Itron, an American giant and a world leader in IoT technologies for utilities and smart cities, which is present in more than 100 countries around the world invited IoT solution providers to participate in their Smart City Challenge with the aim of improving citizen welfare by using breakthrough solutions. The London City Challenge presented contestants with a problem they are facing: more than 20 deaths per year result from falls into the river Thames. To increase safety along the river, they asked the contestants to provide a solution which will monitor the use of safety equipment and falls into the river, leading to an acceleration in response time.
Our team won Itron’s Smart City Challenge with an original solution.
Firstly, we developed a small, battery-powered device that will monitor the lifebelts alongside the river Thames. The system will be able to control whether the lifebelt is present in the housing and will initiate an alarm if taken out. If the lifebelt is not in the housing for more than eight seconds, the device will immediately send a message to the authorities via Itron’s IoT network. To solve the second issue, we used our existing edge devices and innovative, custom built sensor electronics to provide a jumper detector system. The system is able to identify the time and place of a fall and uses advanced data processing to recognize people from other descending objects, including birds. This solution represents the future of response services around the world with its agile approach.
Check out the proposed solution below:
