InfoPorta
Milan Gateway
Building a city intelligent gateway system based on Wi-Fi / Bluetooth. Transforming physical urban portals into information interaction interfaces — letting the act of walking through automatically push surrounding environmental information to the user's phone, redefining how people interact with cities.
01 · The Challenge — The "Mute" Physical Space
In the early stages of smart cities, physical spaces are "silent." Human-environment interaction remains at the surface of observation.
The city's rich cultural history and real-time information cannot be accessed at the exact moment they're needed most (passing by, pausing nearby). This creates a rupture between information and context. We needed an interaction that happened naturally, without active searching — filling this gap.
02 · The Solution — The Passage is the Interface, Walking Through is the Request
"INFO PORTA" — A City Filter
An intelligent gateway installation named "INFO PORTA." It serves as a "city filter." We rethought the essence of a "door" — it's not just a physical boundary, it's a converter of information and meaning. By seamlessly embedding digital interaction into the most natural act of walking through, the urban environment becomes a service interface requiring zero learning.
03 · Blueprint — "Space as Interface" Responsive System
Perception (Sensing)
Leverages existing city Wi-Fi / Bluetooth networks to detect movement and proximity in real time.
Interaction
The physical gateway acts as the trigger medium — walking through physical space completes an information request.
Application
Auto-pushes location-contextual information (history, merchants, events) to the user's phone.
04 · Capabilities
Frictionless Trigger
No app download or QR scan needed. Walking through the gateway implicitly consents to receiving information — as natural as breathing.
Contextual Push
Information is strongly place-linked — "one place, one story" — providing guided tours or local services.
Modular Nodes
Independent smart nodes can be flexibly deployed in tourist areas and transport hubs, forming a city network.
05 · Impact
As an early exploration of ambient intelligence, this project successfully translated the philosophical concept of "space as interface" into an implementable technical solution. The deep understanding of spatial interaction provided the core theoretical framework for intelligent building and spatial computing work at Alibaba.
🏆 Unpacked Exhibition · 🏆 Milan Da Vinci Science & Technology Museum · 🏆 Milan Design Week
06 · Gallery
