Monday, January 18, 2016

Smart Poles

No, this is not some Politically Incorrect joke about folks who need to buy a vowel for their last name. This really is about smart poles. You know, every Smart City should have smart poles.



What makes the poles so smart? It isn't just that they can auto dim the lights or that they have a smart power meter in there some where. They are also wrapped up in that whole Internet of Things (IoT) thingy. And if there is anything nearly as trendy as Millennials it's gotta be IoT and other Smart Shit.

These smart poles really knock it out of the park. They really do have smart power meters and these have the capability tracking power for your, the government's, use which is billed at very low rate that you extort out of the power company, but it also tracks usage for private service use. Would not want a private company getting the government rate now would we? If you're paying attention you just realized you can lease this prime real estate (the pole) to private companies. ChaChing.

Then you should imagine what other things go with poles. This is because someone else already thought of it but you should really work on flexing that flaccid noodle anyway. One pole thing would be femto cells for cellular voice/data. That would be in the bulge at the top of the pole. Then there would be the more obvious WiFi. Then there are other sensors: weather, vehicle traffic, etc. You can even tell how many cell phones pass by a WiFi access point even if no connection is established. In fact, you can track location, direction and rate of travel. You might even tie that into traffic light and crosswalk timing. In some cities that is call "Public Service."

So these are not just smart poles, they're really smart infrastructure. And when you are tracking the wily Millennial you need some smarts.