SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - A preliminary plan is in the works to bring new technology to Springfield to make it a smart city.
The technology would help save the city energy, money, and make it overall more efficient.
Springfield Chief Innovation Officer Tom Chi said leaders are still examining how they would accomplish this.
"With the smart city project, we really need to build that infrastructure first before we take a look at all these other things that we can add on to the project," Chi said.
The first step would be adding sensors to streetlamps.
"Having that smart street lighting in place is the groundwork for the infrastructure, because then we can add additional sensors to that infrastructure because it has the electricity, the fiber connectivity, or communications connectivity," Chi added.
These smart streetlights would be able to detect movement and save energy.
"The ability to brighten and dim streetlights for efficiency savings from a utilities standpoint, so if it doesn't detect any vehicles or if it doesn't detect any pedestrians, it can dim the lights," Chi said.
Chi said the sensors could also help detect and deter crime in the area,
"If it detects loud noises or if we have it tied into acoustic sensors, we can have it brighten up to aid in investigations or just aid in public safety in general," he said.
Currently, none of these sensors are installed. However, City, Water, Light and Power is working to convert all the streetlights in the city to LED bulbs.
Out of 18,000 streetlights, 4,700 bulbs have been changed, with plans to convert 900 a year until they are all switched.
