We are in the middle of another technology revolution. The digital economy will contribute 48% of GDP in China in 2035, up from 23% in 2020.

With the implementation(实施) of 5G and consumer AI, smart cities are no longer just a concept. Indeed, in a surprising silver lining to the Covid-19 pandemic, smart city apps have shown they can help China contain the spread of the virus, helping to recover the economy. Other successful examples include applications for better traffic management, flood control and crime reduction.

The number of smart street lights required in China is estimated at 13million assuming a 30% penetration rate(安装率) of all street lights in 2025. When the network of smart street lights increases further, it will also likely expand to cover more functions. In addition to basic lighting, it could include monitoring cameras, auto-police calling when the data shows abnormalities, weather information collection, WI-Fi hotspots converting telecommunication signals, e-vehicle chargers, and so on.

In order to deal with the difficulty of parking, Shenzhen has combined 5G and AI to enhance the efficiency of car park usage. For example, drivers can seamlessly book a parking space at a hospital at the same time as scheduling a doctor’s appointment. Drivers also know whether all of the parking spaces are occupied at the time of the doctor’s appointment and can choose other transportation. Besides, Robots and sensors installed in the auto-valet parking lots work together to find a space and park the car for drivers, which provide much convenience for drivers.

With more technology applications，there is bound to be disruption(扰乱) to existing activities and the labour they require. If smart cities help driverless cars to take off, the thousands of drivers of taxis or delivery drivers that find low skilled employment in China’s cities could be displaced and struggle to find alternative employment. New jobs will certainly arise from the implementation of smart city technology, but will likely require different skills and knowledge to those being displaced. The government will need to assist those whose employment is disrupted to find alternatives.

For Deaf People, Face Masks with Windows Mean More Than Smiles

For the last few months, Michael Conley has felt very alone. Conley is a deaf man, and he reads lips to understand what people are saying to him. However, people have been wearing masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19, a new virus that spreads from person to person when infected people breathe out virus particles (颗粒).

People who are deaf and hard of hearing communicate in many different ways. Some might learn to read lips. Many people also use American Sign Language (ASL). It is a way to communicate using gestures and signs for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

For both reading lips and ASL, being able to see someone's face and facial expressions is critically important. Particularly for ASL, facial expressions play a role in grammar and wording.

Conley told his co-worker, Chris LaZich, about his situation. LaZich asked her friend, Helton, for help. Ingrid Helton is a costume designer with the San Diego Opera. She makes masks with plastic windows for hearing people to wear, making it possible for lip readers to see mouths move.

For a long time, lip readers have struggled to understand hospital workers who wear masks. The problem has only gotten worse during COVID- 19. Many interpreters for the deaf have not been able to enter hospitals because they could catch the virus.

Now, more people are wearing masks outside of hospitals, too. This creates even more challenges for deaf people.

When people began wearing masks, Conley felt cut off from the world. Since he could not read lips, he did not know when people were speaking to him or what they were saying.

Conley was nervous to go to the pharmacy or the grocery store. Once, he felt so nervous to enter his favorite restaurant that he waited outside for 45 minutes. He did not know what he would do if a masked worker asked him questions about his order. Luckily, the employee recognized him and pulled down her mask to talk to Conley. Conley was grateful for her action.

Not everyone knows Conley, though, and would not know he is deaf. He carries pieces of paper with him so he can ask people to write what they are saying. This way, other people don't have to remove their mask. However, it also means touching the same paper, Touching common surfaces can spread germs. Spreading germs risks contracting COVID-19. Because of that, Conley was refused service many times.

“It makes you lose your confidence,” said Conley, who has been deaf his entire life. However, Helton's windowed masks helped him get his independence back. Conley and his co-worker, Chris LaZich, tried out the masks and he had no trouble reading LaZich's lips.

Most autonomous vehicles test-driving in cities navigate (导航) by using 3-D maps marking every edge of roadside with almost centimeter-level accuracy. But few places have been mapped in such detail, which has left most areas like smaller towns inaccessible to those driverless cars.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) now have developed a new navigation system that guides autonomous vehicles without such accurate maps. This technology can help driverless cars travel almost anywhere.

The navigation system maps out a course down unfamiliar roads much as a human driver would by continually scanning its surroundings, with a laser sensor (激光感应器), to measure   how close it is to the edges of the road. Meanwhile, the car also follows a tool like a smart phone map app that provides directions to its destination, as well as information about the rules of the road, such as speed limits and the positions of stoplights. Teddy Ort, a roboticist at MIT, test-drove a car equipped with this navigation system on a one-way road. It slowly traveled one kilometer without any human assistance.

This system assumes that a car has a clear path down the road, but it can be paired with other existing computing technology to discover in-road obstacles (障碍), says Ort. The researchers also plan to build a version of this system which can spot markings painted on streets, so that the car can drive on two-way roads. "Self-driving cars with this navigation system may need other sensors to work in different conditions,” Alexander Wyglinski, and electrical engineer at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. "Since laser sensors don’t work well in rain or snow,   these cars might need additional imaging technologies to drive safely in bad weather. "