Controlling public lighting with IoT

Smart city

With IoT solutions, devices or objects are fitted with sensors that collect data, and thus made 'smart'. Cities that deploy smart solutions to improve liveability, sustainability and accessibility are called Smart Cities. Eindhoven's Strijp-S district is increasingly turning into a smart neighbourhood and is also specifically working on that transformation. For instance, you lock shared bicycles with your smartphone, there is an area-wide reservation system for parking and you control the interactive outdoor lighting with WiFi. Fontys ICT students got to work on one of these elements, namely controlling and monitoring the public lighting at Strijp-S.

Smart Lighting control

The question the students tackled is "How can we make street lighting more interactive and user-friendly?". This question stems from the thoughts of how more beautiful city lighting can contribute to quality of life. As client and partner, OpenRemote provided access to part of the street lighting at Strijp-S through their IoT platform. The students used the platform to develop an interactive interface for visitors to control the lights at Strijp-S.

In addition to regular control of the lights, they devised a game format to engage visitors interactively. In turns, a lamp randomly turns on around the lawn where the lamps are located. From the lawn, visitors can point a smartphone at the lamp that turns on, it will turn off and then another lamp will turn on. It provides a great opportunity to explore and experiment what you can do with this kind of system and how it adds value to the environment. Linking the monitoring and control of assets in one platform improves workflows and builds new applications with dynamic lighting.

OpenRemote IoT Platform

One organisation working with IoT solutions is OpenRemote. They offer a platform that makes it easier and more convenient to use that data. In the case of the lighting at Strijp-S, people control the lights through a tablet. It offers various possibilities, such as variation in colour, speed and the time the lights go on or off. More information about OpenRemote's Strijp-S data platform.

Curious about how controlling public lighting at Strijp-S works in practice? Fontys ICT's Video Crew visited the location and interviewed the students. They tell more about it in the video.

This project is a collaboration with OpenRemote. Want to know more about the Fontys ICT InnovationLab? Take a look at the website.