London to Get 14,000-iPad Controlled Street Lights

A council in London, UK is set to install 14,000 street lights that can be controlled via iPad. West London Today reports that following a successful pilot scheme, Westminster City Council is to replace all of its street lights with smart street lights over the next four years.

When the council is finished, all 14,000 street lamps will be controllable via iPad, and engineers will be able to tell technicians when they're broken or in need of replacing. In addition to this, engineers can alter the brightness via an iPad app. The system, which West London Today says is the first electronically monitored lighting infrastructure in the UK, will be able to detect when one of the street lights in the network is likely to fail.

The scheme is expected to cost in excess of three million pounds, however, it's thought this cost will be recouped in energy and maintenance savings. The council expects the scheme to have paid for itself in years.

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safcmanfr 5 years ago

Waiting for someone to hack the application, and to set up a street rave party with flashing street lights!
keither5150 5 years ago

Someone just lost their job to an ipad.
pyoverdin 5 years ago

Quote:

The scheme is expected to cost in excess of three million pounds, however, it's thought this cost will be recouped in energy and maintenance savings.

Then why did they start with one of the most expensive and difficult to repair devices to do this? Some cheaper tablets and a lot of mobile phones are just as capable, but with smaller screens.

Other Comments

keither5150 5 years ago

Someone just lost their job to an ipad.
vaughn2k 5 years ago

Just wondering if this technology is available for all. Imagine how many people with iPad can control these lighting, and play with it, hmm..
djscribbles 5 years ago

At first, I thought they meant traffic lights....
safcmanfr 5 years ago

Waiting for someone to hack the application, and to set up a street rave party with flashing street lights!
pyoverdin 5 years ago

Quote:

The scheme is expected to cost in excess of three million pounds, however, it's thought this cost will be recouped in energy and maintenance savings.

Then why did they start with one of the most expensive and difficult to repair devices to do this? Some cheaper tablets and a lot of mobile phones are just as capable, but with smaller screens.
santiagoanders 5 years ago

This story is stupid. Get clicks because it says iPad. Smart lighting has nothing to do with Apple. I'm sure there will be more than one option for controlling the lights.
john_4 5 years ago

Lived in England for 4 years and they are as bad as the US idiots in charge, That is these politicians waste more tax payer money on stupid ideas or use it to buy crap from friends to make them rich, sad.
shiftstealth 5 years ago

john_4Lived in England for 4 years and they are as bad as the US idiots in charge, That is these politicians waste more tax payer money on stupid ideas or use it to buy crap from friends to make them rich, sad.

Try moving to Greece, i hear things are going well there.
Onus 5 years ago

santiagoandersThis story is stupid. Get clicks because it says iPad. Smart lighting has nothing to do with Apple. I'm sure there will be more than one option for controlling the lights.

Exactly. The control system just happens to have a browser interface, which will run on an iPad. I'm sure it runs on Android also, or anything else that can run a web browser.
bigdog44 5 years ago

What's an iPad? Is it a larger flatter version of an iTampon? I hear they also come in minis and soon heavy-flow...
freggo 5 years ago

I can see it now, a half dozen pimple faced hackers gearing up to write Street Apps!
Soon London will be seen from the ISS as that flashing spot in the SE of England :-)
ddpruitt 5 years ago

Why are lights being controlled via Ipad?? Huge waste of money. Have the lights controlled via a central hub (you know like they do streetlights). This way a group of lights can be controlled based on varying conditions by people who know what they're doing. Oh and they can see what areas have problems with light maintenance and take steps to handle it.

Oh yea government they love wasting money
overlandpark4me 5 years ago

@keither. Someone just lost their mind when they posted.
officeguy 5 years ago

Wow, 3 millions pounds. That's is 1360 tons. That is a lot of weight.
eklipz330 5 years ago

tomorrow's headline: 14,000 ipads mysteriously dissappear
A Bad Day 5 years ago

jtt283Exactly. The control system just happens to have a browser interface, which will run on an iPad. I'm sure it runs on Android also, or anything else that can run a web browser.

There are many businesses that built apps for IE6 without regards for future web browsers. And they still use IE6 because they say it's too expensive for too little improvement.

I bet 10 years from now, London might be forced to use ancient iPads without Apple's security patch support (if any) because OSX would've been very different in that time.

And they're going to refuse to rebuild the browser because it will cost too much money.
grz09 5 years ago

Here goes your tax money ...

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