| At the Quality of Life Technology
(QoLT) Engineering Research Center, a partnership of Carnegie Mellon University
and the University of Pittsburgh, visiting high school teachers working
with QoLT researchers and industry designed and developed a prototype for
a Smart Street Pole Information and Communication Node. This smart
street pole allows verbal and visual communication with residents as they
move about within their smart technology-enabled neighborhood.
As part of a larger, technologically
“Aware Community,” the street pole node is capable of relaying alerts from
wearable call buttons, bringing important information on demand to people
while they are outdoors, and supporting safety by visual observation of
the neighborhood. This “Smart Street Light” is also environmentally
friendly: the sun powers it through a photovoltaic panel, and the pole
can adjust its light output according to time of night —lowering it during
the wee hours and raising it when someone is nearby. In the future,
researchers with the QoLT ERC will add advanced functionality such as people
tracking and automatic detection of dangerous situations and emergencies.
This project was carried out by a group of high school teachers in the
Center’s summer Research Experience for Teachers program along with Center
industrial partner Blueroof Technologies.
Specific technologies used
in the Smart Street Pole Information and Communication Node include solid-state
lighting, ZigBee wireless control transceivers, WiFi Internet repeaters,
assorted sensors, network cameras, speakers, and microphones integrated
into the lamp posts. The poles will jointly identify the individuals
living in a designated zone, monitor their activities and movements, assist
them in freely visiting the different resources in the designated zone,
and will activate alarms if they ask for (or are automatically interpreted
as requiring) assistance.
Smart street lights form
one node of a community communications network that can offer increased
mobility, safety, and independence outside the home for aging residents
with physical and cognitive deficits. |
