Ready for the Internet of Things big data firehose?

Today’s cities, transportation networks and even theme parks are filling up with wireless sensors designed to sniff, hear and feel what’s going on in their environment. They’re generating an unprecedented amount of data on everything from temperature to rainfall, vibration and location, and they’re sending it all back to central systems that are supposed to do smart things with it. What smart things would those be, exactly? Here, we look at five projects that have combined sensors and data to produce actionable insights. Some of the insights are life-saving. Some are entertainment-enhancing. Some of them seem downright creepy. But make no mistake: they’re just the tip of the iceberg.