Smart lampposts have the potential to read body temperatures and detect overcrowding which could stop the spread of coronavirus, a new report has found.

These smart lampposts would incorporate sensors that receive and transmit information about crowd density, as well check the body temperature of individuals.

They could also include CCTV, air quality sensors, flooding monitors, digital signage, and 5G Wi-Fi hotspots.

The report, commissioned by city transformation experts UrbanDNA, Hydro, Itron, Lucy Zodion, Signify and the Smart City Infrastructure Fund – draws on case experiences from Barcelona, Copenhagen, LA, London, Munich and Singapore, to demonstrate how smart lampposts are being used to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

Barcelona’s City Council has developed a camera-based solution attached to lampposts in the Las Ramblas area to ensure public health on beaches and implement crowd control measures to help tackle Covid.

“We used scanning devices to get the images and a bit of artificial intelligence to analyse them to find out what portion of the beach was free in terms of lack of people,” said Marc Perez-Batlle, innovation manager, Municipal Institute of Information and Technology at Barcelona City Council. “We analysed the proportion of sand rather than identifying people’s faces. This enabled us to look at the capacity that was free. Due to privacy concerns we anonymised the images.”

Westminster City Council in London is looking at ways of using lighting to nudge people away from potentially crowded tube exits around Oxford Street to help with crowd safety management.

Los Angeles has over 400 smart street lights with electronic vehicle chargers, and the city plans to trial air quality sensors, fire spotters, gunshot locators and earthquake sensors.

LA isn’t yet using smart lamppost to tackle the virus, but its street lighting department said that they could help them detect if someone has a high temperature.

“The pandemic has been highly revealing regarding smart city infrastructure, and the need to improve our way of working to drive further efficiencies. The key takeaway from the report is the amount of untapped potential that exists,” said Richard Perry, Lucy Zodion’s smart cities head of business development. "We have seen forward-thinking cities such as London, Barcelona, and Copenhagen leading the way, and individually they are only accessing a small proportion of what the 'humble lamppost' can offer. Imagine the potential for other cities. With this new alliance, we are learning all the time and discovering new initiatives in which the lamppost can play a role in our recovery.”

Perry said that as restrictions are eased, new measures will be needed to keep everyone and the economy safe.

“By using their existing infrastructure, local authorities can smarten their lighting assets making their public spaces safer, healthier and bag the bankable financial savings that result from smart lighting upgrades – which typically exceed 50 per cent,” he added.

Graham Colclough, founding partner at UrbanDNA, said: “The paper highlights the progressive cities that are leading the way in using smart technologies to tackle Covid. It highlights a second group that have implemented the technology. However, they have not yet fully exploited its potential to address Covid recovery. The real opportunity lies with the third larger group that can reap huge energy and cost savings from installing LED smart lights, and benefit at the same time by making those lights ‘smart’ to address Covid-related needs. Our report shows how they can do so to best effect.”

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