“Smart Beach” – smart technologies in the beaches of Vilnius

The unique ROCK project implemented by the City of Vilnius together with VGTU, which is in its second year now, is expanding – since mid-July, two sensors have been installed at the beaches of Vilnius. The project implementers are convinced that the sensors will not only help to find out how residents and guests of Vilnius feel in renovated public spaces, but also what they think about the quality of services.

Two sensors installed at the renovated beaches of Balžis Lake and Žirmūnai back in July will be in operation till September 15, measuring anonymous emotional and affective data of vacationers. Special displays installed in beaches have been informing beach visitors not only about water and air temperatures, inviting to actively use services offered in the city, but also showing the happiness index of vacationers captured at beaches.

The project implementers have no doubt that in the future, these data will be one of the most important tools for assessing projects of renovation of public spaces and the quality of services provided by municipal companies or contractors in beaches.

The strongest emotions of passers-by captured by sensors and special lamps in six locations of the capital are evaluated and presented as a summary of the expression of happiness of Vilnius residents on the website https://api.vilnius.lt/happiness-index. If there are no vacationers in the area being measured at the time, numeric readings do not change.

The neuro-analytical system and the colour stand developed by the ROCK project working group of the City of Vilnius and VGTU did not go unnoticed by other countries participating in the programme – a similar stand was installed last summer in Mambo, Bologna (Italy), and will later be installed in other museums of the city. Lisbon (Portugal) is also willing to have sensors that measure anonymous emotions, affective and physiological states installed – the first sensor will be installed at the Marvila Library in the nearest future. Also, three sensors will be installed in Skopje (Macedonia) in October.

The neuro-analytical system created by VGTU and the City of Vilnius is designated for collecting and analysing anonymised emotions of residents, their affective and physiological states in public spaces by including additional data and combinations of layers of information, which will subsequently be used to create emotional, affective, physiological and pollution maps of public spaces (in light of the circadian rhythms of the day and the week, gender and age of people) and to provide personalized recommendations.