John Underkoffler explores some ideas about the future of user interface on 3D space, which is a key issue for intelligent / smart cities. The web, he says, is a fantastic interface, but also a kind of distraction; we have forgotten to invent new interfaces. What happens next? where we go from here?

Big Think, a global forum connecting people and ideas, published a conversation with William J. Mitchell, MIT Professor and Director of the Media Lab’ s Smart Cities Group. Mitchell and the members of the MIT Smart Cities research group are creating innovative ways to change how we live in urban areas through, in part, the application of new technologies that enable urban energy efficiency and sustainability, and enhance opportunity, equity, and cultural creativity.

In “Cities: Our journey to a smarter future” IBM unveils the company’s vision for UK and Irish cities through a collection of videos examining the challenges facing the cities today. In these videos experts and city officials talk about their plans to create the change necessary to help the cities deliver the services, safety and infrastructure that their citizens need.

IBM’s Smarter Planet team has created a 5 minute video explaining the emerging trend of Internet of Things. Internet of Things is about, as the video explains, the coming future when there are more “things” on the Internet (sensors especially) than there are people.

At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos, Switzerland, MIT professors discussed their efforts to better understand the human mind, the nature of intelligence and the ways in which human and artificial intelligence can be brought together.

The application has been developed as a way to help manage congestion in Birmingham. The Intelligent City project demonstrates how the exploitation of technology can be a cost effective and innovative traffic management and optimization.