In March this year, four smart light poles were installed in POLUS Science City, which was completed in Yoshikawa City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, to strengthen the region's emergency disaster prevention capabilities and contribute to the sustainable development of the local city.
The science city is built and operated by Polus, a Japanese wooden structure construction and real estate development company. It is part of the local land development and construction, and aims to provide residents with a place to communicate and learn, and can also serve as a temporary accommodation facility for homeless people. The four smart light poles were jointly built by Giga Prize, a local ISP and network service provider, and Secual, an IoT device manufacturer focusing on community security. The main functions provided are:
(1) Visualization of on-site conditions through LED street lights (LED notification function)
The alarm notification using full-color LED lights intuitively displays the disaster alert level issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency and local governments. By linking with the speaker function, it can be used for evacuation guidance, etc.
(2) Video confirmation through cloud integration (camera function)
The on-site situation can be viewed remotely in real time through the images captured by the camera, or the images can be recorded to the cloud. By analyzing historical data, we can better predict and respond to emergencies.
(3) Information transmission during disasters and emergencies, creating a lively atmosphere (wired broadcasting function)
Wired broadcasting is used to quickly spread information to local residents and can play music during events.
The smart light pole solution in the project was provided by Secual. As a new generation of street lights with anti-theft, disaster prevention, and monitoring functions, it provides a new smart town solution for the city while promoting urban safety and sustainable development.
From the case of Polus Science City, it can be seen that Japan has explored the deployment of more smart light poles in smart city parks to help achieve Japan's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including urban sustainability, introducing the latest urban infrastructure to promote industrial development and technological innovation, and strengthening disaster risk management to cope with climate change. It is believed that more and more smart light poles will be more widely deployed throughout Japan.
