Innovative usage of Smart lighting

SYDNEY - Feb. 11, 2016 - PRLog -- Some of them are undeniably gimmicky, while others do really useful things in the background.

1. Monitor urban air quality The ubiquity of streetlighting makes it the ideal platform on which to add hardware to do new and useful things in the urban environment – like monitor air quality. Add sensors that can measure airborne particulates, and devices to report its findings via a mobile data network, and your streetlights become a distributed network to monitor the environmental health of the city. This is one example where the height of streetlights is especially handy, so sensors measure the ambient air quality rather than snorting nitrogen dioxide from exhaust pipes. There’s the expense of adding that hardware, but a massive saving on providing poles and power supplies, which the streetlight already provides. It doesn’t have to be air quality here – the key point is that lighting is the perfect Trojan Horse for IoT applications (see point 9, below) – especially those using sensors.

2. Keep an eye on the masses A wireless lighting network at Newark Airport in the US can monitor the movement of people and vehicles. This has numerous applications (parking, sending promotional coupons…) but the main advantages for the airport are surveillance and security. City authorities, too, are beginning to use lights to keep an eye on the general public.

3. Improve parking If you need an incentive to hook your streetlights up to the internet, how about clamping down on illegal parking? Siemens has developed a system which uses streetlight-mounted radar to detect cars, motorbikes and even bicycles which are parked where they shouldn’t be, and automatically alert the authorities. If that sounds like all carrot and no stick, the same technology, paired with a smartphone app, can tell drivers where parking is available, even sensing the size of the gap to check it’s big enough. There’s just the tiny circular problem of needing to find a place to park to be able to use the app legally to find a place to park. The gadget also logs data, building up a picture of which parking spaces are most in demand – information that could prove handy to planners. In time, the technology could be paired with a mobile payments system to make it quicker and easier to pay for parking.

4. Direct traffic In the smart city, systems that might once have worked separately can now share data and interact. Combine cameras and sensors in streetlights with your traffic lights and signage, and you have the means to monitor traffic, regulate flow, and, if necessary, redirect traffic. Flir’s Traficam uses camera technology to detect the presence of traffic, log traffic data, and stream video. Mounted at road junctions, learn more

Read more: http://www.voltimum.com.au/content/9-cool-things-lights-c...