Smart cities: helping to improve our lives and save the planet

Hobbit Bilbo Baggins of the famous J.R.R. Tolkien stories had a magical sword that lit up whenever there was a dangerous orc approaching.

Such a cool invention, noted a speaker at a recent conference in Stavanger. But what if, she asked the audience, we could all have umbrellas that would light up whenever the city's meteorological services expected rain in the area where the umbrella was, so that you would not forget to bring it?

It was perhaps a rather trivial idea, one of many...