San Diego is affectionately known as America's finest city, but the Southern California metropolis will soon become America's smartest city, with the announcement that more than 3000 IoT nodes to locate gunshots, estimate crowd sizes, check vehicle speeds and improve energy efficiency, will be installed on lamp posts this summer.

 

The cities deployment, as part of a partnership with Current from GE will see their CityIQ nodes rolled out from July, with a further 3000 potentially deployed by the end of 2017. The system will include a $30 million LED lighting upgrade giving streetlights the ability to allow for dimming and brightening in public venues automatically, depending on natural light conditions and footfall. The mayor's office expects that the replacements will save $2.4 million annually in energy costs.

 

The network will use real-time anonymous sensor data to direct drivers to open parking spaces, help first responders during emergencies, track carbon emissions and identify intersections that can be improved for pedestrians and cyclists. The information can also be used to support San Diego's "Vision Zero" strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries.

 

General Electric are working with working with AT&T, Intel, ShotSpotter, CivicSmart and Proximetry to deploy the intelligent network across the city. AT&T will be the wireless data carrier for the project. All the sensors used will be connected to the AT&T LTE network, providing the secure, reliable connectivity. Intel silicon and IoT technology will sit inside the intelligent nodes to analyse and extract metadata. In addition, several companies are collaborating on new apps to improve life throughout the city. ShotSpotter can capture gunshot incidents in real time, CivicSmart provides parking data and Proximetry will allow for city officials to manage and maintain the sensor network.

 

The Mayor of San Diego's office hopes to add more sensors to the platform, with potential to monitor environmental conditions, footfall, and transport in the near future as well as use the lampposts as interfaces for citizens, providing information on traffic, light rail services, local events and information to direct crowds.

 

GE hopes cities will make the data available to businesses. Current's data and open software platform should allow programmers to develop applications, said John Gordon, chief digital officer at GE Current: "Everything from traffic and parking problems to finding the quietest way to walk home and have a cell phone conversation."

 

IDTechEx expects to see large scale deployments on IoT networks over the next 5 years, unlocking huge amounts of data and actionable insight for residents, businesses and local governments. You can learn more at the upcoming event: Internet of Things applications in Berlin 10-11 May.