"But our brain recognises blue light – which is also emitted from TVs, mobiles and computers – as daytime, and too much of it can knock our natural body rhythm out of sync." "We've evolved to associate warm red/orange light from natural sources, such as the setting and rising Sun and firelight, as being associated with dawn and dusk, which are generally times of rest," he adds. "A common complaint of LEDs is that the light they produce is 'cold' or unwelcoming, and there's actually a strong evolutionary reason for this," says Scott. The second is that badly chosen LED street lights create a clinical white light. The first is glare the new LED street lights make it harder to see anything in the shadows thrown by cars and trees. White LED street lighting is more energy-efficient and longer lasting than the orange high-pressure sodium lights they're quickly replacing, but it comes at a cost that's beyond financial. They may have the potential to be at the core of smart cities, but for now they're being clumsily installed without either knowledge nor consultation, and could be storing up health problems for all of us. "The trade-off is that individuals will enjoy less personalised support from the smart city itself." Cold and unwelcomingĪnother issue is that LED street lights are being installed on the cheap. "Standalone Bluetooth tags would ensure the data required to interact with a smart city is held separately from sensitive data held on an individual's mobile phone or other device," he adds. "Anonymising user data is a good first step in helping to limit the ability for any one user to be tracked through a system and specifically identified," says Scott, but he thinks that another option might be to explore the use of physically separate devices. It's all a question of balance: citizens need to know what their data is being used for, and why. "Intelligent street furniture is not the first example of a connected city – services such as CCTV and emergency response systems are designed to increase public safety, but can be seen by some as 'Big Brother'," says Jon Scott, product development manager at Marshalls, which specialises in LED street lighting and smart street furniture. While sensor-packed LED street lights might bring lots of benefits, they come with huge concerns over their incessant collection of data.ĭoes anyone really want a sensor tracking their phone or wearable device, perhaps recording their heart-rate as they pass an LED street light? Or even our conversations? That tech will soon be here, with ShotSpotter systems – gunshot detection or microphones on street lights – already being considered. It seems like a great way to make our lives more advanced – so why is there concern over the use of this new technology? Privacy concerns They could even act as a charging station for electric vehicles, and use Bluetooth to locate where every single citizen is by communicating with phones and wearables. They'll be armed with multiple sensors that monitor air quality, hyper-local weather, traffic flows, nearby parking spaces, footfall on pavements and sidewalks, and noise pollution. This means it's likely we'll soon see LED street lights equipped with CCTV cameras, Wi-Fi routers and digital signage.
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