Now 'lights' to collect real-time data for smart cities

Dubai - Speaking ahead of a conference in Dubai, the executives from GE Lighting, a subsidiary of General Electric, said that the potential applications of smart lighting technologies are endless.

Intelligent outdoor LED lighting systems in smart cities will soon allow authorities to keep abreast of infrastructure problems, and even help fight crime, according to experts.
Speaking ahead of "Minds and Machines" conference in Dubai on Monday, the executives from GE Lighting, a subsidiary of General Electric, said that the potential applications of smart lighting technologies are endless.
Maryrose Sylvester, the group President and CEO of GE Lighting, said: "It's about having your fixtures in the right locations, with a network of sensors on every fixture, and you have to decide what you want to understand in your environment. Every fixture will be sensor enabled, with auditory sensors, vibration sensors, or visual sensors to allow a city to extract data and information and make it into something useful."
"We've spent time with many major cities around the world, and they have similar problems," she added.
"One is their physical infrastructure and getting people in and out of their city, letting them park effectively, and letting them be more useful with their time, as well as keeping them safe and secure."
Among the most likely applications, Sylvester said, is the collection of data to help ease traffic and parking congestion.
"A parking management application allows them (cities) to understand the flow of traffic, and understand parking characteristics and behaviours.
She added: "We're starting there, and cities are all looking to go beyond that."
Additionally, experts at GE note that intelligent lighting could connect to people's mobile phones, allowing them to detect shopping habits or help navigate through large structures.
"You now have an opportunity to communicate with lighting fixtures, and have them do things," said Agostino Renna, GE Lighting's President and CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
"As an example, you'd be able to download an app for a hotel like Grosvenor House, and that app, once you've opted in, would allow you to connect your smart phone to the lighting system.
"If you didn't know how to get to your room, your smart phone would become an internal GPS that navigates you to your room by connecting to the lights, taking you to your door."
Renna added that the UAE is a perfect fit for such cutting-edge technologies.
"The UAE has got very good fundamentals, and very ambitious leaders who are determined to make a big difference from a sustainability perspective," he said.
"One of the things that always strikes me is the extent of people's ambitions and courage."
"If it can be done anywhere in the planet, it can probably be done here," he added.
"There is a disposition towards innovation and a willingness to try new and big things, and do them almost instantaneously at scale."
bernd@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai