing Information Technology and Communication solutions for public management. With recognized experience throughout Brazil in the process of municipal digital transformation, the Institute provides services and innovative solutions that promote improvements in the quality of life for people and cities, making them smarter and more efficient.
“Our solutions ensure agility, modernity, transparency, and savings to public funds, with the ability to position cities at the forefront of technology innovation. This is the case of Curitiba: voted the smartest city in the world in 2023”, says Mauricio Pimentel, executive director of ICI. “All of this only makes sense because it positively impacts the quality of life of those who live here”, he adds.
The intelligence provided by the Institute has been one of the main pillars for the success of the Curitiba City Government, which was awarded at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2023 in Barcelona for the quality of services in areas such as citizen services, education, healthcare, public safety and taxation, among others. Currently, there are more than 200 developed and implemented solutions involving information systems, websites, applications, and infrastructure services, also made available to other municipalities that have chosen the path of transformation into smarter cities.
“Our team of professionals works daily with the purpose of improving people’s lives and transforming cities through technology. With great pride, I can say that innovation and a forward-looking perspective are in our DNA”, emphasizes Pimentel.
Meet some innovative projects that are under development at ICI.
Innovation in service and accessibility
The Accessibility Virtual Assistant uses natural language processing (NLP) artificial intelligence resources to provide easy and efficient access to municipal services and information for all citizens.
The application stands out for its advanced speech recognition system, which allows users to express their needs in a natural and conversational way. In return, the voice synthesis provides clear and understandable answers, creating a fluid and humanized interaction. The tool features a user-friendly, responsive, and inclusive interface and was developed with a focus on people with visual, auditory and motor impairments. Thus, it has essential accessibility features for these citizens, such as enhanced voice commands, captions, and sign language, as well as simplified navigation controls.
Innovation in digital security
The Facial and Document Recognition project is a pioneering initiative in the area of user identification, authentication, and verification in structural systems. With a focus on security and efficiency for users in digital environments, the tool uses artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies.
The outcome of this work is an application capable of handling different environments, analyzing facial features and document details to provide an accurate and fast verification method, enhancing the user experience by eliminating manual and time-consuming processes.
As a robust system that sets a new standard in digital security, the system has been integrated into the e-Citizen solution, the single sign on platform of the City of Curitiba that allows citizens to access dozens of digital public services.
Innovation in the search for public services
Through the API for Digital Public Service Intelligence project, ICI developed an integration service with artificial intelligence for all digital public services that use natural language processing.
The application aims to simplify the search for and use of digital public services on the municipal websites. To develop the project, it was necessary to train the artificial intelligence to understand the specificities of public services and the citizens’ needs.
Innovation in access to legal services
In the legal field, innovation comes in the form of the Smart District System, a management and control tool for districts that improves the life cycle of legal services for the most economically vulnerable citizens, offering dignified conditions of access to justice.
By using artificial intelligence in workflow processes and applying text mining techniques to legal documents, the project streamlines population service flows in events, seeking to simplify, decentralize and bring the population closer in a secure manner, with speed and cost savings in legal services. It also highlights the implementation of document templates (actions and warrants) that assist in procedures and validations, providing time and performance gains.
These projects are just a few examples of the innovative work that ICI is undertaking to make cities smarter and more accessible for everyone.
