“Russia has historically been amongst the pioneers,” Eduard Lysenko, Minister of the Government of Moscow, tells me, “thanks to a talented body of workers and an extended subculture of mathematics. In our minds, we’ve evolved some of the step forward solutions to allow Russia to stay amongst the top AI countries.”
Lysenko heads up Moscow’s Department of Information Technologies, and this ‘one of a kind’ interview has come about due to the fact he needs to speak approximately 5G and the town’s deployment plans. He knows that I want to talk about citywide facial reputation and Moscow’s choice on deploying a Huawei 5G community given the safety fears raised with the aid of the U.S.
Somewhat ironically, it quickly transpires that Moscow’s surveillance playbook can be proper out of Beijing.
East is East
During the soccer World Cup last 12 months, Russia famously deployed facial reputation to help police the occasion. “The facial recognition device enabled the police to detain 12 criminals from the federal list of desired men and women and eight pickpockets, as well as 60 football lovers who had been banned from the fits.”
All alternate in 2019, even though, whilst Moscow plans to catapult the town into the Chinese Super League for facial popularity. “At present,” Lysenko explains, “the facial reputation machine has been geared up in a pilot mode to one,500 video streams, representing 1.5% of Moscow’s 167,000 video cameras. This 12 months, we intend to growth the wide variety to one zero five,000, meaning all of the cameras established in public areas to optimize the usage of the gadget.”
Moscow already makes heavy use of its citywide surveillance gadget, that’s “now used to research 70% of crimes in Moscow. Recently the video surveillance becomes also used to discover the individual that stole Arkhip Kunidzhi’s portray from the State Tretyakov Gallery.”
The system captures 1.2 billion hours of video every 12 months, troubles 45,000 site visitors fine each day and has helped electricity a unified system that the government claim reduces the arrivals time for first responders to an occasion by 20%.
But it isn’t always simply CCTV. Remember the testimonies placed out with the aid of China’s PR system, of cops equipped with AI clever-glasses? Well, Moscow plans the same. “In future, 5G will permit us to enlarge the gadget with new gadgets like facial recognition glasses for police officers. We are checking out augmented fact glasses with embedded facial popularity abilities collectively with Ntechlab organization, which is known for growing the facial popularity device FindFace.”
FindFace is a fairly accurate facial recognition engine, the standout in a country recognized for its prowess in the space. But Lysenko also talks of global collaboration, with China being the obvious vicinity to begin.
“Our task is to use smart video surveillance structures to display city processes and ensure residents’ protection. Our CCTV gadget uses popularity technologies advanced through Russian groups. Of direction, we’re interested in exchanging experience with our overseas colleagues, including China, which has superior within the deployment of the facial recognition system more than other international locations.”
5G – is Huawei in or out?
Which brings the dialogue to 5G. Moscow has already played around with 5G and plans complete-scale pilots through 2019. “During the 2018 World Cup,” Lysenko tells me, “MegaFon used Nokia 5G device to illustrate VR Broadcast generation. Fifty human beings used VR glasses to watch a broadcast. Stadium cameras broadcast to a 5G cellular tower, and the cellular tower transmitted to smartphones connected to the VR glasses, the use of up to 35 Mbps in keeping with tool.” Now, although, “MegaFon has stated they have got agreed to expand and put into effect 5G standards in Russia with Huawei.”
And that brings the discussion to the worries raised by the US and the United Kingdom, particularly, about the safety risks associated with Huawei, which include the allegations that the business enterprise may facilitate intelligence series for Beijing. On this concern, Lysenko’s reaction is short and to the factor. “The Russian Federation has strict data protection guidelines which we constantly observe.” I suspect Russia and Washington have exceptional views of the risk to their respective countrywide safety from Huawei’s alleged intelligence links with Beijing.
Huawei may not get it all, in any case. “There are different groups with different partnerships,” Lysenko says. “Russian telecommunication operators will pick out 5G companies for pilot zones based totally on their procurement regulations and are now getting ready technical requirements for 5G generation implementation. After that, the method will boost up. We cooperate with many system companies, along with Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm and IBM.”
And what approximately Russian device producers?
“The selections are being made through the [network operators] and now not the authorities,” but “we hope that neighborhood Russian carriers will come to the pilot initiatives so one can show their progress.”
The intention is for the 2019 pilots to build on the achievement of the World Cup trial, with “full business use of 5G anticipated in 2020-2022.” The 2019 pilots will target key regions in Moscow. “These areas fall into foremost categories,” Lysenko explains. “Crowded places, like parks and relevant streets, where consumer technology 5G exams and demonstrations may be held, after which innovation centers and technoparks, where generation businesses can be able to check business 5G.”
And for Lysenko, this is all about industry and automation. Moscow’s IT Department “has its very own AI department that works on enforcing AI in metropolis management. For instance, the automation of report type and robot operators processing 40% of all requests to the town’s name center – the robot is incorporated with the town records structures and may offer answers to 62 traditional questions, it may understand feelings and self-learn.”
In addition to the same old college studies hyperlinks, in which the town is “cooperating with global-class universities along with Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and National University of Science and Technology ‘MISiS’,” there may be a reputation of the want to engage with the enterprise to be triumphant. “The city is riding innovations through the approach of making the infrastructure for the boom of era companies, inclusive of technoparks and system of financial aid for companies. We are also helping large businesses like Yandex changing with them the records wished for the development of latest offerings.”
Driverless goes live; healthcare is next
Last month, Russia’s net large Yandex introduced that it was “joining forces” with Hyundai Mobis on self-sufficient motors. “Yandex’s self-using automobiles had been successfully riding at the streets of Moscow, Tel Aviv and Las Vegas,” Arkady Volozh, Yandex CEO defined on time, “which means that that the fleet may be elevated to power anywhere. It took us simply years to go from the first simple exams to a full-fledged public robotaxi service. Now, way to our agreement with Hyundai Mobis, we will be able to pass even faster.”
“Since December 2018,” Lysenko tells me now, “all autonomous automobile builders can post their requests for checking out in Moscow. After lab trying out, it is viable to perform out of doors trying out. So far the most a success is Yandex, whose self-sustaining automobile has already been tested on Moscow streets. Yandex is likewise offering self-sustaining taxi provider within the territory of Skolkovo. About 30 different organizations have the capability to begin testing in the nearest future, which includes KAMAZ, whose independent bus and self-reliant truck are now on the degree of lab checking out.”
And it is not simply cars. “Moscow’s Government and Russian developer Cognitive Technologies are together growing a fully-independent tram for Russia. The tram is now being tested inside the depot. It might be quickly positioned into pilot operation on one direction, with the driver and with out passengers. A absolutely independent tram is predicted by using 2021-22. Moscow Metro has lately announced that independent trains may also seem at the Circle Line in approximately 5 years. At the moment the Moscow Metro is analyzing international experience and searching for answers appropriate for Moscow.”
Beyond transportation, the region Lysenko desires to cognizance on is healthcare, an area in which 5G and the IoT will carry wholesale alternate. “Shortly after the World Cup,” Lysenko explains, “Moscow’s Departments of Information Technologies and Healthcare, collectively with a telecommunication operator, prepared an indication of 5G opportunities for healthcare. Huawei CPE became used for the overall performance of far-flung ultrasound diagnostics and genetic sequencing. The test showed that reaction time turned into sufficient for at ease remote paintings of the health specialists.”
Selling the vision
Given its enjoy at the World Cup, Moscow has some real-global 5G records to assist manual deployments and manipulate expectancies. “The 5G assessments showed a maximum pace of seven.5 Gbps in a single sector and latency of 4 ms. Theoretically, the 5G report in general occasions may be 35 Gbps, which means much less than three seconds to down load an HD-movie.”
That stated, checking out inside the U.S. Shows that a few constrained 5G trials, and supplier claims might have set fake expectancies for what customers can assume whilst networks cross stay. Moscow still has the World Cup 5G device to be reused within the pilots. “The community is currently out of operation. But the device hasn’t been removed and will become part of a pilot 5G network in November.” It will be exciting to see how data speeds evaluate.
Moscow is a metropolis with a populace size similar to that of Los Angeles, bigger than both Paris and London. “Our desires,” Lysenko tells me, “are similar to metropolis managers in New York or Bejing, to apply generation to offer residents with higher services and make the city work in an extra efficient manner. To gain this intention, we freely alternate ideas and experience in clever town improvement, inclusive of AI programs, with representatives of other towns worldwide. We broadly use public systems like GitHub – to proportion our algorithms with developers round the arena.”
And he sees the reception for the grand plan landing well with a town in which 75% of citizens already use on line public offerings, and more than 2 million human beings are registered on an electronic balloting system that could help goal elections to unique metropolis troubles. “Moscow citizens are in trendy curious approximately new technologies,” Lysenko tells me, “and they may be anticipating industrial operation of 5G similar to all users in the international.”
