Press

Street Lights Are Getting Much Smarter

(Originally published on SolarStreetLights.com, March 2010)
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Solar street lights not only light up the city, they will also take more responsibility. As we mentioned before, solar street lights may transmit cell phone signal and other wireless signals. So the solar street lights will become much smarter in the coming future.

Illuminating Concepts was founded in 1981 by electrical contractor Ron Harwood and has grown into an internationally renowned provider of lighting for venues ranging from Disney World to England's Wembley Stadium to Dearborn's Greenfield Village to Detroit's Campus Martius, Fox Theatre, Book Cadillac and Comerica Park to half of the Las Vegas Strip. Its latest innovation is Intellistreets, technology that combines the humble street light with public safety, homeland security, information and audio. The lights offer individual computer brains, wireless Internet access, solar powered battery backup, so they can be programmed to dim and light up and work in power outages.

The lamps also come with high-quality, low-power-use audio speakers that can set the mood with music or offer important public safety announcements (like tornado warnings, for instance). They also feature LED or LCD screens replacing the traditional light pole banner that can provide advertising, public service information or emergency information. They can even be equipped with sniffers to detect everything from explosives to radiation to gas leaks.

Stribbell and Harwood said the improved lighting can pay for itself quickly in energy efficiency. A 2002 study showed 22 percent of all electric consumption in the United States was for lighting - 8 percent for fixed outdoor lighting alone.

If you have been in the EXPO site, you will know that our daily staff could be finished by intelligent robots, and then we could enjoy better life. The solar street lighting will also become smarter and easier for us to use.