07-17-2009

Making Pittsburgh Tech-Savvy

Pittsburgh Councilman Bill Peduto aims to make city government more high-tech and more accessible by webcasting city council meetings and developing a GPS-based iPhone application to engage and empower citizens. Carnegie Mellon is already on board to support the initiative, in addition to other city “e-projects.” For example, the city is working to automatically route 3-1-1 calls using spoken dialogue technology that was developed at the School of Computer Science. The 3-1-1 line is a non-emergency complaint line for city residents.

Associate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering Priya Narasimhan said that technology similar to her YinzCam, a mobile video technology that the Pittsburgh Penguins use to allow fans to view real-time video feeds inside Mellon Arena, could be used for city residents to watch and interact with council meetings live on their cell phones and send GPS-embedded complaints with video and images of a pothole or crooked stop sign, for example.

Read more from the Post Gazette and Pop City Media.

Abby Ross