When I worked at Motorola we had a system for activating the ceiling
lights in our office spaces (I do believe the inventors got a patent on
it too). Anyhow the lights were wired in banks or groups of lights and
each group had a 5 digit number printed on it. The lights would go out
after 6 or 7 pm an night and remain off till the next work day. If you
were in late or came in later, you could dial up a DTMF based actuator
system, punch in the code and turn on your lights. They were good for
about 4 hours or so then. It was an easy way to save some green.
But thinking of this system with the street lights, that's quite another
system. Why not have more of an automatic or follow me type system?
Use either BT or WiFi with a transmitted beacon from your mobile and
have the lights come on automatically. Each light would stay on for say
1 minute or so after it loses your beacon system. That way the lights
may go on for you without having to press any buttons.
'mark
Karl Proctor wrote:
The web page only has part of the story that was reported on BBC World
in Hong Kong...The 'service' isn't only aimed at the older people,
though the web did give that impression. On the TV report, it showed
different age groups using the service.
All of the six digit codes are listed on a central web page, but as
Tamlyn commented, people tend to walk the same streets, so people
will probably write down the code that they need on a piece of paper
(or something similar) until they can remember them.
I think that the idea of using bluetooth is interesting but
considering that most people dont know how to enable bluetooth, make
their device discoverable or add/pair a device, I dont think that it
is practical. Plus there are privacy considerations for bluetooth
usage.
If the lamps have a button on the side to switch on for that section,
they are a potential target for vandalism; In the UK a few years ago,
teenagers would use superglue on the buttons for pedestrian crossings
to keep the buttons constantly depressed, much to the annoyment of
drivers. I think that the buttons on the street lights could suffer
a similar fate.
I do think that this is a great idea, and I do believe that it will
be a benefit to the council and the environment. If there is no-one
around at 3am, why have the lights on??! It is ideas like this which
will help the environment. Hats off to the village of Doerentrup!
-Karl
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Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36621
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