Japan’s SoftBank is using Vantiq’s real-time application platform as the foundation for the development and deployment of the Tokyo Port City Takeshiba smart building project.

The building was initially constructed by Tokyu Fudosan Holdings and Kajima, and is where SoftBank’s headquarters are now located. Streaming data are collected in real time from hundreds of sensors installed throughout the building and then a smart city platform from California-based Vantiq reacts in real time.

The platform aims to expand to not only the smart building but also the smart city in the Takeshiba area of Tokyo. This project is a showcase for modern technology, featuring software and more than 1300 sensors, devices and cameras that feed an array of real-time services for employees, customers and visitors in the city.

The Takeshiba office tower uses the platform to improve convenience by visualising in real time a number of functions, including floor congestion, store congestion, bathroom congestion, weather forecast, public transportation status and even human flow, all shared on digital displays including 40 indoor displays in public spaces and 108 displays on the outdoor walking decks and via notifications to office workers’ smartphones.

Tokyu Fudosan Holdings uses the platform to process various events happening in the building to take real-time actions for more efficient building management, efficient energy usage and safety.

The project developed using the Vantiq platform integrates 19 technologies behind the scenes, including seven artificial intelligence algorithms, all connected via microservices using Vantiq’s event-driven architecture. Using Vantiq’s agile development tools, the application was developed in fewer than four weeks with one developer, based on specifications that SoftBank captured over several months.

“The need for real-time applications and their ability to process multiple compounded events has risen significantly with the growth of IoT and AI as well as with the impact of Covid-19,” said Hironobu Tamba, vice president of SoftBank. “SoftBank plans to initiate a number of smart building and smart city projects leveraging the Vantiq platform, which allows us to rapidly design, develop and deploy complex, distributed real-time applications.”

Vantiq is a low code and agile platform designed for real-time application development, making it easy for developers to integrate real-time data sources – from cameras to sensors and other edge devices – and create applications that monitor assets, events, people and environments while reducing development cost and allowing rapid enhancement in production.

These applications can then analyse and act on complex problems, such as a flood, major traffic accidents, factory breakdowns or an employee with a high temperature entering a corporate lobby, all in real time, enabling a faster and more effective response in collaboration with human teams.

“We’re excited to be the modern platform underpinning the impressive smart building and smart city services for SoftBank and Smart City Takeshiba,” said Marty Sprinzen, CEO of Vantiq. “This is an ideal project to demonstrate the value of real-time applications that are situationally aware, can monitor people and things in real time, process multiple compounded events simultaneously, and work in collaboration with people to create more efficient, sustainable and safer environments.”

Vantiq was founded in 2015 by technology veterans Marty Sprinzen and Paul Butterworth, co-founders of Forte Software.