Hong Kong launches virtual exhibition of multifunctional smart light poles

  Recently, to deepen the public's understanding of the multi-functional smart lamp post-pilot project, the Office of the Chief Information Officer of the Hong Kong Government has launched a virtual exhibition of multi-functional smart lamp posts on the website called "Smart Lamp Posts Light Up the Future" to introduce the operation of smart lamp posts And the convenience brought to the daily life of the citizens.

  Base on the theme of "Smart Lampposts Illuminating the Future", the exhibition is featuring a three-dimensional model of a smart lamppost and a virtual tour. The three-dimensional model refers to the design of a smart lamp post about ten meters high.   The public can rotate the lamp post 360 degrees to understand the design. And the installation of the lamp post from the outside to the inside. The OGCIO also introduced the application of smart lamp posts simply through short videos, so that the public could easily understand its operation and benefits.

  The virtual tour is divided into multiple exhibition areas to introduce various information and services provided by the smart lamppost. And it includes traffic information, environmental weather information, location services, communication services, and open data.

Function 1: Open data

  The city data collected by the multi-functional smart lampposts will be distributed free of charge through the website. And It allows citizens and the industry to use this data to open up more innovative applications.

The Open Data Tower (City One Table Version) could provide citizens with different consultation areas. As road traffic, environment and weather, and other real-time consultation overviews of the latest cities and so on.

Function 2: Communication Service

  Multifunctional smart lampposts provide suitable street facilities for the installation of 5G base stations. It promotes the development of 5G networks and provides free Wi-Fi services. 5G technology can provide consumers with more efficient mobile broadband services and can support highly reliable and low-latency communications, large-scale machine-type communications (such as the Internet of Things), and other innovative applications.

  The 5G network is undoubtedly a vital telecommunications infrastructure. It can not only enhance Hong Kong’s status as a regional communications hub but also provide the impetus for Hong Kong’s future economic development.

  Multifunctional smart lampposts can also provide free Wi-Fi service through "Wi-Fi. HK". "Wi-Fi. HK" is a general Wi-Fi brand used by the government and some public. It is a private organization to help Hong Kong citizens and tourists find and use free public Wi-Fi services.

Function three: location service

  The positioning devices are installed on the multi-functional smart lampposts. For example geographic tags, geographic QR code tags, Bluetooth transmitters, and radio frequency identification tags. They are part of the modern urban positioning infrastructure. These devices can provide accurate positioning information to citizens for various types of positioning applications, such as navigation, route planning, car-hailing, and searching for the location of nearby public facilities.

Function 4: Environmental Weather Consultation

  The weather sensor and air quality sensor on the multi-functional smart lamppost can collect weather and environmental data in nearby areas, such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, and the concentration of nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and PM25 Wait. Relevant information will be distributed to the public for reference in the "Information One Line" and "City Dashboard" in the form of open data.

  In addition, multi-functional smart lampposts provide a basis to enhance the weather at the regional level, such as microclimate monitoring and forecasting. Microclimate refers to the unique climatic conditions in a small garden (such as streets, public circles, riversides, etc.). The imaginary climatic emblem may be different from the surrounding large-scale climatic emblems.

Function 5: Traffic consultation

  The thermal energy detector and optical radar on the multi-functional smart lamppost provide time-based traffic data. Such as traffic flow, average vehicle speed, etc. Through privacy-friendly solutions, and identify different types of vehicles to grasp more comprehensive traffic conditions. This will help promote effective traffic management and facilitate the public to plan travel routes.

  Each city has different legal and policy environments, public service requirements, and market requirements. Hong Kong’s smart lampposts also have their characteristics in terms of application functions and data usage and can be used as a reference for other cities.