In October I wrote about the introduction of “Current, powered by GE,” the new venture launched by General Electric. Current seeks to use lighting infrastructure to connect the physical and digital worlds to reduce energy costs, enable intelligent environments, and optimize energy efficiency.
One example of the company’s Intelligent Cities initiative is providing useful and realtime information to pedestrians and their devices, as demonstrated in the following short video.
https://youtu.be/rWcffadDNdM
Recently, Current and partners including JPMorgan Chase, Hilton Worldwide, and Hospital Corporation of America held an event at the New York Stock Exchange where they discussed early and notable achievements such as JPMorgan Chase placing the world’s largest single-order LED installation for approximately 5,000 branches covering 25 million square feet to reduce energy usage by more than 50%.
In addition to the obvious efficiency and safety benefits LED lighting offers, Current is now bringing cities a new level of safety by partnering with SST, Inc., to embed the ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology into GE’s intelligent LED street lights. According to the companies:
Through its proprietary acoustic sensors and enterprise-grade software, ShotSpotter detects and locates gunfire in real time. Alerts are then broadcast to 9-1-1 dispatch centers, patrol cars and even smart phones, with the precise location, number of rounds fired, multiple or single shooters and other valuable situational intelligence. These alerts enable first responders to get on scene quickly and safely in order to aid victims, collect evidence and quickly apprehend offenders.
ShotSpotter is just one element of Current by GE’s Intelligent Cities solution, which also offers features such as:
- Pedestrian detection for optimized crosswalk utilization;
- Bicycle detection;
- Incident and collision detection (to more quickly alert EMS);
- Traffic monitoring;
- Work zone monitoring; and
- Environmental monitoring and analysis.
To accelerate adoption of intelligent infrastructure within cities, Current announced a commercial agreement with Intel to partner on Intelligent City proposals and opportunities. Current’s intelligent streetlamps will also be built using the Intel® IoT Platform, an edge to cloud reference architecture with hardware and software building blocks from Intel. The Intel products will process large and evolving data loads quickly with the reliability and flexibility demanded by cities today.
Commenting on the new and valuable services that smart infrastructure can offer, Current’s President and CEO Maryrose Sylvester said:
Populations in cities around the world are growing exponentially, and forward-looking municipal leaders are turning to digital technologies to improve the economic and environmental health of their cities. Through our collaboration with Intel we will accelerate the development of intelligent technologies to help cities pull and access data in ways they haven’t before to solve challenges and create new opportunities for both city workers and residents.
The following video summarizes a pilot program Current is operating in San Diego:
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