Itron announces winners of inaugural smart city challenge

Itron has chosen Instrumentation Technologies (I-Tech) and Noesis.Network as winners of its inaugural smart city challenge. The companies won the awards for designing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for London and Glasgow, after developing solutions using Itron’s developer tools and IoT networks in both UK cities. In London, I-Tech designed a two-step solution to improve safety around the River Thames by allowing the city to monitor lifebelts and pinpoint the locations of a person in need of rescue su
June 20, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Itron has chosen Instrumentation Technologies (I-Tech) and Noesis.Network as winners of its inaugural smart city challenge.

The companies won the awards for designing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for London and Glasgow, after developing solutions using Itron’s developer tools and IoT networks in both UK cities.

In London, I-Tech designed a two-step solution to improve safety around the River Thames by allowing the city to monitor lifebelts and pinpoint the locations of a person in need of rescue support.

The first step of the solution suggests the deployment of battery-powered devices that will monitor the lifebelts. To prevent misuse, the device will sound a high-pitched alarm if a lifebelt is removed. If the lifebelt is not placed back in its housing unit for eight seconds, an emergency message will be sent via the Itron IoT network to notify emergency services. The second part includes a ‘jumper detection’ system that uses an optical scanner to identify when people fall from the bridge and to track their precise location to assist first responders. It is expected to operate in thick fog and uses data processing to help ensure its lasers are detecting people instead of birds or falling objects.

Giles Radford, highways manager, department of the built environment at the City of London Corporation, says: “With I-Tech’s solution, we will be able to shorten response times in dangerous situations to improve safety for our citizens.”

For the Glasgow challenge, Noesis’ solution deploys acoustic sensors on lampposts in areas with anticipated noise pollution caused by events such as conferences and concerts and related traffic. The distributed network of noise sensors gathers data on the noise source, location, sound profile and power level. They can also be upgraded over the air to support future use cases such as traffic management and public safety.

Kees Den Hollander, chief commercial officer, Noesis Network, says: “For this challenge, we designed a solution that will utilise wireless networks to create real-time, highly granular sound maps with our acoustic sensors.”

I-Tech and Noesis will continue to develop their solutions in the cities while receiving continuing support from Itron to help bring their innovations to market.

UTC

Related Content

  • August 15, 2019
    USDoT’s NETT is welcome – but Toyota unhappy at V2X development
    The US Department of Transportation has announced a new council to champion emerging mobility tech – but one car manufacturer is currently not feeling that such support is everything it might be The announcement of a brand new body to champion autonomous vehicles (AVs) - among other innovations – is a potentially welcome development for mobility and transit providers. Elaine L. Chao, US secretary of transportation, says that the newly-created Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT)
    Read More
  • April 16, 2018
    Turning information into stories
    IBTTA says its TollMiner tool can transform transportation planning. Here, the tolling organisation explains how it works – and what part it might play in Donald Trump’s infrastructure plan. Imagine being able to turn the black-and-white numbers in a spreadsheet into graphics and visualisations that tell a compelling story about essential transportation infrastructure. Having easy access to the solid, reliable data you need to plan surface transportation projects and assign project resources based on
    Read More
  • June 14, 2018
    Keeping people on track is RATP’s raison d’etre
    In Paris, RATP Group’s autonomous Metro Line 1 is carrying 750,000 people a day across the city. Ben Spencer is invited into the control room to take a look at how the system works Paris is visited by millions of tourists each year, keen to see for themselves stunning attractions such as the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Seine and all the rest. But while the best-known sites of the City of Light tend to be on the surface, there is a lot going on below those iconic grand boule
    Read More
  • October 22, 2018
    Six easy steps to security
    As security threats become increasingly vast and varied, multinationals are beginning to see the need for an effective global security operations centre to protect their organisation. James I. Chong spells out what is required. You know you need a global security operations centre (GSOC) to support what you’ve built, identify threats, and prevent disasters before they happen - but how do you know if it’s truly effective? There’s no shortage of information coming into operation centres. Too often, it’s the
    Read More

Highlighted Content