Streetlights In Chicago With Data Collection Sensors Help Researchers Understand The City Better

University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory have joined hands to initiate the "Array of Things" project in the city of Chicago in which they plan to install data collection sensors on streetlights around the city which shall help them identify the needs of the city better. Selected streetlights in the city will be fitted with sensors that measure air quality, light intensity, noise, temperature, precipitation, and wind speed. Apart from these sensors, these shall be another one responsible for collecting information regarding foot traffic in an area. The sensor will observe the amount of cell phone traffic in an area to determine the density of people. This has managed to alarm privacy advocates who think that monitoring cell phone activity is an intrusion of privacy.


Addressing the aforementioned concerns, Charlie Catlett the director of the Urban Centre for Computation and Data has stated that the team has taken measures to ensure that these sensors only monitor cell phone signal reception and not the digital address of the cell phone. He has also stated that the data from this project can never be used to identify individuals as no camera or recording devices involved. For example the noise sensor does not record any actual sounds and all imaging will be done by infrared cameras.

Companies like Cisco Systems, Intel, Zebra Technologies, Qualcomm, Motorola Solutions and Schneider Electric have provided technical assistance for this project. In the month of July researchers shall install sensor systems at eight Michigan Avenue intersections. By the end of the year 2014 they hope to install hundreds of such systems across the city.

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