Lamp posts in Chicago could soon be used to track people and pollution

Apparently, Chicago is becoming even more like its Watch Dogs doppelganger than wefirst thought. Researchers are deploying networked, sensor-equipped lamp posts from this July onward to learn how they could help urban planning and safety. They’ll collect environmental data like air quality, noise levels and wind, and they’ll also measure foot traffic by counting the number of passing cellphones. If the project takes off, Chicago officials could easily tell if air pollution is on the rise, or if a narrow sidewalk is creating a choke point. That may seem a bit Orwellian at first glance, and there is a concern that the pedestrian info could be used in tandem with other monitoring techniques to get a better idea of someone’s daily activity. However, team scientist Charlie Catlett tells the Chicago Tribune that all the data collection is anonymous — the smart lights won’t be identifying people, recording sounds or taking pictures. That’s not going to completely assuage privacy advocates worried about a surveillance-happy government, but the initiative may pay off if it makes urban life a little more bearable.

The curled metal fixtures set to go up on a handful of Michigan Avenue light poles later this summer may look like delicate pieces of sculpture, but researchers say they’ll provide a big step forward in the way Chicago understands itself by observing the city’s people and surroundings. The smooth, perforated sheaths of metal are decorative, but their job is to protect and conceal a system of data-collection sensors that will measure air quality, light intensity, sound volume, heat, precipitation, and wind. The sensors will also count people by observing cell phone traffic. Some experts caution that efforts like the one launching here to collect data from people and their surroundings pose concerns of a Big Brother intrusion into personal privacy. In particular, sensors collecting cell phone data make privacy proponents nervous. But computer scientist Charlie Catlett said the planners have taken precautions to design their sensors to observe mobile devices and count contact with the signal rather than record the digital address of every device. Researchers have dubbed their effort the “Array of Things” project. Gathering and publishing such a broad swatch of data will give scientists the tools to make Chicago a safer, more efficient and cleaner place to live, said Catlett, director of the Urban Center for Computation and Data, part of a joint initiative between the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. The novelty of a permanent data collection infrastructure may also give Chicago a competitive advantage in attracting technological research, researchers contend.